Making Safe Sexual Choices

Many sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are out there, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV/AIDS. Considering that 15.3 million new cases of STDs are diagnosed each year, it is extremely important for you and your partner to protect yourselves.

Abstinence Is The Best Policy

The only 100 percent sure way to protect yourself is to not have sex. It only takes one sexual contact with someone who has an STD to catch it. Despite all the references to sex in the popular media, it is possible to be in a committed relationship and not have sex. You just have to decide that that is what you want and then make sure that your partner understands that you are serious about it.

Abstaining from sexual activity does not mean that you can't express your feelings for your partner, says Gail E. Wyatt, Ph.D., a noted psychologist, author, and professor at UCLA. Kissing on the mouth, ears, and neck can be loving, and even massages, dancing, and hugging can show your feelings.

"Sex is kissing, holding hands, and saying warm and tender things to each other, and cuddling," says Dr. Wyatt. "So, if that's what you want, just say to your partner, 'What I want is to be held, clear and simple.'"

SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, suggests, winding down at the end of a long day by exchanging foot rubs-it can be soothing and playful and can release muscle tension.

Monogamy

If you decide to be sexually active, the safest route is with a mutually faithful, uninfected partner. To be completely sure that both you and your partner are uninfected, you will have to be tested. It is not enough to "trust" your partner. It is important to wait until you are absolutely certain about your partner's health history. Your life may depend on it.

Make sure to receive treatment if an infection is diagnosed and talk to your doctor about steps you need to take to control the infection and to not infect others. Remember, only a doctor can tell whether or not someone is infected since some STDs don't have noticeable symptoms, so both of you have to get tested.

Condom Use Essential

If you are going to be sexually active, you should make condom use a habit. Using a condom is still considered the best way to protect you from HIV and many other STDs, but it is by no means foolproof...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Before You Get Married - Getting Your Marriage Off to a Healthy Start

Getting married is a special, exciting, and busy time that most women dream of from the time they are little girls. But there is more to getting married than flowers, dresses, and saying "I do." Before you marry the love of your life, you should have a few health checks to make sure that you are in tiptop shape health wise.

If you haven't already been having yearly Pap smears and GYN exams, now is a good time to schedule a visit with a gynecologist. You should have a Pap smear, and a complete pelvic exam to check for any abnormalities.

Genetic testing is sometimes desired before marriage for certain couples whose plans include the possibility of having children. Your health care providers are best able to help you and your spouse decide if genetic testing is necessary.

Some couples choose to be childless and may decide that they desire either tubal ligation or vasectomy, even before the marriage takes place. Other couples who have previously undergone permanent sterilization may wish to have either tubal ligation or vasectomy reversal.

Unless you and your future spouse are both virgins, now is an excellent time to be tested for HIV and other STDs. Even if you or your future spouse has had only one sexual experience, it is critical that these tests are performed. Undiagnosed sexually transmitted diseases such as pelvic inflammatory disease can have a devasting effect if pregnancy is part of your future plans...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Physical Sexual Side Effects of Medications

Research into the sexual side effects of prescription and over the counter (OTC) medication is still a relatively new phenomenon. For years drug developers ignored sexual side effects as this was a topic patients and physicians rarely discussed. Now that sex is (somewhat) more out in the open the sexual side effects of prescription and OTC medication is commanding more attention.
Medication can have sexual side effects that change the way our bodies function sexually, the ways we feel sexual, as well as how we think about sex and our sexual moods. The most apparent and commonly talked about side effects are the actual physical changes in our sexual functioning as a result of taking medication. This makes sense since physical changes in the body are most easily observed and documented.

Here is a description of the most common, and some of the lesser known physical sexual side effects of different medications.

Changes in Erectile Function:

The process of getting an erection involves several systems in the body working together, and prescription and OTC medications can impact erections in many ways, including:

-Erections that are not as firm as they used to be
-Inability to get erections at all
-Having erections that won’t go away
Changes in Lubrication:

Vaginal lubrication occurs as a result of both physiological and psychological responses. Lubrication is tied to hormones and desire, and medications can impact lubrication in two ways:
-Medications decrease vaginal lubrication. This can make penetration painful, as well as possibly increase the chances of bacterial infections, which will in turn make penetration and possibly other kinds of sex play difficult or painful to engage in...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Women With G-Spot Can Experience Orgasm

Italian expert claims there is a G-spot in women who experience vaginal orgasm, and the G-spot is easy to find with ultrasound.

Italian expert Dr Emmanuele Jannini of University of L'Aquila examined 20 women. 9 of them said they experience orgasm, 11 of them don’t. The women were tested with ultrasound and were found to have different vaginal structure.

G-spot - Grafenberg spot - is a part of vaginal upper wall giving sense of orgasm. This tissue is located between vagina and urethra. The idea of G-spot exists from 1980s, but no research could clearly describe what it is.

The ultrasound showed that this part of tissue was found to be thicker in those experiencing orgasm. According to the finding, G-spot is sexually sensitive and causes orgasm while vaginal simulation.

Dr Jannini said: "For the first time, it is possible to determine by a simple, rapid and inexpensive method if a woman has got a G spot or not."...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

The anti-herpes drug acyclovir did not reduce the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted HIV when given to men and women infected with herpes simplex

The anti-herpes drug acyclovir did not reduce the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted HIV when given to men and women infected with herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), according to a recently concluded clinical trial funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Multiple studies indicate that people infected with HSV-2 are at increased risk of acquiring HIV. These findings dampen researcher speculation that the use of acyclovir, a safe and widely used herpes drug, could reduce HIV transmission by suppressing HSV-2 and preventing genital sores and breaks in the skin.

Results from the Phase III clinical study, which was conducted by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), were presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston. The study, known as HPTN 039, is the largest clinical study ever conducted to examine herpes suppression as a possible means of reducing the risk of HIV transmission.

"Although HPTN 039 did not yield a successful result with regard to herpes suppression as a possible tool for HIV prevention, the concept of treating and preventing sexually transmitted infections as a possible tool in HIV prevention remains an important one," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "We will continue to work to understand how HSV-2 and other sexually transmitted infections increase the risk of HIV infection, and to develop new interventions that might play a role in HIV prevention."

HSV-2, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) worldwide, is especially prevalent in areas with high rates of HIV infection. Most people who are infected with HSV-2 do not know they have the virus because symptoms can be mild or nonexistent. Some infected individuals have recurring sores and breaks in the skin of the genital region, which can make it easier for these individuals to acquire HIV...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Sexual Activity and Satisfaction Ensure Marital Satisfaction

One of the facts of life which everyone believes and admits that personal sexual satisfaction, frequency of sex and sexual activities, and the sexual interest and satisfaction of one's spouse has a great deal to do with marital satisfaction. In fact, sex is so important to marital satisfaction that sexual inactivity maybe a sign that there are other problems within the marriage. It is even suggested by some researcher that marriage is a good predictor of sexual activity and an indirect predictor of sexual satisfaction in elderly women.

It is found that within the couples over the first two years of marriage, the wives sexual interest was related to the husband's satisfaction, but that sexual affection as a whole was unrelated to either spouse's marital satisfaction. But as time passes on, this theory doesn’t persist, as with age or in the later years of marriage the husband’s sexual interest is related to the wives sexual satisfaction. And if a man is not in a position to give the satisfaction to his partner, then many a times it seems that it leads to problems in there marriage.

Marital happiness and shared activity are inversely correlated with probability of separation and sexual inactivity...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Sex and Schizophrenia

Many males with schizophrenia can tell you that the "swinging life of a bachelor" is not all it's cracked up to be. I have one friend about age 40 who had never had a girlfriend until a few years ago. He developed schizophrenia in high school, and never had the opportunity to catch up with his peers. He's 40 years old and still a virgin. Males with schizophrenia don't often get married, although I've never seen any analysis as to why not. Even when all the barriers are considered, poverty, social isolation, continuing negative and cognitive symptoms, non-employment, etc. you would still expect some marriage. Sexuality per se was never considered of any significance in psychosocial rehabilitation, never discussed at conferences, never discussed in psychiatrist offices, until quite recently. The only interest taken in patients' sexuality has been when it was socially inappropriate, criminal, or resulted in victimization of the patient.

There was no doubt conventional medications were having a major impact on people's sexuality. One prominent side effect of many medications is prolactin level increases. Prolactin elevation has a variety of sexual impacts in both male and females, none of them very desirable, although some women might not mind losing their menstrual periods. Sexual side effects just weren't considered important compared to the need to control psychotic symptoms.

With the introduction of atypical medication researchers are only now starting to investigate sexuality and it's importance to patients. Some researchers are finding that sexual side effects are a major reason for noncompliance. People would rather be psychotic than impotent. These researchers are finding that psychiatrists almost never initiate discussion of sexuality with patients, and patients are often too embarrassed to raise the subject themselves. Patients become noncompliant, relapse, and are rehospitalized, and the psychiatrist has no idea why. If anything the tendency would be to raise the dose of the medication in belief that an adjustment is needed.

There is an interesting debate going on now between Janssen which produces Risperidone and Eli Lilly which produces Olanzapine. Risperidone has a tendency to raise prolactin levels which causes considerable sexual side effects. Olanzapine has a tendency to cause weight gain sometimes quite a lot of weight. Each company is hoping that psychiatrists will see their rival's side effect as the greater evil. Which would you rather lose?

Although there is a beginning interest in sexuality as a component of patient satisfaction, it is only just beginning, and it is not entirely pure in intent. On the new atypicals, women are ovulating again and having unwanted pregnancies because no one is discussing birth control with them...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

The Unseen Can Be Harmful

A recent article in InteliHealth reported that up to 6 percent of 5,734 young women had signs of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) we rarely consider. That STD is genital warts. It is caused by a virus called Human Papilloma virus. There are over 70 different strains of this virus that can infect humans. Once a person is infected by a Human Papilloma Virus the infection is lifelong. Even if you no longer have any visible warts the virus stays with you.

We rarely think of genital warts as important because we don't consider these cauliflower-like skin lesions to be a long-term problem. If the warts get to be too big we can just have them removed. Unfortunately, the more dangerous Human Papilloma virus strains do not produce any warts in humans. In fact, women infected by these Human Papilloma virus strains can develop cervical cancer. Over 90 percent of all cervical cancers are due to this viral infection. The majority of women with cervical cancer do not even remember having a genital wart...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Impotence & Depression

Do you love you partner and some times want to become intimate with her? Think of the situation in which she wants intimately you and you are unable to satisfy her for one reason or other. What will be the reaction from her? Will your relation with her continue? Remember that there is no platonic love in this materialistic world. Instead, it is the world of a give and take relation.

If the situation recurs always or frequently with you then consult a doctor to check whether you have become impotent.

Impotence is, generally, the occurrence of repeated inability to get or keep an erection firm enough for sexual intercourse. This is also called Erectile Dysfunction. However, in a broader sense, Impotence term is used also for other problems related to sexual intercourse and reproduction.

One’s sexual health is affected due to impotence which results in dissatisfaction of the sexual partner which brings depression to the man.

So, to make one’s sexual life happy and peaceful, one should have a sound sexual health.

By sexual health we mean good sexual capability. Also to be sexually healthy, the body and mind should be free from any defect / inability in respect of any kind of sexual activity. Men’s health is complete with sound condition of body and mind as well as sound sexual health.

A Person with sound sexual and general health makes his and his partner’s sex life happy and energetic. They are never struck by depression at least due to sexual reasons.
In contrary, an impotent person can not be sexually healthy and can not lead a ha

ppy sex life. Depression strikes him as well as his partner...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/

Premature Ejaculation: A Sexual Generated Problem

Premature ejaculation is a sexual problem on account of which the male sexual partner experiences very rapid ejaculation. Premature ejaculation is found to be very much common among the male generation and who are below the age of 40 years. Every male at least once in their life time experiences premature ejaculation .Premature ejaculation means the ejaculation which occurs before the wish of both the sexual co-partners. Premature ejaculation enables the male sexual partner to reach the sexual climax within a very short span of time.

Premature ejaculation may be either primary or secondary depending upon its outcome. Primary condition implies that the sexual partner experiences premature ejaculation once when they became capable of performing sex with the attainment of the puberty stage. On the other hand, secondary factor of premature ejaculation is experienced when an individual has reached a matured stage of their life. During premature ejaculation, the male organs which are involved are basically the reproductive tract which consists of the penis, the testicles, the prostrate, the seminal vesicles etc.

Premature ejaculation when it is infrequently experienced, there is no necessary of concern but when it gets frequent in necessitates some medical advice and also medical treatments. Premature ejaculation may thus be considered as a sexual dysfunction...click here to continue reading

Source: http://articles.lapox.com/