傳統的性治療術語學裏仍充斥著大量多餘的、含混不清的術語。這種狀況很大程度上要追溯到人們不適當地理解人類性反應和更多地關注男性的性問題的那些年代。其結果是，這些運用於男性和女性性問題的術語全然不同。然而，這種狀況會讓人產生誤解。
最近，通過完全地避免使用術語“功能障礙(dysfunction)”並代之以較不具體的“紊亂(disorder)”一說，有人一直試圖簡化這個術語學系統。不過，這個術語因含義太泛和界定不精而向他人敲響了警鐘。仍有某些人否決它，拒絕回潮到不加辨別的精神病學的較早時期。對於他們來說，“紊亂”聽起來暗含詆毀的含義，因為它似乎暗示著什麼時候客戶有著嚴重的問題，而事實上，只是他們的性反應受到了削弱而已。  

例如，大多數性治療教科書以下述相似的方式來分類男女性功能障礙：

A great deal of unnecessary confusion is still being created by the traditional therapeutic terminology. It largely dates from a time when the human sexual response was inadequately understood and when much more attention was paid to the sexual problems of men than to those of women. As a result, the terms used for male and female sexual problems are entirely different. However, this is misleading.
Recently, there have been attempts to simplify the terminology by avoiding the term „dysfunction“ altogether and to speak instead more generally of „disorder“. However, this term strikes others as too broad and imprecise. Still others reject it as a throw-back to the earlier days of an uncritical psychiatry. To them, “disorder” sounds denigrating, since it seems to suggest that there is something seriously wrong with the clients when, in fact, only their sexual response is impaired.

Most current textbooks of sex therapy still distinguish between male and female sexual dysfunctions in a way similar to the following table: