Kolpophobia is the irrational fear of female genitals. Someone experiencing this disorder may have extreme anxiety and stress when seeing female genitals or when thinking about them. Unlike many other types of phobias such as cynophobia (fear of dogs), sesquipedalophobia (fear of long words), or mysophobia (fear of germs), there will not be much effort spent toward needing to avoid your fears as most countries outlaw public nudity.

Besides common perception, men who suffer from kolpophobia does not mean that they are gay. Heterosexual men who are fearful of female genitals may simply withhold their fear due to other reasons, typically irrational ones.

However, regardless of their reason, someone with kolpophobia will often experience high amounts of irrational anxiety when thinking of female genitals. They may realize that their fear is out of touch with reality, but their fear is simply too strong to think logically about it.

Men and women who have kolpophobia may be embarrassed about their fear and may feel a great amount of shame as a result of it. They may try to hide their fear by lying to others or pretending that they are unaffected by the sight of female genitals. Nevertheless, like will all mental disorders, there is a spectrum of severity. So, the intensity of someone’s symptoms of kolpophobia may vary greatly from person to person.

Symptoms of Kolpophobia

People experiencing kolpophobia may experience high amounts of anxiety and may find it difficult to engage in sexual intercourse with women. They may also experience low self-esteem and may find it very difficult to cope with with their intense fears. Everyone who experiences kolpophobia will most likely experience it somewhat differently. So, you may experience symptoms that are not listed in this article.

Like with most phobias, someone with kolpophobia will most likely try to avoid situations that may trigger their intense fear of female genitals. Such avoidance may mean avoiding having sex with women, purposely remaining ignorant of the health of your reproductive organs (for women) so to limit any extra time thinking about or worrying about them.

Though avoiding that which they fear may give them instant relief from their intense anxiety, doing so may only make their kolpophobia worse in the long term. This is so because by avoiding their fears, they are then reassuring themselves that their fears are worthy of being avoided. Such an action may simply intensify their fear over time, as opposed to decreasing it.

 Below, you will see some of the most common symptoms of this phobia:

• Intense anxiety when looking at a woman’s genitals
• Intense anxiety when looking at pictures of a woman’s genitals
• Avoiding sex with women
• Muscle tension and dry mouth
• Nervousness/Shakiness

Causes of Kolpophobia

There is no known cause of kolpophoia. However, genetics and one’s environment are likely to play significant roles in the development of this disorder. Someone who has a family history of mental illness, especially with phobias or other anxiety disorder, may be at risk for developing it. However, the specificity of this phobia may also be heavily due to one’s environment.

Someone may develop kolpophobia due to enduring a traumatic experience of some sort that left a permanent imprint on them. With a genetic predisposition for developing mental illness, it may only take a traumatic experience for them to develop full-blown kolpophobia. Such a traumatic experience may include being abused sexually, among other reasons.

There is not much information available on this kolpophobia. Nevertheless, with virtually all phobias, genetics and one’s environment are both known to be potential causes for its development. Other reasons as to why someone may develop kolpophobia is that they already suffer from an additional mental disorder such as OCD or GAD. If this were to be the case, then kolpophobia may merely be an extension of another disorder they have.

Kolpophobia Treatments

There are no known treatment methods specifically designed for kolpophobia. Nevertheless, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, and anti-anxiety medication may be able to help minimize the symptoms that are associated with kolpophobia. CBT may be able to help you think differently about that which you fear, as well as helping you to develop effective coping skills for when your symptoms exacerbate.

People who suffer from phobias may experience full-blown panic attacks when and if their symptoms of anxiety are exacerbated. CBT may be very effective at helping you to cope and improve such occurrences.

Exposure therapy may also be an effective form of therapy to treat kolpophobia. This would work by having the patient be slowly exposed to their fears. In this context, this would probably include looking at pictures or videos of female genitals. The goal here would be to try and desensitize the patient from their irrational fears. Though exposure therapy may be very effective for some people, it’s not for everyone and it can even worsen someone’s condition if not applied appropriately.

Anti-anxiety medication may also be able to help reduce the symptoms associated with kolpophobia. However, medication therapy itself may not be very effective at improving this phobia in the long term. Though you may experience minimized anxiety and dread as a result of your kolpophobia, you will not be able to truly change your thinking patterns unless you are engaged in some sort of talk therapy or exposure therapy.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for Kolpophobia

MBSR is an 8-week evidence-based program that offers secular, intensive mindfulness training to help people who are suffering from anxiety, stress, depression, and other sorts of mental anguish. MBSR may be able to significantly help someone who is suffering from kolpophobia as mindfulness meditation has been shown to be very beneficial for anxious people. In such a structured program, someone with kolpophobia can expect to learn a plethora of different skills that can help them to relieve the intense anxiety that’s associated with their specific phobia.

Talk to your doctor or therapist to see if MBSR can help you to reduce the intensity of your symptoms of kolpophobia, as well as where to find MBSR programs in your area.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Kolpophobia

CBT is a psycho-social intervention that aims to improve one’s mental health. It is a modality that is often used to treat people suffering from anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder and OCD. Someone with kolpophobia may also be able to benefit from CBT as well seeing as how it would allow them to have a much better understanding as to why they think and behave the way they do in relation to their irrational fears.

CBT can be immensely helpful for someone with kolpophobia given the sheer automaticity of their symptoms. For example, when someone with kolpophobia is exposed to their fear, they will almost always have an instantaneous subconscious reaction to their fear. Such a lack of introspection is likely a large part of why someone with this condition will suffer to the extent that they will. CBT can help you to take a step back and analyze your fears more deeply than you typically would.

Besides learning to be more fastidious with regards to understanding one’s specific fears, someone with kolpophobia engaging in CBT can also expect to learn various other skills aimed at helping to relieve the anxiety caused by their condition.

Psychiatric Medications for Kolpophobia

Anti-anxiety meds

These types of medications are very useful to help prevent panic attacks. Such drugs can be extremely useful for people suffering from severe kolpophobia due to the fact that people with phobias often experience panic attacks as well. Some common anti-anxiety medications include Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin, among many others.

These types of drugs are not typically taken on a daily basis, but they may be insofar as their kolpophobia is severe enough. However, this is something that you should first discuss with your doctor before you decide to do so to ensure that it is safe and effective.

Antidepressants

These types of medications aren’t only for people who suffer from depression as they can also help people suffering from anxiety disorders as well, such as kolpophobia. Some common antidepressants are Paxil, Zoloft, and Lexapro, among several others. These drugs may be able to help reduce some of the symptoms of kolpophobia.

These types of drugs are typically taken on a daily basis. They can indeed help prevent panic attacks from occurring, but they are more so used to help reduce people’s daily anxiety. Talk to your doctor to see if taking antidepressants can help to reduce your symptoms of kolpophobia, as well as whether or not it is safe to do so.

Meditation Techniques for Kolpophobia

There are many different forms of meditation that exists which can be very advantageous for someone suffering from kolpophobia. Specifically, mindfulness meditation has been shown to be quite beneficial for helping people to enter into a more equanimous state. There are many different ways with which you can implement mindfulness meditation and there are also many different meditation apps which are designed to make things as easy as possible for you.

Mindfulness has the potential to significantly help those suffering from kolpophobia due to how it will help one to distract themselves from their fear by refocusing their attention onto something else that does not have any sort of emotional baggage attached to it, such as by focusing on the breath for example. This is one of the most basic ways that one can meditate and be present.

For someone with kolpophobia in the midst of a panic attack, redirecting one’s attention to the various sensations felt when breathing can actually help to reduce the amount of mental anguish experienced during such an influx of anxiety.

To implement mindfulness meditation to help relieve one’s symptoms of kolpophobia, you can do so by paying close attention to the way the muscles in your abdomen and chest contract and relax with every inhale and exhale. You can spend time dwelling on how it feels as your chest expands during each inhale and how it sinks in with every exhale.

Besides focusing on your breathing, you can also focus on the sounds around you, the way your skin feels as you touch certain objects, the way foods taste, as well as the way certain aromas smell. Essentially, honing into your 5 senses can significantly help you to reduce some of the anxiety that is associated with kolpophobia. Also, remember that it will take a lot of practice to become an adept meditator. So, practice is key.

Consuming Less Caffeine for Kolpophobia

It is no secret that consuming large amounts of caffeine throughout the day can aid in making you more anxious. This makes sense when we look closely at how caffeine affects our body’s physiology. When we consume a high dose of caffeine, our heart will start to beat faster and we become more tense. Essentially, our body will begin to go into a “fight or flight” state of mind. Such a frame of mind is often a precursor for someone with kolpophobia to experience panic attacks.

So, consuming little to no caffeine throughout the day may be able to significantly help reduce your day to day anxiety. Although doing so will likely not make all of your anxiety go away, it will indeed help you to reduce any unnecessary suffering that you would have otherwise experienced if you were to consume a large amount of caffeine.

Beverages like coffee and tea are often high in caffeine, as well as some energy drinks. In fact, even some foods have caffeine in them as well, such as dark chocolate. Being more conscious of your daily caffeine consumption may help you to reduce some of the symptoms associated with kolpophobia.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Kolpophobia

DBT is a very effective form of treatment for people struggling with emotion regulation. It is often used to treat people suffering from borderline personality disorder. Nevertheless, it can also be very advantageous for someone suffering from anxiety disorders like kolpophobia too. This is due to the numerous amount of coping skills you can expect to learn in a DBT group. These groups typically last about 6 months long and can have anywhere from two people to several people depending on how many join the group.

One very effective DBT skill for helping someone with kolpophobia is half-smiling. This technique works by having you think about that which you fear or upsets you all while slightly raising the corners of your mouth by lightly smiling, thus the term “half-smiling.” Although, it isn’t enough to just think about your fear while half-smiling, you also have to try and refrain from entertaining those painful emotions that your specific fear may evoke.

Mindfulness meditation is also heavily used in DBT and can greatly benefit someone with kolpophobia as it is done in a group setting, which helps to put the patient out of their comfort zone. These group mindfulness practices may include drinking warm tea to hone in on the sense of taste and tactile senses or simply focusing on the breath.

Coping ahead is another very useful DBT skill that can help someone with kolpophobia. With coping ahead, you will want to find a place where you can sit down quietly without distraction. Close your eyes and then think about the many different possible scenarios where you would face your specific fear and overcome it or cope with it. Doing so will help you to be much better adept at coping with your kolpophobia when you are actually exposed to the specific fear associated with it in real life.

Exposure Therapy for Kolpophobia

As previously mentioned, exposure therapy is one of the most common ways to treat anxiety disorders such as kolpophobia. It can be an efficient way to help desensitize the patient to their specific fears. Be that as it may, it is imperative that the therapist implementing it on their patient is very adept at doing so. For example, if the therapist were to slightly expose someone with kolpophobia to their fear, then it may not be very effective as they may need a higher amount of exposure to truly trigger any sort of worthwhile change in the patient.

The same can be said for the antithesis of this scenario. If the therapist were to excessively expose someone with kolpophobia to their fear, then doing so could be highly counterproductive to the point to where their kolpophobia may become immensely worse due to the therapy alone. So, it is paramount that the therapist implementing exposure therapy for someone with kolpophobia has a very strong sense of just how severe their symptoms are so that they can know the level of exposure that the patient will likely be able to handle.

Working Out for Kolpophobia

Exercise has been shown to be extremely beneficial for people suffering from anxiety disorders, including kolpophobia. Specifically, cardiovascular exercise can significantly help to relieve one’s stress. This is not to say that weight-resistance training would not benefit someone with anxiety, but rather that aerobic exercise is has been shown to be more effective at releasing those feel good chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins.

According to the American Psychology Association, exercise can help to condition the mind to better cope with stressful situations. This makes sense when we take into consideration the high amount of stress that the body is put under during strenuous exercise. So, if you yourself are sedentary, then engaging in some form of aerobic exercise may be able to significantly help reduce your symptoms of kolpophobia by making it much easier for you to cope with the anxiety and stress that’s associated with this condition.

There are many different aerobic modalities that you can partake in to help reduce your symptoms of kolpophobia, such as swimming, biking, skiing, walking, and jogging. You can also acquire the many benefits of exercise by playing sports such as tennis, soccer, basketball, and racquetball, among many other sports. Engaging in some form of exercise consistently may be able to help relieve some of the pain associated with kolpophobia over time.

Yoga Practice for Kolpophobia

There are numerous different yoga poses that can substantially benefit someone who is suffering from kolpophobia. In part, this is due to the meditative state of mind that yoga tends to emit in those who practice it on a consistent basis. Yoga can be thought of as meditation in motion. It can help to relieve some of the anxiety associated with kolpophobia due to the mere fact that by engaging in yoga, your attention will be redirected to something more productive.

There are many different types of yoga that someone with kolpophobia can benefit from, such as hatha yoga or hot yoga, among many others. Nevertheless, regardless of the many different forms of yoga that exist, virtually all of them can help to relieve some of the stress and anxiety that is associated with kolpophobia.

If you have never practiced yoga before, then it may be in your best interest to take a class or watch some guided videos that can help you through each pose. Just like with meditation, the more you practice yoga, the more adept you will become at it. Besides helping you to reduce your symptoms of kolpophobia, you can also expect to acquire increased strength and flexibility, among other benefits.

If you think you may be suffering from some of the symptoms of this condition, then you may benefit from therapy. Feel free to reach out to your doctor or local mental health clinic to see what your available options are and to see if there is any sort of discount or promo code available to help you with the costs of treatment, as well as if your health insurance will cover treatment costs.