Research shows that people with schizophrenia are experiencing more sexual problems and dysfunctions from a younger age compared to the background population. It also shows that their sexuality and interest in participating in intimate relations doesn’t differ from the background population, even though it is found that people with schizophrenia are less satisfied with their sex-life. This affects their overall health and well-being. Sexual side-effects are an often reported cause when choosing to discontinue the antipsychotic treatment, which can result in aggravation and relapse of psychotic symptoms. This is problematic, because research shows that communication about sexuality and sexual problems is often deficient and sparse.

The intention of this thesis is to gain access to experiences of sexual problems and challenges among people with schizophrenia and to study the experience of having/or not having a focused talk about sexuality during hospitalization.
The purpose of this is to achieve insight that can be used in future work with this group of patients, both related to further research but also to improve clinical practice with the overall goal of improving sexual health among people with schizophrenia.

The thesis is based on the qualitative research method by using semi-structured interviews of 4 respondents with schizophrenia

The conclusion of this master thesis is that the respondents in similarity to what existing research shows experience sexual dysfunctions which affects both their sexual and general health and well-being. Furthermore, the results show that the respondents have sparse or none experience of sexual difficulties being talked about during their hospitalization. This is probably related to a two-way taboo causing neither the professionals nor the patients not to bring up sexuality as a topic. 3 out of 4 respondents wants sexuality to be included as part of the care and treatment given to people with schizophrenia.