A range of emerging biomedical technologies are reshaping the landscape of clinical sexology – for example advanced ultrasound imaging, stem cell therapies, CRISPR gene editing, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), artificial intelligence, fetal diagnostics, improved laboratory techniques. These developments are not only altering the clinical conditions under which professional clinicians operate, but also challenging the boundaries of their roles and responsibilities. At the same time, patients often express a strong desire to access the latest treatments. It can be of hope or urgency. This places considerable pressure on clinicians to respond to rapidly evolving scientific knowledge and technological possibilities. Professionals must navigate this terrain while also adhering to national and regional regulations, ethical frameworks, and economic constraints. In this context, modern biomedicine is today not only transforming clinical practice but also prompting a reconfiguration of professional identities. This paper explores how clinicians in the field of sexology negotiate their professional identities in relation to increasingly informed and demanding patients.
The study is based on eleven in-depth interviews with professionals—primarily gynaecologists and researchers—working in Sweden and Denmark. These participants possess extensive expertise in clinical sexology and offer critical reflections on the implications of emerging biomedical technologies for their practice. The interviews are analysed from a theoretical perspective that views knowledge and professional identity as deeply intertwined.
The findings suggest that it is essential for professionals to reflect on how new biomedical technologies are not merely tools to be implemented in clinical routines, but forces that fundamentally reshape professional identity – particularly in the encounter with patients. A deeper understanding of this transformation may contribute to more responsive and ethically grounded interactions within healthcare.