Sexual Health
Testosterone patch sparks sex drive for some women
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Testosterone patches can significantly boost the libido for some women with sub par sex drives after surgery to remove their ovaries, who report an average of one additional sexual encounter a week after starting to use the hormone, a new study shows.
“It doesn’t work for everybody, but when it works it works nicely,” Dr. Sheryl Kingsberg of University Hospitals of Cleveland in Ohio, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
Viagra boosts feel-good “love” hormone: study
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Impotence drugs such as Viagra may do more than help men physically have sex—they may also boost levels of a hormone linked with feelings of love, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
Viagra, known generically as sildenafil, raised levels of the hormone oxytocin in rats; the team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported the Journal of Physiology. This hormone is involved in nursing and childbirth, and also in orgasm and feelings of sexual pleasure.
“Fat Eggs” Likely Cause of Infertility in Obese Women
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A researcher at the University of Adelaide, Australia, has discovered scientific evidence that obesity is a key factor in infertility – because of how it affects women’s eggs.
While obesity has long been thought to be a major factor in couples’ inability to conceive, this is the first time the effects of obesity on the egg have been discovered.
Sex differences found in COPD
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In the first study to directly compare men and women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and severe emphysema, researchers have found that there are marked differences between the sexes.
The study, led by Fernando J. Martinez, M.D., of the University of Michigan, was reported in the August 1, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Sex-Trafficked Girls and Women From South Asia Have High Prevalence of HIV Infection
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Nearly 40 percent of repatriated Nepalese sex-trafficked girls and women tested were positive for HIV infection, with girls trafficked before age 15 having higher rates of infection, according to a study in the August 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.
“Trafficking across or within national borders for purposes of sexual exploitation including forced prostitution, i.e., sex trafficking, is recognized as a major gender-based human rights violation with significant individual and public health consequences and is increasingly discussed as a potentially critical mechanism in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) across developing nations,” the authors write.
Prostate drug doesn’t limit sexual function in most men
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Men and their physicians need not hesitate to use a drug proven effective in preventing prostate cancer out of concern that it is likely to cause sexual dysfunction, say authors of a study conducted by the Southwest Oncology Group.
The authors, who surveyed more than 17,000 men 55 and older for seven years, reported their results in the July 4 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study found that men given finasteride reported on average more dysfunction than did men given a placebo. That small effect diminished over the seven years.
Modified Herpes Virus Keeps Arteries “Free-flowing” Following Procedures
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A genetically engineered herpes simplex virus, primarily known for causing cold sores, may help keep arteries “free-flowing” in the weeks following angioplasty or stent placement for patients, according to research published early in the online edition of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).
Christopher Skelly, MD, assistant professor of vascular surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and the study’s lead author says, “One of the drawbacks of balloon angioplasty to open blocked arteries and the use of stents to keep them open is that arteries sometimes experience aggravation from the procedure. The balloon angioplasty, in addition to opening the artery can lead to smooth muscle cell proliferation, similar to formation of scar tissue, known as neointimal hyperplasia. This scar tissue can restrict blood flow not long after the procedures, leading to a recurrence of symptoms. A significant number of these cases end up requiring further intervention to address this complication.”
Sex, age, location affect colonoscopy failures
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If you’re not eager to undergo a repeat colonoscopy because the procedure could not be completed, choose a specialized medical center to have it done.
Unfortunately, other factors that make an incomplete colonoscopy more likely—being a woman and being elderly—can’t be changed so readily.
India looking for “Mr. Condom”
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India, struggling to promote greater condom use among its population, is looking to hire its own “condom man” to follow the example of a former Thai cabinet minister who successfully pushed for safer sex.
National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) chief Sujatha Rao said that India needed to find someone like Mechai Viravaidya, famous for getting Thais to talk about sex, condoms and AIDS.
Sperm abnormalities seen in male lupus patients
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The prognosis for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease that mainly affects women in their reproductive years, has improved recently, prompting a shift toward improving quality of life. For men with SLE, concerns have been raised about their future fertility. However, no studies have been conducted to date on testes function and its relevance to sperm abnormalities in male SLE patients. A new study published in the July 2007 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism examined gonad function in male SLE patients and found that they have a high frequency of sperm abnormalities associated with reduced testicular volume.
In addition, the study identified intravenous treatment with the immunosuppressant cyclophosphamide (IV CYC) as the major factor in permanent damage to the testes.
Sex, substance use make teens feel older
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Teens who have sex, drink or use drugs feel “older for their age” than their less-experienced peers, a new study shows.
But it’s not clear if feeling older makes teens more likely to engage in sex or try substances or if these experiences themselves make adolescents feel older, the researchers say. “It could be a bidirectional relationship,” Kelly J. Arbeau of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
How Viagra Works
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Viagra® is one of the best-known drugs of all time:
* Google lists over 17 million Web pages that use the word “Viagra.” For comparison, Google lists only 3.3 million pages containing the word “aspirin” and only 936,000 containing the word “Tylenol.”
Sexual orientation affects how we navigate and recall lost objects, but age just targets gender
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Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that sexual orientation has a real effect on how we perform mental tasks such as navigating with a map in a car but that old age does not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation and withers all men’s minds alike just ahead of women’s.
The University of Warwick researchers worked with the BBC to collect data from over 198,000 people aged 20–65 years (109,612 men and 88,509 women). As expected they found men outperformed women on tests such as mentally rotating objects (NB the researchers’ tests used abstract objects but the skills used are also those one would use in real life to navigate with a map).
One in Three HIV Positive Gay Men Report Unprotected Sex
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More than one in three HIV positive gay men say they have unprotected sex, reveals a community survey, published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
And almost one in five HIV negative men said that they do the same, the figures show.
The findings are based on a survey of men at gay bars, clubs, and saunas in London, Manchester, and Brighton between 2003 and 2004.
Lesbians at higher risk for obesity: study
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Lesbians are twice as likely as heterosexual women to be overweight or obese, which puts them at greater risk for obesity-related health problems and death, U.S. researchers said.
The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is one of the first large studies to look at obesity among lesbians.
