Russia will eliminate sexology as a certified medical profession and introduce “healthy longevity physicians” this fall as part of a healthcare registry overhaul, according to a Health Ministry decree published this weekend.
Starting Sept. 1, the ministry will remove 16 positions from its official list of medical professions while adding 11 new ones. Three additional medical titles are scheduled to be phased out by Sept. 1, 2028.
Viktor Fomin, head of the Health Ministry’s medical academy of continuous professional education, said last month that the planned exclusions would not create a gap in patient care.
“Professions like urban pediatrician, adolescent physician, adolescent psychiatrist and diabetologist… emerged at different times as local responses to specific demands,” Fomin told the state-run TASS news agency, noting that doctors currently working in the soon-to-be-phased-out positions will be granted a transition period and opportunities to retrain.
The removal of sexology affects a very small cohort, as Russia currently has fewer than 100 active and fully certified medical sexologists, according to the newspaper Kommersant.
Practicing sexologist Dmitry Orlov criticized the move, defending sexology as a “uniquely Russian medical innovation” that integrates psychotherapy, urology, gynecology, endocrinology and psychiatry.
Industry experts told Kommersant that the creation of the new “healthy longevity medicine physician” title is a direct response to a rise in the average life expectancy among Russian citizens.
“This operates at the intersection of internal medicine, cardiology, endocrinology, geriatrics, nutrition and preventative care,” explained Natalia Malysheva, deputy head of the private Russian healthcare network SM-Clinic.
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