Experts admit there’s a lot they don’t know about sex

To get an idea of how much remains unknown about a subject that affects most people’s lives, check out the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health.

Scientists, gynecologists, therapists and hundreds of other experts who gathered for the society’s sixth annual meeting are still trying to figure out which hormones and neurotransmitters make sexual arousal possible, where in the brain orgasm takes place and which nerves control the genital organs.

“Now we’re sticking needles into different parts of the brain,” said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a Boston urologist who founded the group. “Whatever pharmaceuticals are proven to help most likely will work in the central nervous system.”

Clinicians, frustrated by the slow pace of sexual science, want effective treatments for patients brave enough to seek help.

“I think it’s progress that we can spend two hours in this performance-driven society admitting that maybe we don’t know what we’re talking about,” said Ellen Laan of the University of Amsterdam.

Michael Sand, a sexologist who works in Germany, agreed.

“We don’t understand normative, healthy sexuality well enough to make judgments about what’s dysfunctional.”