Managing Concealable Sexual Health Stigma Through Disclosure

ABSTRACT

Individuals with concealable stigma continually decide whether, and if so, how to disclose to others. These complex decision-making processes are evident across various stigmatized sexual health contexts, including sexually transmitted diseases and infections, LGBTQ+ identities, and sexual trauma, among others. One context that has received less attention within communication scholarship is difficulty orgasming among women. Due to the stigma associated with this experience, women are often reluctant to disclose their orgasm difficulties to others, especially their sexual and/or relational partners. However, the motivations women have for, and the factors they consider prior to disclosure have yet to be identified. Building upon extant sexual health communication, concealable stigma, and disclosure research, this study used semi-structured interviews (N = 31) to examine how women disclose orgasm difficulties within their sexual and/or romantic relationships. Our findings highlight several motivations women have for (non)disclosure, and various contextual and situational factors that complicate their disclosure processes. This study contributes to our theoretical understanding of the disclosure processes model (DPM) and the disclosure of concealable (sexual health) stigma. This study also offers practical insights for improving disclosure and experiences with stigma within this context.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants for sharing their insight, perspectives, and experiences with us. We would also like to thank Dr. Tony Liao (Associate Professor, University of Houston) and Dr. John A. Lynch (Full Professor, University of Cincinnati) for their insightful feedback regarding the thesis on which this project is based. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, which strengthened this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.