According to the World Health Organization, fetishistic fantasies are common and should only be treated as a disorder when they impair normal functioning or cause distress. Goals of treatment can include elimination of criminal activity, reduction in reliance on the fetish for sexual satisfaction, improving relationship skills, or attempting to remove deviant arousal altogether. The evidence for treatment efficacy is limited and largely based on case studies, and no research on treatment for female fetishists exists.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is one popular approach. Cognitive behavioral therapists teach clients to identify and avoid antecedents to fetishistic behavior, and substitute non-fetishistic fantasies for ones involving the fetish. Aversion therapy can reduce fetishistic arousal in the short term, but is unlikely to have any permanent effect.

Antiandrogens and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be prescribed to lower sex drive. Cyproterone acetate is the most commonly used antiandrogen, except in the United States, where it may not be available. A large body of literature has shown that it reduces general sexual fantasies. Side effects may include osteoporosis, liver dysfunction, and feminization. Case studies have found that the antiandrogen medroxyprogesterone acetate is successful in reducing sexual interest, but can have side effects including osteoporosis, diabetes, deep vein thrombosis, feminization, and weight gain. Some hospitals use leuprolide acetate and goserelin acetate to reduce libido, and while there is presently little evidence for their efficacy, they have fewer side effects than other antiandrogens. A number of studies support the use of SSRIs, which may be preferable over antiandrogens because of their relatively benign side effects. None of these drugs cure sexual fetishism, but they can make it easier to manage.

Relationship counselers may attempt to reduce dependence on the fetish and improve partner communication using techniques like sensate focusing. Partners may agree to incorporate the fetish into their activities in a controlled, time-limited manner, or set aside only certain days to practice the fetishism. If the fetishist cannot sustain an erection without the fetish object, the therapist might recommend orgasmic reconditioning or covert sensitization to increase arousal to normal stimuli (although the evidence base for these techniques is weak).

Pharmacological treatments can help people control their sexual behaviors, but do not change the content of the paraphilia. They are typically combined with cognitive behavioral therapy for best effect.

Flibanserin is the first and only medication approved for women for the treatment of HSDD. It is only slightly effective over placebo, having been found to increase the average number of satisfying sexual events per month by 0.5 to 1. The side effects of dizziness, sleepiness, and nausea occur about three to four times more often. Overall improvement is slight to none.

HSDD, like many sexual dysfunctions, is something that people are treated for in the context of a relationship. Theoretically, one could be diagnosed with, and treated for, HSDD without being in a relationship. However, relationship status is the most predictive factor accounting for distress in women with low desire and distress is required for a diagnosis of HSDD. Therefore, it is common for both partners to be involved in therapy. Typically, the therapist tries to find a psychological or biological cause of the HSDD. If the HSDD is organically caused, the clinician may try to deal with that. If the clinician believes it is rooted in a psychological problem, they may recommend therapy for that. If not, treatment generally focuses more on relationship and communication issues, improved communication (verbal and nonverbal), working on non-sexual intimacy, or education about sexuality may all be possible parts of treatment. Sometimes problems occur because people have unrealistic perceptions about what normal sexuality is and are concerned that they do not compare well to that, and this is one reason why education can be important. If the clinician thinks that part of the problem is a result of stress, techniques may be recommended to more effectively deal with that. Also, it can be important to understand why the low level of sexual desire is a problem for the relationship because the two partners may associate different meaning with sex but not know it.

In the case of men, the therapy may depend on the subtype of HSDD. Increasing the level of sexual desire of a man with lifelong/generalized HSDD is unlikely. Instead the focus may be on helping the couple to adapt. In the case of acquired/generalized, it is likely that there is some biological reason for it and the clinician may attempt to deal with that. In the case of acquired/situational, some form of psychotherapy may be used, possibly with the man alone and possibly together with his partner.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used, especially with exhibitionists, non-offending pedophiles, and compulsive masturbators. They are proposed to work by reducing sexual arousal, compulsivity, and depressive symptoms. However, supporting evidence for SSRIs is limited.

The FDA has approved one medication for the treatment of disorders of female libido, flibanserin.

Psychosexual disorders can vary greatly in severity and treatability. Medical professionals and licensed therapists are necessary in diagnosis and treatment plans. Treatment can vary from therapy to prescription medication. Sex therapy, behavioral therapy, and group therapy may be helpful to those suffering distress from sexual dysfunction. More serious sexual perversions may be treated with androgen blockers or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to help restore hormonal and neurochemical balances.

Human fetishism has been compared to Pavlovian conditioning of sexual response in other animals. Sexual attraction to certain cues can be artificially induced in rats. Both male and female rats will develop a sexual preference for neutrally or even noxiously scented partners if those scents are paired with their early sexual experiences. Injecting morphine or oxytocin into a male rat during its first exposure to scented females has the same effect. Rats will also develop sexual preferences for the location of their early sexual experiences, and can be conditioned to show increased arousal in the presence of objects such as a plastic toy fish. One experiment found that rats which are made to wear a Velcro tethering jacket during their formative sexual experiences exhibit severe deficits in sexual performance when not wearing the jacket. Similar sexual conditioning has been demonstrated in gouramis, marmosets and Japanese quails.

Possible boot fetishism has been reported in two different primates from the same zoo. Whenever a boot was placed near the first, a common chimpanzee born in captivity, he would invariably stare at it, touch it, become erect, rub his penis against the boot, masturbate, and then consume his ejaculate. The second, a guinea baboon, would become erect while rubbing and smelling the boot, but not masturbate or touch it with his penis.

There are many ways a person may go about receiving therapy for ego-dystonic sexual orientation associated with homosexuality. There is no known therapy for other types of ego-dystonic sexual orientations. Therapy can be aimed at changing sexual orientation, sexual behaviour, or helping a client become more comfortable with their sexual orientation and behaviours. Human rights groups have accused some countries of performing these treatments on egosyntonic homosexuals. One survey suggested that viewing the same-sex activities as compulsive facilitated commitment to a mixed-orientation marriage and to monogamy. Treatment may include sexual orientation change efforts or treatment to alleviate the stress. In addition, some people seek non-professional methods, such as religious counselling or attendance in an ex-gay group.

Behavioral treatments target sexual arousal to children, using satiation and aversion techniques to suppress sexual arousal to children and covert sensitization (or masturbatory reconditioning) to increase sexual arousal to adults. Behavioral treatments appear to have an effect on sexual arousal patterns during phallometric testing, but it is not known whether the effect represents changes in sexual interests or changes in the ability to control genital arousal during testing, nor whether the effect persists in the long term. For sex offenders with mental disabilities, applied behavior analysis has been used.

There is no evidence that pedophilia can be cured. Instead, most therapies focus on helping the pedophile refrain from acting on their desires. Some therapies do attempt to cure pedophilia, but there are no studies showing that they result in a long-term change in sexual preference. Michael Seto suggests that attempts to cure pedophilia in adulthood are unlikely to succeed because its development is influenced by prenatal factors. Pedophilia appears to be difficult to alter but pedophiles can be helped to control their behavior, and future research could develop a method of prevention.

There are several common limitations to studies of treatment effectiveness. Most categorize their participants by behavior rather than erotic age preference, which makes it difficult to know the specific treatment outcome for pedophiles. Many do not select their treatment and control groups randomly. Offenders who refuse or quit treatment are at higher risk of offending, so excluding them from the treated group, while not excluding those who would have refused or quit from the control group, can bias the treated group in favor of those with lower recidivism. The effectiveness of treatment for non-offending pedophiles has not been studied.

A number of studies have explored the factors that contribute to female sexual arousal disorder and female orgasmic disorder. These factors include both psychological and physical factors. Psychologically, possible causes of the disorder include the impact of childhood and adolescence experiences and current events – both within the individual and within the current relationship.

Historically voyeurism has been treated in a variety of ways. Psychoanalytic, group psychotherapy and shock aversion approaches have all been attempted with limited success. There is some evidence that shows that pornography can be used as a form of treatment for voyeurism. This is based on the idea that countries with pornography censorship have high amounts of voyeurism. Additionally shifting voyeurs from voyeuristic behavior, to looking at graphic pornography, to looking at the nudes in Playboy has been successfully used as a treatment. These studies show that pornography can be used as a means of satisfying voyeuristic desires without breaking the law.

Voyeurism has also been successfully treated with a mix of anti-psychotics and antidepressants. However the patient in this case study had a multitude of other mental health problems. Intense pharmaceutical treatment may not be required for most voyeurs.

There has also been success in treating voyeurism through using treatment methods for obsessive compulsive disorder. There have been multiple instances of successful treatment of voyeurism through putting patients on fluoxetine and treating their voyeuristic behavior as a compulsion.

Sexual dysfunction (or sexual malfunction or sexual disorder) is difficulty experienced by an individual or a couple during any stage of a normal sexual activity, including physical pleasure, desire, preference, arousal or orgasm. According to the DSM-5, sexual dysfunction requires a person to feel extreme distress and interpersonal strain for a minimum of 6 months (excluding substance or medication-induced sexual dysfunction). Sexual dysfunctions can have a profound impact on an individual's perceived quality of sexual life. The term "sexual disorder" may not only refer to physical sexual dysfunction, but to paraphilias as well; this is sometimes termed "disorder of sexual preference".

A thorough sexual history and assessment of general health and other sexual problems (if any) are very important. Assessing performance anxiety, guilt, stress and worry are integral to the optimal management of sexual dysfunction. Many of the sexual dysfunctions that are defined are based on the human sexual response cycle, proposed by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, and then modified by Helen Singer Kaplan.

Sexual sadism disorder is the condition of experiencing sexual arousal in response to the extreme pain, suffering or humiliation of others. Several other terms have been used to describe the condition, and the condition may overlap with other conditions that involve inflicting pain. It is distinct from situations in which consenting individuals use mild or simulated pain or humiliation for sexual excitement. The words "sadism" and "" are derived from Marquis de Sade.

The Internet has enabled people with this relatively rare paraphilia to discuss the subject and exchange anesthesia-related multimedia.

Medical fetishism refers to a number of sexual fetishes involving objects, practices, environments, and situations of a medical or clinical nature. In sexual roleplay a hospital or medical scene involves the sex partners assuming the roles of doctors, nurses, surgeons and patients to act out specific or general medical fetishes. Medical fantasy is a genre in pornography, though the fantasy may not necessarily involve pornography or sexual activity.

Medical fetishism may involve sexual attraction to respiratory therapy involving oxygen via nasal cannula or any sort of masks, medical practitioners, medical uniforms, hospital gowns, anaesthesia, intimate examinations (such as rectal examination, gynecological examination, urological examination, andrological examination, rectal temperature-taking), catheterization, diapering, enemas, injections, insertion (such as suppository insertion, menstrual-cup insertion, and prostatic massage), medical devices (such as orthopedic casts and orthopedic braces; see also "Abasiophilia"), dental objects (such as dental braces, retainers, and headgear), medical restraints, and medical gags.

Ego-dystonic sexual orientation is an ego-dystonic mental disorder characterized by having a sexual orientation or an attraction that is at odds with one's idealized self-image, causing anxiety and a desire to change one's orientation or become more comfortable with one's sexual orientation. It describes not innate sexual orientation itself, but a conflict between the sexual orientation one wishes to have and the sexual orientation one actually possesses.

Estrogens are responsible for the maintenance of collagen, elastic fibers, and vasoculature of the urogenital tract, all of which are important in maintaining vaginal structure and functional integrity; they are also important for maintaining vaginal pH and moisture levels, both of which aid in keeping the tissues lubricated and protected. Prolonged estrogen deficiency leads to atrophy, fibrosis, and reduced blood flow to the urogenital tract, which is what causes menopausal symptoms such as vaginal dryness and pain related to sexual activity and/or intercourse. It has been consistently demonstrated that women with lower sexual functioning have lower estradiol levels.

Androgen therapy for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) has a small benefit but its safety is not known. It is not approved as a treatment in the United States. If used it is more common among women who have had an oophorectomy or who are in a postmenopausal state. However, like most treatments, this is also controversial. One study found that after a 24-week trial, those women taking androgens had higher scores of sexual desire compared to a placebo group. As with all pharmacological drugs, there are side effects in using androgens, which include hirutism, acne, ploycythaemia, increased high-density lipoproteins, cardiovascular risks, and endometrial hyperplasia is a possibility in women without hysterectomy. Alternative treatments include topical estrogen creams and gels can be applied to the vulva or vagina area to treat vaginal dryness and atrophy.

Spectrophilia is a fetish that is classified as the paraphilia in which one is attracted to ghosts or spirits. Spectrophiliacs fantasize about ghosts and often imagine scenarios involving sexual events between themselves or others and spirits.

Frotteurism is a paraphilic interest in rubbing, usually one's pelvic area or erect penis, against a non-consenting person for sexual pleasure. It may involve touching any part of the body, including the genital area. A person who practices frotteuristic acts is known as a "frotteur". Toucherism is sexual arousal based on grabbing or rubbing one's hands against an unexpecting (and non-consenting) person. It usually involves touching breasts, buttocks or genital areas, often while quickly walking across the victim's path. Some psychologists consider toucherism a manifestation of frotteurism, while others distinguish the two. In clinical medicine, treatment of frotteuristic disorder involves cognitive behavior therapy coupled with the administration of a SSRI.

Spectrophilia is sexual attraction to ghosts or sexual arousal from images in mirrors, as well as the phenomenon of sexual encounters between ghosts and humans.

In 2007, a study was conducted by the University of Bologna on around 5000 fetishist participants to see the prevalence of fetishes. The study analyzed the content inside online fetish communities and found only 669 participants referring to nails, an extension of hand fetishism. This did not refer to fingernails specifically, and the amount of 669 was less than 1% of the participants.

Erotophobia is a term coined by a number of researchers in the late 1970s and early 1980s to describe one pole on a continuum of attitudes and beliefs about sexuality. The model of the continuum is a basic polarized line, with erotophobia (fear of sex or negative attitudes about sex) at one end and erotophilia (positive feelings or attitudes about sex) at the other end.

The word erotophobia is derived from the name of Eros, the Greek god of erotic love, and Phobos, Greek (φόβος) for "fear".

Zoophilia is a paraphilia involving a sexual fixation on non-human animals. Bestiality is cross-species sexual activity between human and non-human animals. The terms are often used interchangeably, but some researchers make a distinction between the attraction (zoophilia) and the act (bestiality).

Although sex with animals is not outlawed in some countries, in most countries, bestiality is illegal under animal abuse laws or laws dealing with buggery or crimes against nature.