“Rare sexual disorders”: shedding light on the unspoken spectrum of male sexual health (2025)
Editorial Published: 17 May 2025 “Rare sexual disorders”: shedding light on the unspoken spectrum of male sexual health Murat Gül International Journal of Impotence Research ( 2025 ) details It was during a routine day in the clinic that I encountered a patient who would unknowingly set me on an academic and clinical journey that has yet to slow down. He was a young man presenting with persistent penile discomfort, altered sensation, and a strange mix of erectile rigidity and flaccidity that did not fit any known diagnostic category. His distress was real, but his symptoms fell through the cracks of classical definitions. That patient – and several similar ones soon after – led me and a group of international colleagues to first define and publish what we later named the Hard Flaccid Syndrome (HFS) [ 1 , 2 ]. This experience became a revelation: how many more sexual health conditions remain unnamed, misunderstood, or worse—dismissed? From that point forward, I d...