Although there are no approved pharmaceuticals for addressing female sexual disorders, several are under investigation for their effectiveness. A vacuum device is the only approved medical device for arousal and orgasm disorders. It is designed to increase blood flow to the clitoris and external genitalia. Women experiencing pain with intercourse are often prescribed pain relievers or desensitizing agents. Others are prescribed lubricants and/or hormone therapy. Many patients with female sexual dysfunction are often also referred to a counselor or therapist for psychosocial counseling.

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.

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.

A few studies suggest that the antidepressant, bupropion, can improve sexual function in women who are not depressed, if they have HSDD. The same is true for the anxiolytic, buspirone, which is a 5-HT receptor agonist similarly to flibanserin.

Testosterone supplementation is effective in the short-term. However, its long-term safety is unclear.

Just as with erectile dysfunction in men, lack of sexual function in women may be treated with hormonal patches or tablets to correct hormonal imbalances, clitoral vacuum pump devices and medication to improve blood flow, sexual sensation and arousal.

Many practitioners today treat both men and women who have SSRI-induced anorgasmia with sildenafil, more commonly known as Viagra. While this approach is known to work well in men with sexual dysfunction, it is only recently that the effectiveness of sildenafil in women with sexual dysfunction is coming to light. A recent study by H. G. Nurnberg et al. showed a complete or very significant reversal of their sexual dysfunction upon taking sildenafil one hour prior to sexual activity. In this study, eight out of the nine women required 50 mg of sildenafil while the 9th woman required 100 mg of sildenafil.

Another option for women who have SSRI-induced anorgasmia is the use of vardenafil. Vardenafil is a type 5 phosphodiesterase (PDE5) inhibitor that facilitates muscle relaxation and improves penile erection in men. However, there is much controversy about the efficiency of the drug used in the reversal of female sexual dysfunction. Vardenafil is similar to sildenafil, but vardenafil is less expensive and may be covered under some insurance plans. A study by A.K. Ashton M.D. has shown that in the case of one particular woman, the effects of vardenafil as opposed to sildenafil have not only been comparable in the effectiveness, but that vardenafil is cheaper and reversal of sexual dysfunction requires a smaller dose. So far, vardenafil has been approved by the Food and Drug administration only for use in men.

The NIH states that yohimbine hydrochloride has been shown in human studies to be possibly effective in the treatment of male impotence resulting from erectile dysfunction or SSRI usage (e.g., anorgasmia). Published reports have shown it to be effective in the treatment of orgasmic dysfunction in men.

Cabergoline, an agonist of dopamine D₂ receptors which inhibits prolactin production, was found in a small study to fully restore orgasm in one third of anorgasmic subjects, and partially restore orgasm in another third. Limited data has shown that the drug amantadine may help to relieve SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction. Cyproheptadine, buspirone, stimulants such as amphetamines (including the antidepressant bupropion), nefazodone and yohimbine have been used to treat SSRI-induced anorgasmia. Reducing the SSRI dosage may also resolve anorgasmia problems.

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

As sexual anhedonia is the source of considerable dissatisfaction among its sufferers, several treatment methods have been devised to help patients cope. Exploration of psychological factors is one method, which includes exploring past trauma, abuse, and prohibitions in the cultural and religious history of the person. Sex therapy might also be used as a way of helping a sufferer realign and examine his or her expectations of an orgasm. Contributing medical causes must also be ruled out and medications might have to be switched when appropriate. Additionally, blood testing might help determine levels of hormones and other things in the bloodstream that might inhibit pleasure. This condition can also be treated with drugs that increase dopamine, such as oxytocin, along with other drugs. In general, it is recommended that a combination of psychological and physiological treatments should be used to treat the disorder.

Other drugs which may be helpful in the treatment of this condition include dopamine agonists, oxytocin, phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, and alpha-2 receptor blockers like yohimbine.

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.

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.

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).

Biological treatments physically alter primary and secondary sex characteristics to reduce the discrepancy between an individual's physical body and gender identity. Biological treatments for GID without any form of psychotherapy is quite uncommon. Researchers have found that if individuals bypass psychotherapy in their GID treatment, they often feel lost and confused when their biological treatments are complete.

Psychotherapy, hormone replacement therapy, and sex reassignment surgery together can be effective treating GID when the WPATH standards of care are followed. The overall level of patient satisfaction with both psychological and biological treatments is very high.

Until the 1970s, psychotherapy was the primary treatment for gender dysphoria, and generally was directed to helping the person adjust to the gender of the physical characteristics present at birth. Psychotherapy is any therapeutic interaction that aims to treat a psychological problem. Though some clinicians still use only psychotherapy to treat gender dysphoria, it may now be used in addition to biological interventions. Psychotherapeutic treatment of GID involves helping the patient to adapt. Attempts to cure GID by changing the patient's gender identity to reflect birth characteristics have been ineffective.

The treatment depends on the cause. Medications may work for retrograde ejaculation but only in a few cases. Surgery rarely is the first option for retrograde ejaculation and the results have proven to be inconsistent. Medications do not help retrograde ejaculation if there has been permanent damage to the prostate or the testes from radiation. Medications also do not help if prostate surgery has resulted in damage to the muscles or nerves. Medications only work if there has been mild nerve damage caused by diabetes, multiple sclerosis or mild spinal cord injury.

These medications tighten the bladder neck muscles and prevent semen from going backwards into the bladder. However, the medications do have many side effects and they have to be taken at least 1–2 hours prior to sexual intercourse. In many cases, the medications fail to work at the right time because most men are not able to predict when they will have an orgasm.

The first-line method for sperm retrieval in men with spinal cord injury is "penile vibratory stimulation" (PVS). The penile vibratory stimulator is a plier-like device that is placed around glans penis to stimulate it by vibration. In case of failure with PVS, spermatozoa are sometimes collected by electroejaculation, or surgically by per cutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA) or testicular sperm extraction (TESE).

Female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) is a disorder characterized by a persistent or recurrent inability to attain sexual arousal or to maintain arousal until the completion of a sexual activity. The diagnosis can also refer to an inadequate lubrication-swelling response normally present during arousal and sexual activity. The condition should be distinguished from a general loss of interest in sexual activity and from other sexual dysfunctions, such as the orgasmic disorder (anorgasmia) and hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity for some period of time.

Although female sexual dysfunction is currently a contested diagnostic, it has become more common in recent years to use testosterone-based drugs off-label to treat FSAD. While drug companies are technically not allowed to market these drugs for off-label uses, sharing the information with doctors at CME conferences has proved to be an effective way to navigate around the FDA approval process.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the mainstay of treatment. At other times counseling, anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications have been shown to be of use.

The condition is sometimes classified as a psychiatric disorder. However, it can also be caused by medical problems such as diabetic neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, genital mutilation, complications from genital surgery, pelvic trauma (such as from a straddle injury caused by falling on the bars of a climbing frame, bicycle or gymnastics beam), hormonal imbalances, total hysterectomy, spinal cord injury, cauda equina syndrome, uterine embolisation, childbirth trauma (vaginal tearing through the use of forceps or suction or a large or unclosed episiotomy), vulvodynia and cardiovascular disease.

A common cause of situational anorgasmia, in both men and women, is the use of anti-depressants, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Though reporting of anorgasmia as a side effect of SSRIs is not precise, studies have found that 17–41% of users of such medications are affected by some form of sexual dysfunction.

Another cause of anorgasmia is opiate addiction, particularly to heroin.

About 15% of women report difficulties with orgasm, and as many as 10% of women in the United States have never climaxed. Only 29% of women always have orgasms with their partner.

There is no standard method of treating or managing POIS. Patients need to be thoroughly examined in an attempt to find the causes of their POIS symptoms, which are often difficult to determine, and which vary across patients. Once a cause is hypothesized, an appropriate treatment can be attempted. At times, more than one treatment is attempted, until one that works is found.

Affected individuals typically avoid sexual activity, especially ejaculation, or schedule it for times when they can rest and recover for several days afterwards. In case post-coital tristesse (PCT) is suspected, patients could be treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Another patient, in whom POIS was suspected to be caused by cytokine release, was successfully treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) just prior to and for a day or two after ejaculation. The patient took diclofenac 75 mg 1 to 2 hours prior to sexual activity with orgasm, and continued twice daily for 24 to 48 hours.

One POIS patient with erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation had much lower severity of symptoms on those occasions when he was able to maintain penile erection long enough to achieve vaginal penetration and ejaculate inside his partner. The patient took tadalafil to treat his erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. This increased the number of occasions on which he was able to ejaculate inside his partner, and decreased the number of occasions on which he experienced POIS symptoms. This patient is thought to have Dhat syndrome rather than true POIS.

In one patient, the POIS symptoms were so severe, that he decided to undergo castration in order to relieve them. The POIS symptoms were cured by the castration.

Two patients, in whom POIS was suspected to be caused by auto-immune reaction to their own semen, were successfully treated by allergen immunotherapy with their own autologous semen. They were given multiple subcutaneous injections of their own semen for three years. Treatment with autologous semen "might take 3 to 5 years before any clinically relevant symptom reduction would become manifest".

Treatments are not always successful, especially when the cause of POIS in a particular patient has not been determined. In one patient, all of whose routine laboratory tests were normal, the following were attempted, all without success: ibuprofen, 400 mg on demand; tramadol 50 mg one hour pre-coitally; and escitalopram 10 mg daily at bedtime for 3 months.

Therapeutic approaches for GIDC differ from those used on adults and have included behavior therapy, psychodynamic therapy, group therapy, and parent counseling. Proponents of this intervention seek to reduce gender dysphoria, make children more comfortable with their bodies, lessen ostracism, and reduce the child's psychiatric comorbidity. The majority of therapists currently employ these techniques. "Two short term goals have been discussed in the literature: the reduction or elimination of social ostracism and conflict, and the alleviation of underlying or associated psychopathology. Longer term goals have focused on the prevention of transsexualism and/or homosexuality."

Individual therapy with the child seeks to identify and resolve underlying factors, including familial factors; encourage identification by sex assigned at birth; and encourage same-sex friendships. Parent counseling involves setting limits on the child's cross-gender behavior; encouraging gender-neutral or sex-typical activities; examining familial factors; and examining parental factors such as psychopathology. Longtime researchers of gender identity disorder, Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley, state that it has been found that boys with gender identity disorder often have mothers who to an extent reinforced behavior more stereotypical of young girls. They also note that children with gender identity disorder tend to come from families where cross-gender role behavior was not explicitly discouraged. However, they also acknowledge that one could view these findings as merely indicative of the fact that parents who were more accepting of their child's cross-gender role behavior are also more likely to bring their children to a clinical psychiatrist as opposed to parents who are less accepting of cross-gender role behavior in their children (Bradley, Zucker, 1997). " Proponents acknowledge limited data on GIDC: "apart from a series of intrasubject behaviour therapy case reports from the 1970s, one will find not a single randomized controlled treatment trial in the literature" (Zucker 2001). Psychiatrist Domenico Di Ceglie opines that for therapeutic intervention, "efficacy is unclear," and psychologist Bernadette Wren says, "There is little evidence, however, that any psychological treatments have much effect in changing gender identity although some treatment centres continue to promote this as an aim (e.g. Zucker, & Bradley, 1995)." Zucker has stated that "the therapist must rely on the 'clinical wisdom' that has accumulated and to utilize largely untested case formulation conceptual models to inform treatment approaches and decisions."

It is thought that people who suffer from this disorder, suffer from a dysfunction in the release of the chemical dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, the brain's primary reward center. This part of the brain is thought to play a role in pleasurable activities, including laughter, addiction, and music. Additionally, it is thought that depression, drug addiction, high levels of prolactin, low testosterone, and uses of certain medications might play a role in inhibiting dopamine. A spinal cord injury or chronic fatigue syndrome might also occasionally cause this disorder. Age may also be a cause of this disorder.

A sudden-onset sexual anhedonia can also be a symptom of sensory neuropathy, which is most commonly the result of pyridoxine toxicity (e.g., from large doses of vitamin B6 supplements).

In this case, the sexual dysfunction promptly resolves spontaneously once the B6 supplementation is stopped.

Increased serum prolactin (PRL) concentration in patients brains from psychiatric medicine can also affect sexuality.

Psychiatric medicine is known to cause the brain to form more dopamine receptors for the dopamine blocking effect. The normal amount of dopamine released during sex is insufficient to stimulate the larger number of dopamine receptors.

Sexual maturation disorder is a disorder of anxiety or depression related to an uncertainty about one's gender identity or sexual orientation. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists sexual maturation disorder in the ICD-10, under "Psychological and behavioural disorders associated with sexual development and orientation".

Sexual orientation, by itself, is not a disorder and is not classified under this heading. It differs from ego-dystonic sexual orientation where the sexual orientation or gender identity is repressed or denied.

Anejaculation is the pathological inability to ejaculate in males, with ("orgasmic") or without ("anorgasmic") orgasm.

Males and females may be treated with hormone replacement therapy (i.e., with androgens and estrogens, respectively), which will result in normal sexual development and resolve most symptoms. In the case of 46,XY (genetically male) individuals who are phenotypically female and/or identify as the female gender, they should be treated with estrogens instead. Removal of the undescended testes should be performed in 46,XY females to prevent their malignant degeneration, whereas in 46,XY males surgical correction of the genitals is generally required, and, if necessary, an orchidopexy (relocation of the undescended testes to the scrotum) may be performed as well. Namely in genetic females presenting with ovarian cysts, GnRH analogues may be used to control high FSH and LH levels if they are unresponsive to estrogens.

As the disorder progresses in life, it can increase in severity, and cause other behaviors or actions in late adolescence and adulthood. “A strong and persistent cross-gender identification in adolescents and adults [can cause a] disturbance manifested by symptoms such as a stated desire to be the other sex, frequent passing as the other sex, desire to live or be treated as the other sex, or the conviction that he or she has the typical feelings and reactions of the other sex” (APA, 2000). This can cause severe conflict for the individual living in a society which endorses and enforces adherence to strict gender roles. In a more persistent disassociation with one’s own body or gender, someone can go to more extreme lengths to feel as though they are fulfilled or satisfied with themselves. This can lead these individuals to engage in behavior that displaces their emotions. These individuals may also seek to undergo sex reassignment surgery. “Persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex in adolescents and adults [can cause a] disturbance manifested by symptoms such as preoccupation with getting rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics (e.g., request for hormones, surgery, or other procedures to physically alter sexual characteristics to simulate the other sex) or belief that he or she was born the wrong sex” (APA, 2000).