actuallyasexual:

luxlo:

I just hope that asexual people are still going to doctors to get checked before assuming they are in fact asexual because it is totally possible they could have a hormonal imbalance or more serious problem and because of the growing, validating community they might not even get checked out first

This is an old attitude that has been used against LGBT+ people for quite some time. It is called pathologization. The goal of pathologization is to find a medical or psychological reason for someone’s sexual, romantic, and/or gender identity. The implication is that the identity is 1) flawed and 2) requires a cure. 

Pathologization can be an insidious form of violence. People who promote the idea often suggest that they are merely concerned about the well-being of others and acting in their best interest. The reality is that pathologization can lead to incompetent medical care and medical abuse. 

The pathologization of asexuality permeates our media. For example, medical fiction has explicitly pathologized asexuality in the past (see: House MD) Some have experienced abuse in response to this. There are various tropes that are used in fiction to “cure” characters who seem to be asexual as well.

This message is also repeated in the news. For example, Asexuality – Is it Even Real? by Fox News sex expert Dr. Yvonne Fulbright mentions HSDD, asks people to consider other options in her writing, and advises people to seek medical/psychological help if asexuality leads to “interpersonal difficulties.”

The “interpersonal difficulties” asexuals may experience often have to due with (cis)heterosexism and pathologizing attitudes towards asexuality that they may experience from family and peers. So, advising us to seek help for interpersonal difficulties asexuality may “cause” ignores the fact that it is not the cause.

Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) is a sexual disorder that involves an absence of desire for sex. This can be used to pathologize asexual people. Some argue that it is harmless because it makes no explicit mention of asexuality in its original description.

The description of HSDD includes experiences asexual people may have. Asexual people often experience low sexual desire. Asexual people also often experience distress due to low sexual desire, because they are expected to experience sexual desire and act on it in a relationship.

In 2013, the DSM V included a disclaimer that self-identification of asexuality precludes diagnosis. This does not completely resolve the pathologization of asexuality, as there are many people who do not “self identify” with asexuality until later on in life due to things like compulsory (hetero)sexuality. 

Furthermore, the medical treatments of HSDD are sketchy. For example, a drug dubbed as the “female viagra,” flibanserin, acts to raise sexual desire and lower inhibition. For more reading on the issues with HSDD and flibanserin, please check out the following:

• How the DSM (sort of) came to recognise “asexuality” as (sort of) legit
• a(n his)story in progress of the FDA, flibanserin, pathologising discourse… and ace community
• Dispelling myths and misinformation re: the Addyi / flibanserin situation

People spend years unnecessarily suffering due to the pathologization of asexuality in our fictional media, in our news, in academic communities, and in our doctor’s offices. Nothing about the OP’s statement acts in the best interest of asexual people, and it villainizes a “validating community.” 

Medical care already biases heterosexual people. We require research in order to provide competent medical care to LGBT+ people, because of past harmful attitudes towards these identities. Telling us to get help is not in our best interest. Investing in research that provides asexuals with competent care is. 

In addition, statements like the one made above by the OP are particularly harmful to asexual people who are traumatized, disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill, and/or neurodivergent. Our asexuality may be tied to our traumatic, medical, psychological and/or developmental condition(s), but an important part of us nevertheless.  

We could spend years trying to fix ourselves to suit an ideal that is perpetuated by our society, or we could accept ourselves and create spaces where we can function as asexual people. We are not required to “check ourselves” in order to be acceptable human beings. 

Heterosexual people do not hear this, so why us? There’s no reason for it.

This is not to say to people that they cannot or should not seek out medical care. This is to say that the pathologization of asexuality does more harm than good to asexual people seeking medical care, and that we need to make an effort to provide competent care to asexual people.