Chlamydia Undermines Body’s Defense against Genetic Mutation

2015-02-24

Though curable with simple antibiotics, those who have the sexually transmitted infection (STI) Chlamydia trachomatis often show no symptoms. This disease causes havoc infecting 90 million worldwide, 70% of which are women. This STI can cause chronic infections and even impact fertility. For decades researchers have been trying to develop a vaccine, but have come up short. Today, they say they are closer than ever. In fact, a few short years ago an Australian team developed a vaccine for koala bears. That’s good news because Chlamydia is proving increasingly antibiotic resistant. Hopefully, a cure will arrive soon as one recent study found that the disease is even worse than first thought.  Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin (MPIIB) have now determined that chlamydia actually allows for gene mutations. The body has normal processes for getting rid of damaged cells. But chlamydia obstructs these processes from taking place for its own survival and replication. Such mutations may lead to cancer.

These bacteria live inside cells and depend upon the host cell for sustenance. The bacteria can also alter the functions of the host cell to favor itself and its growth. But scientists until now have not known the results of such manipulation. Studies have shown an increase in cervical and ovarian cancer, which researchers now believe is linked to the bacteria’s ability to allow mutated genes to carry on without reabsorption. In fact, chlamydia can influence both the genome and epi-genome of cells which can lead to lots of different kinds of cancer. The process in which the body rectifies mutated genes is called DNA Damage Response. This response was impaired in infected cells. Repairs to DNA were prone to errors, leading to the survival of more genetic mutations. Though the DNA was damaged, infected cells continue to multiply. Researchers believe this is the first step of carcinogenesis or how such cancers develop. Knowing this can help them create strategies to halt such cancers right in their tracks.

Tantric Sex for Premature Ejaculation

The most common sexual issue in men is premature ejaculation (PE). Those who have had a testicle removed due to cancer or another condition, in medical terminology known as an orchiectomy, have a higher chance of experiencing PE. Luckily, there are lots of treatment options available. Some men benefit from antidepressants which lessens arousal. Then there are prescription drugs, numbing agents and condoms, and methods such as the start-and-stop method, Kegels and the squeeze method. One natural method is to practice tantric sex or tantric yoga. This is the art of sex through the philosophy of yoga. You may begin by practicing Kundalini yoga. This is a good kind to practice with your partner. It helps with flexibility, muscle control, relaxation and centering one’s self. This will make you more aware of both your own sensations and your partners. Your added perception will help you to focus on your partner and how to fulfill their desires. This form of yoga, like Kegels, may also strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, helping to stave off orgasm. Now you are ready to begin tantric sex.

The first step is to synchronize your breathing. To do this, sit across from one another looking into each other’s eyes. See if you can harmonize and breathe the same way, inhaling and exhaling at the same time. Practice this for five to ten minutes. Now it is time to incorporate touch. Caress one another’s bodies and talk about what feels good. Maintain eye contact and move into foreplay. Make sure you still breathe in harmony. Go slowly and concentrate on the pleasure you are giving. Ask your partner to tell you what feels good, and do the same. Next, move into penetration. Go slowly. Make it sensual. Exercise mindfulness keeping yourself focused not on your own pleasure but on the moment and everything that’s happening. Keep it slow and remember to breathe deeply. The more you concentrate on your own breathing the longer you will last. Use your pelvic floor muscles to hold back your orgasm. If you believe you are about to climax, take a break. Relax. Change positions or tighten your muscles and breathe deeply. Then carry on. With practice, tantric sex can help couples become closer, increase pleasure and help you to last longer, all at once.

Fight Over ‘Female Viagra’ That’s Been Raging For Years Pits Scientists Against Feminists

A pharmaceutical company hoping to develop the female version of Viagra resubmitted its drug for the Food and Drug Administration’s review on Tuesday — representing the latest major development in a years long fight that has pitted scientists against feminists.

This week marks the third time that Sprout Pharmaceuticals has sought FDA approval of flibanserin, a drug that aims to address sexual dysfunction in women. As the Associated Press reports, Sprout’s fight to get its female libido drug on the market “illustrates the complicated politics and unresolved science surrounding women’s sexuality.”

According to a frequently-cited number from a 1999 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than 40 percent of U.S. women suffer from some type of sexual dissatisfaction. That’s what flibanserin wants to address. The medication is frequently referred to as the “little pink pill,” since it hopes to provide a female counterbalance to Viagra’s “little blue pill” that was first approved in 1998.

But FDA officials have so far declined to approve flibanserin for mass production because of concerns over its side effects, like levels of dizziness and drowsiness that could impair driving. Experts have also suggested that it isn’t effective enough to justify its potential risks. Critics, meanwhile, have accused the agency of gender bias, saying there are already more than 20 drugs on the market to treat male sexual dysfunction and the FDA’sreluctance to approve a drug for women suggests an implicit discomfortwith women taking control over their sexuality.

“We live in a culture that has historically discounted the importance of sexual pleasure and sexual desire for women,” Terry O’Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, told NPR this week. “And I fear that it’s that cultural attitude that men’s sexual health is extremely important, but women’s sexual health is not so important. That’s the cultural attitude that I want to be sure the FDA has not, maybe unconsciously, imported into its deliberative process.”

Last year, along with several women’s health nonprofit groups, Sprout Pharmaceuticals launched a high-profile advocacy campaign — Even the Score — to push back on FDA officials in explicitly feminist terms. O’Neill is one of the partners in that effort.

Even the Score has been circulating a petition declaring that “treatments for women’s sexual dysfunction seem to be held to a different standard for approval at the FDA.” Several U.S. lawmakers — including Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) — have added their voices to the criticism, writing a letter to the FDA urging the agency to use “careful review employing the same standards of consideration given to the approved drugs for men in your risk/benefit analysis.”

People on the other side of the issue disagree, saying that it’s unnecessary and potentially even irresponsible to market a drug that claims to help women who are struggling with low libidos. Some behavioral health experts argue that women’s sexuality is too complex to be regulated with a pill, and the pharmaceutical industry is more interested in its own profits than in finding real solutions to nuanced sexual health issues.

“There’s really been a move toward medicalizing normal human experience,” Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University professor who studies the influence of drug companies’ marketing practices on the medical profession, told NPR. “And while there are certainly some women who have very troublesome symptoms of low libido, it’s not at all clear that medication is a good answer for them.”

But proponents of the “pink pill” say that there’s been a concerted effort to downplay the number of women struggling with sexual dissatisfaction, even though there’s some evidence that it’s linked to issues with the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. According to a recent review of the research published in the Atlantic, several studies have found that women diagnosed with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) — women who have an “emotionally distressing” lack of arousal — have different brain activity, compared to the women who don’t have that disorder, when they’re shown sexually explicit images.

The FDA, which has been headed by a woman for the past six years, has repeatedly denied any gender bias in the agency’s decisions about flibanserin. It has also taken some steps to address the ongoing criticism in this area. This past fall, the FDA held a two-day conference dedicated to the issues standing in the way of a drug treatment for female sexual dysfunction.

But the debate isn’t likely to die down anytime soon. As part of its media push around the decision to resubmit flibanserin, officials at Sprout Pharmaceuticals have beenconnectingmembers of the media with women who say that they’re struggled with the consequences of sexual dysfunction, and desperately need their own version of Viagra.

“It’s got to be men making these decisions,” one of those women, Cara, who participated in a trial to test out flibanserin, told Marie Claire. “If it were women, this thing would’ve been on the market years ago.”

‘No research to link sex education to pornography’

2015-02-17

 There is no research linking sex education and pornography but “explicit” sex education could actually stimulate teenagers and excite them to know more, according to experts.

This is the opinion of psychologists following the statement made yesterday by PAS Ulama wing information chief Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali at-Takiri, who said the government’s plan to introduce sex education in secondary school next year would cause youths to watch pornography.

He proposed “Islamic sex education” and teaching of abstinence instead.

The PAS cleric made the comment after Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Karim’s said a new syllabus will be introduced for boys aged 16 years and above next year to increase awareness on reproductive and social health topics.

Universiti Putra Malaysia Social Science and Development senior lecturer, Dr Hanina Hamsan, said she was not aware of what the new syllabus looked like but she imagined it would be “visual”.

“We might actually stimulate them (teenagers) by showing them pictures and graphic examples,” she said. “At this age, teenagers’ biological and sexual functions are active, so teaching them sex education could make them more curious to know more and explore themselves.”

She said sex education could be implemented depending on the content of syllabus and the target groups.

“If it is teaching sexual health. then go ahead. However, if it is more towards sex, we have to be careful. Some teenagers from rural areas are naive about sex, so exposing them could spark their curiosity.”

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities senior lecturer and developmental psychologist, Dr Suzana Mohd Hoesni, echoed this view, saying “too explicit” sex education, such as in the United States – where students are shown how to put on a condom, could encourage teenagers to try it out.

“It depends on the context and how the syllabus will be taught,” she said.

However, sex education proponents and sexual health experts believe PAS’s statement is outright ludicrous.

“Why would he connect sex education with pornography?” Federation of Reproductive Health Association Malaysia programme services head Lim Hwei Mian said.

“Recently, an article stated Terengganu had the highest number of porn viewers in the country, so this goes on without proper sex education anyway.

“Therefore, what is the justification for making the statement?”

Lim said sex education teached young people about biology and reproductive health system, and empowering young girls to learn to say no, and not how to have sex.

“we need comprehensive sec education because we need to give young people the correct information.

“Then they will make the right decision and know the consequences of their actions,” she said.

Sex educator June Low asked Mohd Khairuddin to provide peer-reviewed evidence that teens will not watch porn if they are taught Islamic sex education. She also said abstinence-only sex education had been proven not to work time and time again.

Malaysian Association for Adolescent Health secretary Dr Kamarudin Ahmad believes sex education is important because if we did not teach proper sex education, teenagers will look for it elsewhere, such as through the Internet and peer groups, which are dangerous.

However, he said the ministry should consider starting sex education at an earlier age such as pre-school.

“If the ministry would go ahead with the new syllabus for teenagers, they should focus on the implementation and also train the teachers, so that the delivery will be effective.”

Female Libido Pill Fires Up Debate About Women And Sex

For 15 years, Carla Price and her husband’s sex life was great. But then things began to change.

“Before, I would want to have sex,” says Price, who is 50 and lives in central Missouri. “But over the years my sexual desire has just dwindled to nothing.”

Price has no idea why. She’s healthy. She’s not really stressed out about anything. And she’s still totally crazy about her husband.

“It’s not that our relationship got boring,” Price says. “Because it’s actually the opposite — we became closer as we got older together.”

But her lack of interest in sex almost wrecked their marriage.

“It did get to the point where my husband thought that perhaps we just needed to divorce,” she says.

Women like Price, who see their decreasing sex drive as a problem, are at the center of an intense, emotional debate that’s been raging for years over whether the Food and Drug Administration should approve the first drug that claims to boost a woman’s libido.

NPR reached Price through Sprout Pharmaceuticals Inc., the company that makes the drug.

“Men have a number of treatment options for sexual dysfunction, says Cindy Whitehead, Sprout’s CEO. “We haven’t yet gotten to one for women’s most common dysfunction.”

“Up until now,” she says, “the treatment paradigm for women with sexual dysfunction has essentially been: Let’s take a drug that works in men and let’s see if it works in women.”

None of them did. But Sprout’s drug, flibanserin, takes a totally different approach than, say, Viagra. Instead of increasing blood flow to the genitals, flibanserin affects a different part of the body: the brain.

Flibanserin shifts the balance of three key brain chemicals, Whitehead says. The drug, she says, increases “excitatory factors for sex” — dopamine and norepinephrine — and decreases serotonin, which can dampen the sex drive.

But there’s a lot of skepticism about flibanserin. The FDA has rejected it twice, saying there wasn’t much evidence it works. The agency also questioned the drug’s safety, especially with long-term, daily use.

“The combination of … not very robust effectiveness, and the fact that the safety profile had not been really characterized very well at all made us reach that conclusion, that it really wasn’t ready for approval,” says Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs.

The company acknowledges flibanserin can have side effects, including sleepiness, nausea and dizziness. And there are no results yet, Sprout says, on whether the drug might interfere with the helpful action of Zoloft, Prozac or other SSRI antidepressants, which are thought to work primarily by boosting levels of serotonin in the brain.

But Whitehead argues that flibanserin is safe and says the company’s studies show it can help many women.

“We increase their desire by 53 percent,” she says of study participants. “We decrease their distress by 29 percent, and then they doubled their number of satisfying sexual events.”

Whitehead argues the FDA is holding flibanserin to a higher standard than it uses to evaluate drugs for men. And some women’s rights advocates worry that might be true.

“We live in a culture that has historically discounted the importance of sexual pleasure and sexual desire for women,” says Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. “And I fear that it’s that cultural attitude that men’s sexual health is extremely important, but women’s sexual health is not so important. That’s the cultural attitude that I want to be sure the FDA has not, maybe unconsciously, imported into its deliberative process.”

The FDA denies any bias.

“We have taken those concerns very seriously and we think the accusation is truly misplaced,” Kweder says.

Many other women’s health advocates agree with the agency’s caution.

“It doesn’t seem to work very well, if at all, and it’s got some safety concerns that are troubling and haven’t been fully explored,” says Cindy Pearson of the National Women’s Health Network. “So we felt very comfortable saying to the FDA, ‘You know, women want attention, but they want drugs that work. And this doesn’t seem to be one of them.’ ”

Others argue that the campaign for flibanserin is oversimplifying female sexuality. And many women (and men) who experience a waning libido at midlife don’t see it as a problem.

“The misrepresentation that everybody should be having it — needs to have it, wants to have it, has a problem if they don’t have it — is to change, really, what sexuality isinto more of a medical thing,” says Leonore Tiefer, a psychologist at New York University. “I think that’s a terrible direction for knowledge, for understanding, for society.”

Some say Sprout’s campaign is part of a bigger trend by the pharmaceutical industry to turn everything into a disease that needs a pill.

“There’s really been a move toward medicalizing normal human experience,” saysAdriane Fugh-Berman, who studies drug companies at Georgetown University. “And while there are certainly some women who have very troublesome symptoms of low libido, it’s not at all clear that medication is a good answer for them.”

A low libido may be a symptom of fluctuating hormones or of some health problem that needs attention. Some women may just be in a bad relationship. For others, therapy might be the answer.

Carla Price says she would like to try flibanserin. Marriage counseling and a hormonal cream have helped, she says. But not enough.

“Even though it’s better, it’s not perfect,” she says. “I would gladly take risks of side effects to keep my marriage and my relationship.”

Sprout says the company plans to submit some new studies soon that it hopes will finally convince the FDA to approve the first drug to boost a woman’s libido.

Doctors’ assumptions on sex heighten lesbians’ cervical cancer risk: study

(Reuters) – Lesbians may be at higher risk of cervical cancer because they get fewer screenings than heterosexual women, due partly to doctors’ sometimes incorrect assumptions about their sexual history, University of Washington researchers said on Tuesday.

Although nearly all cases of cervical cancer are attributable to a human papillomavirus, or HPV, infection, healthcare providers often do not encourage lesbian patients to get regular HPV screenings, the researchers found.

That is because the disease is most commonly transmitted during heterosexual sex and doctors may wrongly assume lesbians have only had sex with other women, despite studies that have found most lesbians and their partners have had sex with men, researchers said.

A lack of testing can also occur at times because lesbians lack insurance or do not always have a need for pregnancy prevention checkups, or may not want to share their sexual orientation with doctors, the researchers said.

“If we are serious about reducing the rates of cervical cancer in lesbians, an unbiased health assessment by a provider must ask the question: ‘Do you have sex with men, women or both?'” University of Washington School of Nursing professor Joachim Voss said in a statement.

Voss and Lindsay Waterman, an adult nurse practitioner at the Seattle-based university, analyzed medical literature and studies, including Pap screen rates, between 2000 and 2013, published in last month’s Nurse Practitioner journal.

“Ob-gyns should provide the same comprehensive gynecologic health care to lesbians and bisexual women as they do to heterosexual women, including Pap tests,” the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said.

Researchers were unable to quantify the overall rates of cervical cancer among lesbians compared with heterosexual women because cancer patients are not typically asked their sexual orientation, Voss said.

Screening every three years can detect abnormal cervical cells and pre-cancerous lesions in women ages 21 to 65, but lesbians are screened at rates 5 percent to 18 percent lower than heterosexual women because of the perceived lack of risk exposure, the researchers said.

HPV can be transmitted between women partners through both skin-to-skin contact and contact with sex toys.

Nearly eight of every 100,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually, the researchers said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

How Your Relationship With Food Affects Your Sex Life

It goes way beyond eating aphrodisiacs.

 BY ANNIE DALY

Of course you know that there are certain aphrodisiacs that can help heat things up in bed. And then there are other foods that don’t exactly make you feel sexy (we’re looking at you, three pieces of cheesy pizza before bed). But what you may not know is that your sultry vibes don’t just stem fromwhat you eat—it stems from how you think about what you’re eating, too. We asked Alexandra Jamieson, author of the new book Women, Food, and Desire: Embrace Your Cravings, Make Peace With Food, and Reclaim Your Body, to explain how your relationship with food—not just the food itself—impacts your sex drive. And it turns out, there’s a way bigger connection than you may think.

Let’s start with this basic fact: How you think about food and how you think about sex are inextricably linked—and that’s because they both have to do with pleasure. And guess what? The pleasure link begins, not surprisingly, in your formative teenage years: “When girls are in their early teens, they start picking up on cultural cues that say they should be dieting, even though they already associate food with pleasure since they’ve been eating for their whole lives,” says Jamieson. “At the same time, young women alsostart becoming aware of the body’s ability for pleasure—but there can be a lot of shame around experiencing that physical pleasure for the first time.” So what happens is that the mixed messages around pleasure and shame become linked from an early age.

Sadly, you don’t “grow out of” the mixed messages as you age. The problem still stands with many women—and it’s rooted in the fact that they stillhave a love/hate relationship with food. “I work with a lot of women who are fighting a constant war with their bodies and with their cravings and have been since their teens,” says Jamieson. “They deprive themselves of calories as a way to feel good about themselves or because they think they should.”  But going back to the pleasure thing, deprivation keeps your body in a constant state of discomfort because you want to feel the pleasure but aren’t letting yourself. And when you feel discomfort with your body, you feel it everywhere, all the time—including in the bedroom. “If you don’t feel that your body deserves pleasure, then you’ll develop a disconnect with it in all areas—and you won’t be able to feel pleasure in the bedroom,” she says.

So what can you do to get over the pleasure disconnect so that you can start enjoying food and sex more?  Hint: This is not a free ride to give into all of your cravings and stuff yourself with cake to improve your sex life. There’s a healthier way to do it, and it’s a lot more nuanced. First, stop rushing your meals, and start savoring your food a lot more. “Smell it, feel it against your lips, inhale the aroma,” says Jamieson. “Slow down, and enjoy it. When your senses are fully present, you’ll feel more pleasure, and, thus, you’ll be sending a signal to your body that it deserves to feel good.” (Learn more about how to eat mindfully.)

Next up: Give in to your cravings with a friend, not alone. “Make a moment of it,” says Jamieson. “Many women give into their cravings in a guilty way, behind closed doors. They want chocolate but think it’s bad, so they just stuff it in their mouths to get it over with. You’re more likely to enjoy it if you’re with someone you love, and when you enjoy it more, you’re less likely to think that cravings are bad.” Then let the great sex commence!

Absurd and Awfully Funny Sex Advice to Steer Clear of

2015-02-03

The internet is a great resource for learning about everything, including human sexuality. That said, there is a lot of absurd and yet awfully funny sex advice to steer clear of and not just from women’s magazines. There are what are thought to be reputable resources that are male oriented and just as ridiculous. For instance, according to Maxim U.K., “Pop your chap in a jar of Nutella, then present it to your lady. Be rewarded with a very enthusiastic blowjob.” Certainly if you get any in the external urethral orifice, or the hole in the head of your penis, you’re going to be screaming in pain, not pleasure. The look on her face when you enter the bedroom in such a manner will be photo worthy, that’s for sure. This next one comes from Men’s Health, “After your workout, reinforce her rising T with a sweaty make-out session: male saliva has 10 to 15 times more testosterone than the female’s does… So prolonged French kissing may give a woman enough of a boost in testosterone to stimulate her interest chemically.” This fact about male saliva is true. But no woman on earth wants a sweaty make-out session. The first thing she’s thinking is “Get in the shower stinky man.” If you force it, the aversion and “ew” factor is enough to ensure you are settling down with a tub of lotion and some tissues for the evening.

Here’s another gem from Men’s Health, first get your hands on a string of her pearls, then “lightly lubricate the pearls and your penis. Have your partner wrap the pearls around the shaft and slowly stroke up and down with a gentle rotation.” What woman in her right mind is going to feel okay with you doing this to her good pearls? Furthermore, she’s probably going to be more worried about cleaning them then clearing your snorkel. Next, from Cheateau Heartiste, “Flirt with other women in front of her. Do not dissuade other women from flirting with you. Women will never admit this but jealousy excites them. The thought of you turning on another woman will arouse her sexually.” This is a good way to get yourself slapped, or have her walk out on you. It is woefully disrespectful to flirt with other women in front of her. Sure, some casual polite niceties are okay. And being attractive to others of the same sex is a turn on. But if she sees you flirting with other girls in front of her you’ll be stuck in the doghouse rather than in the penthouse with her.  From Men’s Health, “Make sure she knows how beautiful she is and how sexually skilled she is, especially if she isn’t — sexually skilled, that is.” Do not reinforce bad technique in bed. Be honest with her. If what she’s doing isn’t pleasing you gingerly steer her to what is. Or else you’ll be feeling frustrated and that will turn up in the bedroom. Whatever sex advice you are reading on the internet, remember to be skeptical, have a laugh if warranted and shag responsibly.

The Sauna Lowers your Sperm Count

Sometimes, nothing feels better than sitting in a hot sauna. It’s a great way to relax and unwind, gives one a sense of wellbeing and helps clear toxins, pathogens and impurities from the body. Some cultures naturally take to the sauna, particularly the Scandinavians such as the Swedes, Norwegians and Fins. In some places, it’s even a social affair. But if you like the sauna and you and your partner are trying to conceive, you may want to hold off. A new Finnish study finds that frequent sauna visits lower your sperm count, but only temporarily. Participants in their 30’s went to the sauna two times a week over three months, at 15-minute intervals apiece. Not only did these visits lower the men’s sperm counts, they remained low for three months afterward.Sperm returned to normal levels six months on. The reason the testicles descend from the body is that sperm is produced at a lower temperature. Those men who have undescended testicles naturally encounter fertility problems, as the testes are not kept at the proper temperature.

During visits to the sauna the men’s scrotal temperature increased by 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius). There is a difference between sperm count and overall fertility. Though this study proved that sauna visits lower sperm count, whether or not it affects overall male fertility is still at issue, experts say. Due to this, sauna visits are not a viable form of birth control. Heat exposure forces DNA to be packed into sperm cells differently. The mitochondria, which powers the cell is also affected. Therefore, men who are concerned about fertility should cease using the sauna, hot tub or taking hot baths. Sitting with a hot laptop in one’s lap for an extended period may also affect fertility, a previous study has found. Still, some experts believe that there isn’t enough evidence in this study to advise men without fertility problems to cease going. Only 10 men with fertility issues were utilized for this study. More research is needed, experts say.