PRESIDENTS’ WELCOME MESSAGE
Lisbon. A secular city full of contradictions, achievements and tensions.
A multicultural city, shaped by diversity but also divergence. Lisbon’s geography- in between the ocean and its beaches, the broad river, the hills, and the vast southern bucolic plains- reveals its inherent and implicit soundtrack: brightness, rhythm, joy, contemplation but, also, poverty, inequality, sadness and longing.
Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal, a country whose sexologists have for decades striven locally and globally in defense of sexual and reproductive rights.
Portugal, whose sexology pioneers laid the groundwork for the next generation to build a thriving, internationally acclaimed sexology in various areas: sexual rights, policy-making, clinical work, education and research.
Lisbon’s contradictions and possibilities have been the stage for a vibrant city full of voices eager to be heard and attended to. Bring your voice.
We invite you to submit your work, join this event and gather around the compelling words of Portuguese poet Eugénio de Andrade’s (1923-2005).
Love is urgent
It is urgent a boat in the sea.
It is urgent to destroy certain words,
hatred, loneliness and cruelty,
some sorrows,
many swords.
It is urgent to invent happiness,
to multiply the kisses, the cornfields,
it is urgent to discover roses and rivers
and bright mornings.
The silence falls on the shoulders and the impure
light, until it hurts.
Love is urgent, it is urgent to
remain.
Patricia Pascoal
EFS2026 Congress President
Joana Carvalho
Local Organizing Committee President
On behalf of the European Federation of Sexology (EFS), and in cooperation with Sociedade Portoguesa de Sexologica Clinica, it is a great pleasure and honour for me to invite and welcome you to the 18th EFS Congress that will take place in Lisbon, Portugal on 28-30 of May 2026.
Sexological congresses are events where you can share your knowledge, your research, your insights and experience in an ambience of open curiosity.
You can share by presenting orally, by poster, in specific seminars, roundtables or just in the mingling areas where all can meet everybody.
We are certain that the scientific program will be extensive, diverse and highly engaging.
The most basic involvement is presence as a delegate. Only you can convey your experiences and insights, only you can have your curiosity nourished, only you can get the feeling of being at home in the field of sexology.
Never be shy to contact people whose textbooks and papers you may have studied. Feel free to address those who have presented something interesting, intriguing or maybe provoking. All have something to share.
The programme will cover a wide range of new clinical and research topics regarding sexual health, sexual well-being, sexual justice, sexual problems and challenges. Sexual health, sexual rights and sexual justice are not luxuries but essentials and necessities to live a life with dignity. Questions of sexual rights and freedom from discrimination and coercion have been increasingly present in public debates over the last years. In sexology you will meet deep knowledge, love, compassion, respect and inclusion.
The interdisciplinary and international nature of the congress will no doubt enhance professional and social networking and exchange of information and knowledge from diverse communities and cultures.
We have the experience that our professional congress organizer and the local scientific committee will deliver high quality science and top value experiences.
On behalf of EFS in and the Sociedade Portoguesa de Sexologica Clinica: We will love to see you in Lisbon!
Cordial regards,
Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad
President of the EFS
IMPORTANT DATES
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE
22 December 2025
ABSTRACTS EVALUATION NOTIFICATION
3 FEBRUARY 2026
EARLY REGISTRATION DEADLINE
2 MARCH 2026
BEGINNING OF THE CONGRESS
28 MAY 2026
