ESSM History
In 1994 in Singapore, during the ISIR (now ISSM) Annual Congress, the ESIR (European Society for Impotence Research) idea was born as the European development of the International Society for Impotence Research. In 1995 ESIR was born and the first Congress was held in Porto Carras, Greece. Our journey began into medical knowledge, research and innovation across Europe. In 1997 the second Congress was held in Madrid. The third Congress was held in Barcelona in 2000, after the tremendous earthquake that hit Turkey in 1999, where the Congress should have been held. In 2001 the name of the Society changed into ESSIR (European Society for Sexual and Impotence Research) in order to embrace more deeply the broad field of sexual medicine, both male and female. This brought also to the need of our congress to be held each year, so in 2001 the Congress was held in Rome and the year after, in 2002, in Hamburg. Starting from 2001 the Society continued its development, changing again its name into the actual ESSM (European Society for Sexual Medicine) in 2003, characterizing once again its need to improve and spread the research into sexual medicine, a field which is continuously developing across the world, bringing sexual awareness to light more and more not only in the medical field but also among people. In 2003 the congress was held in Istanbul in 2004 in London and in 2005 in Copenhagen. The year 2005 marked the 10th anniversary of ESSM, a society which is always stronger and more deeply rooted across Europe, with 13 National Societies affiliated to ESSM and about 1400 members. Since then, the last 10 years of ESSM were full of new strategies concerning science and education. In 2006 the annual congress moved to Vienna followed by Lisbon in 2007. 2008 was the year of the ESSM/ISSM Joint Meeting in Brussels, and then ESSM went to France in Lyon 2009. ESSM became stronger and now it harbors 25 National Affiliated Societies. We went to Malaga in 2010, back to Italy (Milan in 2011) and Amsterdam 2012 where the first examination to become a Fellow of The European Committee of Sexual Medicine (FECSM) took place. Then we move along to Istanbul for the 16th ESSM Congress joint by the 12th Congress of the European Federation of Sexology. Here we had the second examination to became a FECSM, together with the first examination to become a EFS & ESSM Certified Psycho-Sexologist (ECPS). Then Copenhagen 2015, celebrating the 20th anniversary of ESSM, always in shape, now with about 1700 members, and looking for sharing all our knowledge and innovation in the field of Sexual Medicine.
