Sexual Health
Addressing the needs of young women with disorders of sex development
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Disorders of sex development are lifelong conditions that are usually diagnosed at birth or during adolescence. In a recent study of 13 teenaged girls with disorders of sex development, the girls were guarded and reticent about sharing personal information about their disorder during adolescence, but some of them learned to engage in conversations with more confidence as they moved towards adulthood.
The participants noted that frustrations about their bodily differences and the limitations of their bodies limited physical spontaneity, impacted on their perceived sexual fulfillment, and hindered friendships or the possible formation of intimate partnerships. The young women wanted empathic, sensitive support from knowledgeable health professionals to help them understand their bodies.
HPV vaccination not associated with increase in sexually transmitted infections
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A barrier to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has been the concern that it may promote unsafe sexual activity, but a new study of adolescent girls finds that HPV vaccination was not associated with increases in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Nearly one-quarter of U.S. females between the ages 14 and 19 and 45 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 are affected by HPV. The HPV vaccination can prevent cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and genital warts caused by certain HPV strains. Still, HPV vaccination rates remain low in the United States and, by 2013, only 57 percent of females between the ages of 13 and 17 had received at least one dose, whereas only 38 percent had received all three recommended doses, according to the study background.
Anupam B. Jena, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and coauthors used a large insurance database of females (ages 12 to 18) from 2005 through 2010 to examine STIs among girls who were vaccinated and those who were not.
Low national funding for LGBT health research contributes to inequities, analysis finds
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Only one-half of 1 percent of studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 1989 and 2011 concerned the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, contributing to the perpetuation of health inequities, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health-led analysis.
The findings, which grew from the Fenway Institute’s Summer Institute in LGBT Population Health in Boston and continued at Pitt Public Health’s Center for LGBT Health Research, are in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health, published today. The researchers make several recommendations for how to stimulate LGBT-related research.
“The NIH is the world’s largest source of health research funding and has placed a low priority on LGBT health research,” said Robert W.S. Coulter, M.P.H., a doctoral student in Pitt Public Health’s Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. “In general, LGBT people experience stigma associated with their sexual and gender minority status, disproportionate behavioral risks and psychosocial health problems, and higher chronic disease risk factors than their non-LGBT counterparts. Increased NIH funding for research on these topics, particularly focusing on evidence-based interventions to reduce health inequities, could help alleviate these negative health outcomes.”
About 3.5 percent of the U.S. adult population is estimated to be gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to recent research based on national- and state-level population surveys.
Sexual function dramatically improves in women following bariatric surgery, Penn study finds
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The first study to look extensively at sexual function in women who underwent bariatric surgery found that significant improvements in overall sexual function, most reproductive hormones and in psychological status were maintained over two years following surgery. Women reporting the poorest quality of sexual function prior to surgery saw the most dramatic improvements one year after surgery, on par with women who reported the highest quality of sexual function prior to surgery. The new report by researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania appears in the November 4 edition of JAMA Surgery.
More than half of women who seek bariatric surgery report signs of sexual dysfunction and, consequentially, psychological stress.
“For many people, sex is an important part of quality of life. The massive weight losses typically seen following bariatric surgery are associated with significant improvements in quality of life,” said the study’s lead author David Sarwer, PhD, professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Surgery in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “This is one of the first studies to show that women also experience improvements in their sexual functioning and satisfaction, as well as significant improvements in their reproductive hormones.”
Researchers followed 106 women with an average Body Mass Index of 44.5 who underwent bariatric surgery (85 had gastric bypass and 21 had gastric banding procedures). Following surgery, the women lost an average of 32.7 percent of their original body weight after the first year, and 33.5 percent at the end of the second year.
Studying the health of same-sex couples
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Same-sex couples that live together report worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status who are in heterosexual marriages, according to a national study that could have implications for the gay marriage debate.
Research has shown that married people are healthier than the unmarried. Yet, while gay marriage is gaining support in Michigan and around the country, most same-sex cohabiters do not have the option of legally marrying their partners, noted Hui Liu, Michigan State University sociologist and lead investigator on the study.
While Liu’s research does not directly assess the potential health consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage, she said it’s plausible that allowing same-sex couples to legally wed could improve their health.
“Legalizing same-sex marriage,” Liu said, “could provide the benefits associated with marriage – such as partner health-insurance benefits and increased social and psychological support - which may directly and indirectly influence the health of people in same-sex unions.”
More sex for married couples with traditional divisions of housework
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Married men and women who divide household chores in traditional ways report having more sex than couples who share so-called men’s and women’s work, according to a new study co-authored by sociologists at the University of Washington.
Other studies have found that husbands got more sex if they did more housework, implying that sex was in exchange for housework. But those studies did not factor in what types of chores the husbands were doing.
The new study, published in the February issue of the journal American Sociological Review, shows that sex isn’t a bargaining chip. Instead, sex is linked to what types of chores each spouse completes.
Couples who follow traditional gender roles around the house – wives doing the cooking, cleaning and shopping; men doing yard work, paying bills and auto maintenance – reported greater sexual frequency.
NTU study looks at national attitudes towards homosexuals
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Attitudes of Singaporeans and permanent residents toward gays and lesbians although sharply polarised and predominantly negative, have shifted slightly over a five-year span to become a little more favourable. This was found by a research team from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
A nationally representative survey found that people with higher levels of education and freethinkers tend to have more positive attitudes. Those who had higher interpersonal contact with gay men and lesbians and watched more films and television shows with homosexual characters were also likely to express more positive attitudes toward gays and lesbians, and to show greater acceptance.
“This study is a continuation of an earlier one in 2005, which was initiated to provide a nationally representative and objective examination of public attitudes toward homosexuality in Singapore and to contribute to scholarship on homosexuality in Asia. By investigating some of the predictors of attitudes towards lesbians and gay men, it can help to inform public debate and guide future policy recommendations,” said Professor Benjamin Detenber, Chair of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, who led a team of researchers to conduct this study in early 2010.
The study of 959 adult Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) found that while there has been a slight change in attitudes towards lesbians and gays in Singapore between 2005 and 2010, the change is significant, as it suggests a temporal shift in Singaporeans’ values and views about homosexuals.
It’s Not Just About Showing Your Genitals: Time to Talk About Sexting
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Around one in four teenagers has sent venereal texts or emails, and those who have are about seven times more likely to have old-fashioned, body-on-body sex. Often it’s “risky sex,” and not in the good way.
Depending which of the recent self-reported studies you read, the number of teenagers who’ve emailed or texted elicit messages or photos of themselves is between 14 and 28%. A study yesterday in the journal Pediatrics called attention to an association between sexting and likelihood of having real (too-often unprotected) sex. In an interview with Reuters, lead researcher Dr. Eric Rice of the University of Southern California said, “Is there a link between sexting and taking risks with your body? The answer is a pretty resounding ‘yes.’”
Should you talk to your kid about sexting? If they use a phone or the Internet and are alive, the answer is an even more resounding “yes.” “Ye-Esss,” if you will. Because sexting isn’t just about pubescent curiosity and lust; it’s also about trust, commitment, self-image, and acceptance - the timeless issues of our formative years, and topics on which you’re surely by now an expert.
New York approves tougher legislation on circumcision
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New York City’s Jewish ritual circumcisers who use their mouths to draw away blood from the wound on a baby’s penis must now get the parents to sign a consent form, health officials said on Thursday.
The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously in favor the new regulation, citing the risk that infants could catch a potentially deadly herpes infection through the ancient ritual.
The decision to amend the city’s health code has angered some members of the city’s Orthodox Jewish communities, who say it is an unwarranted intrusion by the government on religious freedom.
Infertility gene may lead to pill for men
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Scottish scientists have discovered a gene that plays a key role in production of healthy sperm, a breakthrough that could soon pave the way for developing a new contraceptive pill for men.
In experiments on mice, researchers at the Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh found a gene, called Katnal1, which was vital for the final stages of sperm production.
Detailing their findings in the journal PLos Genetics, the team said a drug which interrupts Katnal1 could be a reversible contraceptive.
Delayed female sexual maturity linked to longer lifespan in mice
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An intriguing clue to longevity lurks in the sexual maturation timetable of female mammals, Jackson Laboratory researchers and their collaborators report.
Jackson researchers including Research Scientist Rong Yuan, Ph.D., had previously established that mouse strains with lower circulating levels of the hormone IGF1 at age six months live longer than other strains. In research published May 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Yuan and colleagues report that females from strains with lower IGF1 levels also reach sexual maturity at a significantly later age.
“This suggests a genetically regulated tradeoff - delayed reproduction but longer life - that is at least partially mediated by IGF1,” Yuan says.
The researchers conclude that IGF1 may co-regulate female sexual maturation and longevity. They showed that mouse strains derived from wild populations carry specific gene variants that delay sexual maturation, and they identified a candidate gene, Nrip1, involved in regulating sexual maturation that may also affect longevity by controlling IGF1 levels.
Binge drinking by freshman women tied to sexual assault risk, according to new research
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Many young women who steer clear of alcohol while they’re in high school may change their ways once they go off to college. And those who take up binge drinking may be at relatively high risk of sexual assault, according to a University at Buffalo-led study in the January issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The college years are famously associated with drinking. But little has been known about how young women change their high school drinking habits once they start college.
So for the new study, the research team followed 437 young women from high school graduation through freshman year of college. They found that of women who had never drank heavily in high school (if at all), nearly half admitted to heavy episodic drinking—commonly called binge drinking - at least once by the end of their first college semester. Young women who were already engaging in binge drinking in high school continued drinking at similar levels in college.
What’s more, binge drinking was linked to students’ risk of sexual victimization - regardless of what their drinking habits had been in high school.
New Report Highlights LGBT Older Adults’ Needs, Identifies Policy Opportunities
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The National Academy on an Aging Society and Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) today released the first-ever issue of the acclaimed Public Policy & Aging Report (PPAR) on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) aging, highlighting gaps in policy and research on LGBT older adults, and current and future solutions to address the needs of LGBT elders.
“Given the voluminous gerontological literature that has built up over the past half-century, it is hard to imagine that any set of aging populations has been largely ignored or under-investigated. Yet, LGBT older adults have remained nearly invisible to the community of advocates, researchers, practitioners, administrators, and politicians who associate themselves with the modern aging enterprise,” said PPAR Editor Robert Hudson, PhD, chair of the Department of Social Policy at the Boston University School of Social Work. “This issue of Public Policy & Aging Report takes a step toward filling that void.”
LGBT older adults make up a significant share of America’s 65+ population, and their numbers are expected to double in size over the next several decades, reaching more than 3 million by 2030. An increase in numbers signals a growing need to ensure that the policies designed to protect our nation’s elders take into account the needs of LGBT older adults.
Early sexual abuse increases heart risks
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Women who were repeatedly sexually abused as girls have a 62 percent higher risk of heart problems later in life compared with women who were not abused, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.
The findings, presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, underscored the lasting physical effects of early sexual abuse.
Much of the increased risk was related to coping strategies among abuse survivors such as overeating, alcohol use and smoking.
Antioxidants of interest to address infertility, erectile dysfunction
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A growing body of evidence suggests that antioxidants may have significant value in addressing infertility issues in both women and men, including erectile dysfunction, and researchers say that large, specific clinical studies are merited to determine how much they could help.
A new analysis, published online in the journal Pharmacological Research, noted that previous studies on the potential for antioxidants to help address this serious and growing problem have been inconclusive, but that other data indicates nutritional therapies may have significant potential.
The researchers also observed that infertility problems are often an early indicator of other degenerative disease issues such as atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. The same approaches that may help treat infertility could also be of value to head off those problems, they said.
