In a conservative culture like South Korea, attitudes toward premarital sex and the psychological strain of infertility reveal a real need for sex therapy.
South Korea’s public culture keeps sexual matters quiet, yet many adults still need practical help talking about desire, discomfort, and unmet needs. Research on unmarried students and on women receiving fertility treatment shows that sexual communication carries real psychological weight, while the services that could support it remain difficult to discuss openly.
What does research say about young South Koreans’ attitudes toward premarital sex?
Research on 298 unmarried South Korean college students, ages 18-25, suggests that intention to have premarital sex is shaped less by personal conviction alone than by attitudes and peer-group norms. In men, belief in one’s ability to abstain also predicted intention; in women, it did not.
The weight of cultural norms on premarital relationships
When researchers surveyed 298 unmarried South Korean college students ages 18-25, they examined how attitude toward premarital sex, belief in one’s ability to abstain, and peer-group norms related to intention. The survey was published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies in 2006. For the men in the sample, all three factors significantly predicted intention to have premarital sex. For the women, only attitude toward premarital sex and peer-group norms did so; belief in one’s ability to abstain did not.
The pattern points to a social dimension in sexual decision-making, not a purely individual one. Peer context and personal attitude carried more weight than perceived self-control for the women surveyed, which suggests that conversations about abstinence and intention may need to address social expectations alongside personal skills. For clinicians, the practical implication is that a young woman’s stated intention may shift with the company she keeps, and that asking about friends and partners can be more informative than asking about willpower alone.
How does the psychological strain of infertility treatment affect South Korean women’s sexual experience?
A 2025 study of South Korean women undergoing IVF found that 12.9% had clinically significant anxiety and 32.3% had clinically significant depression, and that their orgasm scores on a female sexual function questionnaire were significantly lower than those of healthy control women. Psychological strain and sexual experience appear closely linked in this group.
A conversation still finding its way into wider practice
Researchers publishing in Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine in 2025 assessed South Korean women undergoing IVF fertility treatment and reported those figures. On the female sexual function questionnaire, the orgasm scores of these women were significantly lower than those of healthy control women. The design describes a group receiving intensive treatment; it does not establish that treatment caused the difference.
Sexual function questionnaires ask about several domains, including desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain. A lower orgasm score in this treatment group does not describe every woman in it, and many women continue to value intimacy during treatment. What the finding supports is narrower and still useful: mood symptoms and sexual difficulty commonly appear together, so both deserve a place in routine care.
Infertility care involves repeated appointments, hormonal medication, uncertain outcomes, and a schedule that can make spontaneity difficult. When mood and anxiety symptoms rise alongside that load, sexual interest and response often change with them, and the change may go unmentioned in consultations focused on cycle outcomes. Both findings concern only small, specific groups of South Korean women and students and cannot be generalized to South Korean society as a whole.
Why is sex therapy harder to accept in a conservative culture like South Korea?
Sex therapy asks people to describe intimate problems aloud to a stranger, which collides with cultural norms that treat sexual matters as private, family-facing, and tied to reputation. Where disclosure risks shame or gossip, help-seeking slows, and people may prefer silence, informal advice, or medical framing to an explicitly psychological conversation.
A culture that frames sexual behavior as a matter of family reputation gives disclosure a cost. Clients may worry that a therapist will judge them, that records could reach relatives, or that admitting difficulty confirms a failure they are expected to hide. Therapy also requires a vocabulary many people have rarely practiced, since sexual topics are seldom discussed at home or in school. These pressures can make a medical appointment easier to justify than a psychological one, even when the underlying concern is emotional.
Another barrier is linguistic and practical. Sessions usually proceed through talk, and a client who has rarely named a body part or described a desire aloud may find the format itself uncomfortable, regardless of the therapist’s manner. Couples may also disagree about whether the problem belongs to one person, to the relationship, or to circumstances such as work hours and housing. Therapy tends to treat such questions as workable rather than shameful, which is precisely what makes it feel unfamiliar at first.
Availability matters as well. Clinicians with specific training in sexual concerns are limited in number, and referral pathways are often unclear, so even a motivated client may struggle to find a suitable provider. [Needs further review: nationally representative, up-to-date data on how often South Koreans actually seek sex therapy is not publicly available.]
Does a lower orgasm score mean a woman’s sexual experience is entirely negative?
No. The questionnaire score is one measure within a broader picture that includes desire, satisfaction, and closeness, and it describes a group average rather than any individual woman. A lower score signals that sexual response deserves clinical attention in this treatment context; it does not describe how a particular person feels about her relationship or her body.
Can the 2006 student survey describe South Koreans today?
Not on its own. It recorded the views of 298 unmarried students at one point in time, and attitudes shift as social conditions shift. It remains useful as a starting point for questions about peer influence and gender differences, and current research would be needed to say how much has changed.
Is sex therapy only for couples?
No. Individual work is common and often the first step, since a person can examine their own concerns before involving a partner. Couples sessions are one format among several, and the choice usually follows what the client wants to address first.
What makes a therapist a good fit for sexual concerns?
Training in sexual matters, comfort discussing bodies and desire without visible embarrassment, and a clear explanation of confidentiality. Clients can ask directly about a clinician’s experience and about how records are kept; a straightforward answer is itself informative.
Change in this area tends to be gradual. As clinicians ask about sexual wellbeing more routinely and clients find language for concerns they once kept private, the distance between cultural expectation and lived experience can narrow. Progress will likely depend on training, accessible referral, and a willingness to treat sexual difficulty as ordinary clinical material. Small, respectful conversations are a reasonable place to begin, and they can make professional support easier to consider.
Looking for professional support with your relationship or mental health?
Cha ES, Doswell WM, Kim KH, Charron-Prochownik D, Patrick TE. Evaluating the Theory of Planned Behavior to explain intention to engage in premarital sex amongst Korean college students. Int J Nurs Stud. 2007;44(7):1147-1157. PMID: 16814789. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.04.015
Park JC. Assessment of anxiety, depression, and sexual dysfunction in women undergoing fertility treatment. Clin Exp Reprod Med. 2025;52(1):38-43. PMID: 40018791. DOI: 10.5653/cerm.2024.07465
Image Credits
Hero: AI-generated / Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter. Figure 1: AI-generated / Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter. Figure 2: AI-generated / Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter.
