Sexual Health
Int’l. Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) Details New Definition of Premature Ejaculation
|
|
Dr. Ira Sharlip, President of the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) detailed a new definition of premature ejaculation. He addressed the audience of the American Urological Association during the ‘late breaking science forum’, a session designed by AUA to premier newsworthy developments in clinical urology.
The ISSM convened a panel of world experts who met in Amsterdam in the fall of 2007. Each of the 21 members of the panel was selected through a peer review process for their expertise in ejaculatory physiology, pharmacology and dysfunction. The panelists were tasked with creating a new definition of premature ejaculation (PE) based on currently available clinical evidence. Definitions of PE have previously been based on group consensus and not meeting new standards for evidence-based medicine. These definitions of PE include the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, 2002) and the AUA definition of (2005).
PE affects 20-30% of men. Although less commonly reported than erectile dysfunction, PE may co-exist in a third of men complaining of ED. (Lauman EO, JAMA 1999;281:537-544.) The etiology of PE is multifactorial with both biologic and psychologic factors.
Low Testosterone May Cause Health Problems that Lead to Erectile Dysfunction
|
|
Men with erectile dysfunction should be examined for testosterone deficiency and the metabolic syndrome, because these conditions commonly occur together, a new study shows. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
“Erectile dysfunction is a portal into men’s health,” said the study’s senior author, Aksam Yassin, MD, PhD, of the Clinic for Urology and Andrology of the Segeberger Clinics in Norderstedt, Germany. “It is becoming clear that obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and erectile difficulties are intertwined, and a common denominator is testosterone deficiency.”
Yassin’s research, performed with scientists from The Netherlands, Germany and the United Arab Emirates, aimed to determine in men with erectile dysfunction (ED) the prevalence of hypogonadism, the scientific term for testosterone deficiency.
Overweight Does Not Decrease Sperm Production
|
|
Overweight men are not more likely to be infertile, as past research has shown to be true in obese women, according to a new study. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Findings of the study, performed in New York in nearly 300 very overweight men, were unexpected, said coauthor Nanette Santoro, MD, an Albert Einstein College of Medicine obstetrician-gynecologist who is trained in reproductive endocrinology.
“We see pretty significant deficits in fertility in women due to obesity, so we thought we’d see an effect in men,” Santoro said. “But that wasn’t the case.”
Study: Premature ejaculation defined
|
|
Experts from 10 countries, including Australia, the United States, Germany and Egypt, say they have defined life-long premature ejaculation.
Co-author Dr. Chris G McMahon of the University of Sydney says they developed the first-ever evidence-based definition of lifelong premature ejaculation in the hope it will aid future diagnosis, treatment and research.
The definition was developed after lengthy critical evaluation of the evidence presented in more than 100 studies on the sexual problem published over the last 65 years. It was unanimously agreed by the experts that the definition of lifelong premature ejaculation should be a combination of three key factors:
Most teens don’t choose oral sex over intercourse
|
|
Many U.S. teenagers have had oral sex, but usually not as a “substitute” for intercourse, a new study suggests.
Using data from a 2002 national survey, researchers found that just over half of 15- to 19-year-olds said they had ever had oral sex. But it was much more common among teens who had already had intercourse than among virgins.
The findings counter the common idea that many teens use oral sex as a stand-in for intercourse, according to the researchers.
Legislation needed to provide coverage for ED treatment after prostatectomy
|
|
Men who have developed erectile dysfunction (ED) following surgery for prostate cancer usually do not have insurance coverage for ED treatment even though their insurance policies cover surgery for prostate cancer, according to an analysis presented today at the 103rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association. In contrast, federal law requires that insurance companies which cover mastectomy for breast cancer treatment also cover breast reconstruction.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common side effect of radical prostatectomy, though not always permanent, and almost all men experience some degree of ED following this surgery. The impact of ED on self-esteem and body image to prostate cancer patients can be as detrimental as the loss of a breast can be to a woman. However, the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act, passed by Congress in 1998, requires that third-party payers who cover mastectomy for breast cancer also cover the costs of breast reconstruction.
“There is compelling evidence that ED treatment leads to improved quality of life for the man and his partner,” said Ira D. Sharlip, M.D., a spokesman for the AUA. Therefore, as in the case of breast reconstruction for women, the cost of ED treatment should most certainly be covered for men.”
Female sex offenders often have mental problems
|
|
Women who commit sexual offences are just as likely to have mental problems or drug addictions as other violent female criminals. This according to the largest study ever conducted of women convicted of sexual offences in Sweden.
Between 1988 and 2000, 93 women and 8,500 men were convicted of sexual offences in Sweden. Given that previous research has focused on male perpetrators, knowledge of the factors specific to female sex offenders has been scant.
A group of researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now looked into incidences of mental illness and drug abuse in these 93 convicted women, and compared them with over 20,000 randomly selected women in the normal population and with the 13,000-plus women who were convicted of non-sexual crimes over the same period.
Man jailed for fake Viagra sales
|
|
The general manager of a Shanghai chemical company was jailed for two years on Thursday for selling fake tablets of the male impotence drug Viagra on the Internet, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Heart ills not to blame for women’s poor sex life
|
|
A woman’s satisfaction with her sex life appears to have very little to do with the health of her heart and circulation, according to a new analysis of data from the Women’s Health Initiative.
“In women this particular aspect of sexual function, which is decreased sexual satisfaction, did not predict cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Jennifer S. McCall-Hosenfeld, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
In men, erectile dysfunction is a red flag for undiagnosed heart disease, McCall-Hosenfeld of Boston University Medical Center and her colleagues note in the American Journal of Medicine. Given that the same mechanism regulates pelvic blood flow in both men and women, they write, it is conceivable that sexual problems in women could also be a marker for poor heart health.
Brazil makes condoms to protect Amazon, stop AIDS
|
|
he Brazilian government began producing condoms on Monday using rubber from trees in the Amazon, a move it said would help preserve the world’s largest rainforest and cut dependence on imported contraceptives given away to fight AIDS.
Brazil’s first government-run condom factory, located in northwestern Acre state, will produce 100 million condoms a year, the health ministry said in a statement.
The latex comes from the Chico Mendes reserve, named after a conservationist and rubber tapper killed in 1988 by ranchers. The government says the condoms would be the only ones made of latex harvested from a tropical forest.
Comprehensive sex ed may cut teen pregnancies
|
|
Comprehensive sex education that includes discussion of birth control may help reduce teen pregnancies, while abstinence-only programs seem to fall short, the results of a U.S. survey suggest.
Using data from a 2002 national survey, researchers found that among more than 1,700 unmarried, heterosexual teens between 15 and 19 years old, those who’d received comprehensive sex ed in school were 60 percent less likely to have been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant than teens who’d had no formal sex education.
Meanwhile, there was no clear benefit from abstinence-only education in preventing pregnancy or delaying sexual intercourse, the researchers report in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Vaginal lubricants may impair sperm quality: study
|
|
Of five vaginal lubricants tested in a study, only one did not significantly decrease the ability of sperm to swim (motility) or the integrity of chromatin—genetic material that makes up chromosomes, researchers found.
Between a third and a half of sexually active couples use vaginal lubricants, they explain, but a number of studies have reported a deleterious effect on sperm quality. “What can a woman use,” they ask, “to alleviate vaginal dryness while trying to conceive, without harming the sperm?”
To investigate, Dr. Ashok Agarwal from the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio and associates evaluated the effects of four commercially available vaginal lubricants (FemGlide, Pre~Seed, Replens, and Astroglide) on sperm motility and the effects of three lubricants (Pre~Seed, K-Y Jelly, and FemGlide) on sperm chromatin integrity.
Parents urged to go beyond ‘big talk’ about sex
|
|
Parents should consider having repeated discussions with their children about many aspects of sex instead of one “big talk” on impersonal topics linked to sexuality such as puberty, researchers said on Monday.
“Parents who take a checklist approach to broadening their sexual discussion with their children are unlikely to have as great an influence ... as parents who introduce new sexual topics and then develop them through repeated discussions,” said their report published in the journal Pediatrics.
Effects of childhood abuse last a lifetime: study
|
|
Older people who experienced sexual or physical abuse as children suffer from worse mental and physical health than their peers who weren’t abused, Australian researchers report.
“The effects of childhood abuse appear to last a lifetime,” Dr. Brian Draper of the University of New South Wales in Sydney and colleagues write. “Further research is required to improve understanding of the pathways that lead to such deleterious outcomes and ways to minimize its late-life effects.”
Studies have linked abuse in childhood to impaired physical and mental health in a person’s adult years, but there is little information on how a history of abuse might affect older people, explain Draper and colleagues in a report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Study rejects Internet sex predator stereotype
|
|
The typical online sexual predator is not someone posing as a teen to lure unsuspecting victims into face-to-face meetings that result in violent rapes, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Rather, they tend to be adults who make their intentions of a sexual encounter quite plain to vulnerable young teens who often believe they are in love with the predator, they said.
And contrary to the concerns of parents and state attorneys general, they found social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace do not appear to expose teens to greater risks.
