Friends Protect Friends from Having Risky Sex After Drinking
College students use a number of strategies to prevent their female friends from engaging in risky sexual behavior after a night of heavy drinking, new research suggests.
Researchers interviewed 141 U.S. college students and found that three-quarters of them said they would persuade a female friend not to go home with a new male acquaintance or that they would make sure she arrived home safely.
The participants listed three ways they would attempt to ensure the safety of a female friend:
- They would remind their friend about the potential negative social and health consequences, such as getting pregnant, developing a bad reputation, and regretting their decision the next day.
- They would distract or trick their friend by taking them to get food, or putting them in a cab to go home.
- They would directly confront their friend, telling them that they need to leave, or if necessary, physically removing them from the situation.
But the likelihood of students taking these actions depend on how well they know the female friend and the male acquaintance. Students are more likely to step in and protect a friend in what they deem a risky situation, but are more willing to let a female friend go home with a male acquaintance if both they and their friends know him.
“Our research suggests that the claim that college students routinely engage in risky sexual behavior while intoxicated may be exaggerated,” Linda C. Lederman, a professor of communication at Arizona State University, said in a university news release.
The study was published in the July issue of the journal Communication Education.
SOURCE: http://news.health.com/2010/08/30/friends-dont-let-friends-have-risky-sex-after-drinking/#more-38277
New Bollywood film-makers shift focus to rural India
The grit and grime of rural India, its people and problems are all finding their way into the glamorous world of mainstream Bollywood films.
Made on smaller budgets than an average Bollywood film and shorn of big stars, some movies are exploring themes such as farmer suicides and sexual attitudes in rural India, something rare in an industry dominated by soppy romances or family dramas.
“Peepli (Live)”, a satirical look at the growing problem of farmer suicides in rural India, has done well at the box-office and got rave reviews since its release two weeks ago.
Farmer suicides are common in rural India, where poor infrastructure and debilitating loans cause a huge burden on farmers. Some 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in the country since 1997.
“Rural India may not be very pretty on screen but it does have a lot of stories to tell, and those are finally being seen on screen.”
“Love Sex, aur Dhokha” (Love, Sex and Betrayal) is another film that explores sexual attitudes in small-town India.
The film interweaves three storylines — a student who falls in love with his film’s lead actress, a shop manager who traps an employee in an MMS scandal and a sting operation on a rock star.
Most of these films are made on budgets of less than half the budget of a normal Hindi film, which could go upto 250 million rupees.
One of India’s most promising film-makers, Anurag Kashyap produced “Udaan”, a coming of age tale set in small-town India, which was an official entry at the Cannes film festival this year and opened to rave reviews in India.
The film chronicles the journey of a teenager forced to return to his small-town home and a tyrannical father after he is expelled from boarding school in a bid to capture the small-town mindset on education and parenting.
(Source and complete story : http://in.reuters.com/article/idINSGE68205W20100903)
Wife’s bad breath turns him off!
wife has breathing problem, always bad smell by birth problem. and she is very thin.
Am not getting interest in sex with her. Sex is not satisfactory.
Request you to please advise this.
A:
Everybody has had bad breath from time to time.
Particularly after a long sleep. That’s because you close your mouth while you are asleep. The mouth harbors millions of bacteria, some of which cherish the environment within the closed mouth and grow in abundance. Saliva – the cleansing agent is minimal during your sleep. This is one important reason why your breath smells bad soon after you wake up from a good dose of sleep. Solution? Brush your teeth, floss your tongue and there are you go! Like a Close-Up toothpaste boy grinning with teeth against teeth of the lovely neighborhood girl.
Agreed, this is a day to day phenomenon. But all is not as well with some. They keep you at distance all the time with just their breath. I know it could be very frustrating if this other person is your wife (or husband) with whom you look forward to getting closest possible.
Bad breath has several causes:
- The commonest is bad oral hygiene; bad eating habits like not chewing well, taking less water
- Taking alcohol; smoking; excessive consumption of tea and coffee.
- Eating foods like garlic and onions.
- Consuming certain prescription drugs
- Dental problems; gum disease
- Respiratory infections; inflammation of tonsils
- Sinus disease, polyps in the nose
- Bowel problems
- Gastric ulcers and other gastrointestinal diseases
and so on. In the case of your wife, a dentist will be able to identify if there are any problems with her oral hygiene and suggest suitable remedies.
At home your wife (everyone for that matter) should start on a better oral hygiene: Ex.,
- Brush your teeth, tongue, roof of your mouth, and gums at least twice a day with toothpaste.
- Floss your teeth once each day.
- Every time you finish eating something, remember to gargle well with water and keep your mouth fresh.
- Take meals at regular intervals. Do not starve. Avoid dieting unless medically advised. Starving can cause bad breath.
- While taking food, chew well. Drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration.
- Consume medicines only when absolutely necessary.
- Avoid substances causing bad breath, like garlic, alcohol, tobacco
- For temporary relief use mouth washes.
- Have regular dental checks.
- Arrange to meet a ENT specialist, if all else fails, or if throat or lung infection is suspected.
When the bad breath is gone, your sexual interest in her should return. Instead of shunning contact with her, try to help her solve this small problem.
A medical check up and consultation with a nutritionist will help sort out why your wife is very thin and if she could put on some weight.
Does Genital Herpes progress to HIV?
Recently I have contracted urinary infection. I consulted a dermatologist, who after doing many tests told me I am suffering from Herpies. I was shocked. Now I am taking acyclovir tablets and cream.
But even after completing the course, I am still suffering same problem. Not only this problem but I am also worried that Herpeis might turn into HIV. AT present the HIV test shows that I am negative for HIV I & II. HSV I IgG and IgM within normal limits. HSV IgG and IgG far above normal limits. HCV and VDRL are negative. Please advise.
A:
In the first place I do not have clear information about your urinary infection. When you say you are suffering from the same problem, do you mean herpes or urine infection. Anyways, your tests indicate that, as at the time of testing, you do not have HIV infection (Type I and II), you do not have evidence of hepatitis C, You do not have the herpes virus type I that causes cold sores (for ex. in the mouth), no evidence of syphilis. So far so good. What you have are antibodies for type II HSV which causes genital herpes. You have not indicated whether you have had any sores on the penis or neighborhood. If you have never had herpes sores on the penis, it is possible that you might be harboring the virus but may have not developed clinical symptoms.
First of all, be assured that Herpes infection of the genitals will not progress into anything else. Herpres is Herpes. That’s it. It will not transform into HIV infection. Simply because these are caused by two unrelated viruses.
Herpes infection of the genitals, if caught, will stay for a very long time in the body. Now and then it surfaces near the moist areas of the genitals and erupts into sores. After a week or so they they disappear whether or not you take any medicine. Usually the recur 3-6 times a year and this will continue for several years. If you take medication (which are taking tight now), the sores will appear less frequently and therefore bother you less.
The best thing about genital herpes is that it is not life threatening. It does not cause serious harm to you. So, do not panic. At the same time do not neglect it either. Whenever you have sexual intercourse, watch out for any signs of eruptions on your penis or nearby. If you see any sores, or a tiny pimple, red spot , or suspect anything that catches your attention, use condom to avoid passing it on to your partner. Do not go in for oral sex. And if you are wife is pregnant or if you are trying for a child, you need to discuss the herpes infection with your doc so that (s)he will initiate precautions to prevent your child from getting herpes.
Nowadays better medicines have come up. Why don’t you check with an STD specialist.
Visit CDC website for more information on Herpes.
Male contraceptive pill, at last?
Has the time come for well-meaning men to share the responsibility of birth control, at last?
Israel scientists claim so. They developed the male pill, whose action, refreshingly, is non-hormonal. The new pill plays its role by jamming the biochemical machinery of sperm – in fact, by removing a vital protein in the sperm that’s required to fertilize the egg.
And, the scientists behind the breakthrough say the pills only needs to be taken once every three months and it’s 100 per cent effective at stopping pregnancy and has no side effects.
Lead scientist Haim Breitbart of Bar-Ilan University was quoted by the British tabloid – Daily Express, as saying, “The pill we are developing gives men the joy of sex without any consequences.”
Until now attempts at a “male pill” have not seen much success. Contraceptive hormone injections for men were reported to have side effects like depression, loss of libido.
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Swingers beware!
June 24: A Dutch study has found that swingers — heterosexual adults who engage in partner swapping or attend sex clubs for couples — have rates of sexually transmitted diseases comparable to teenagers and gay or bisexual men, both considered high-risk groups for catching herpes, HIV and chlamydia, among other infections.
“In our clinical practice and field work, we started to note that there were several persons who called themselves swingers, who seemed to have STDs more often than other heterosexuals,” noted study co-author Anne-Marie Niekamp of the South Limburg Public Health Service in Geleen, The Netherlands. “Any scientific data on the topic appeared not available. Swingers seemed to be not only a hidden population in society but also in science and health care.”
The study is published online June 23 in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Researchers collected data on nearly 9,000 patient visits at three sexual health/STD clinics in 2007 and 2008. About one in nine, or 12 percent, reported being a swinger. Their average age was 43.
About 55 percent of all diagnoses of chlamydia and gonorrhea were identified in swingers, compared to about 31 percent in gay men. Overall, one in 10 swingers had chlamydia while about one in 20 tested positive for gonorrhea.
Swingers over the age of 45 had higher rates of STDs than swingers under 45, according to the study.
About 10.4 percent of male swingers over age 45 had chlamydia and/or gonorrhea, compared to only 2.4 percent of other male heterosexuals. The rate of chlamydia among gay or bisexual men was 14.6 percent.
For women swingers over 45, nearly 18 percent had chlamydia, compared to 4 percent of other heterosexual women and less than 3 percent of prostitutes.
Other STDs, such as syphilis, HIV and hepatitis B, were not measured because of the low incidence overall, according to the study.
Dr. H. Hunter Handsfield, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD, said it stands to reason that swingers may be at higher risk of STDs than other groups, and it’s not just because of the sheer number of sex partners. Concurrent sex partners, or having sexual contact with more than one person at a time or in rapid succession, promotes the spread of STDs, Handsfield said.
That’s because a person can become infected and spread the disease before they realize they have it or before they can seek treatment, Handsfield said.
But the findings from a group of patients seen at one STD clinic don’t necessarily apply to the general population, he added. That’s because people would likely go to an STD clinic because they are symptomatic or worried they’ve contracted an STD, Handsfield pointed out.
Also unknown is how many couples out there are swingin’. Swingers Date Club, a dating site for swingers, estimates there are millions worldwide; some 30,000 people in The Netherlands have posted online profiles, according to background information in the article.
Many swingers, it would seem, are not practicing safe sex, said Dr. Cynthia Krause, assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. That’s suggested by the fact that the chlamydia and gonorrhea rate among female swingers was six times higher than that of prostitutes, she noted.
“Maybe they are not using condoms and the prostitutes are,” Krause said.
Condoms are very effective in preventing STDs spread by bodily fluids, especially chlamydia, gonorrrhea and HIV, Krause said. They are less effective in preventing infections that are spread through skin to skin contact, such as human papilloma virus (HPV, linked to genital warts and cervical cancer) and herpes, she added.
“The study suggests there may be a lot more people engaging in this behavior than we are aware of, and they seem to be an at-risk group for STDs,” Krause said. “It may be a good idea to try to identify how large a population this really is in the U.S. and other countries and target them if they are at such high risk.”
Source: http://news.health.com/2010/06/24/aging-swingers-at-high-std-risk/#more-36809
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FDA’s panel rejects ‘Female Viagra’
Flibanserin – the ‘pink pill’ purported to be a remedy for the low sexual desire of millions of women fails to convince the Food and Drug Administration. The panel of reproductive advisers felt that the two studies conducted by the promoter Boehringer Ingelheim did not outweigh side effects, including fatigue, depression and fainting.
Drug treatment to boost women’s sex drive remains elusive after a decade of searching by some of the world’s biggest drugmakers.
The proposed drug Flibanserin is originally studied for curbing depression antidepressant , but the resaercher’s interest towards its libido-boosting properties after some women reporting unusually high levels of sexual satisfaction, following the use of the pink pill.
Flibanserin works on serotonin and other brain chemicals, but the exact mechanism by which it boosts libido remains to be understood.
A panelist Paula Hillard, a gynecologist from Stanford University School of Medicine, says: “… women’s sexual health is important and … many women suffer from sexual dysfunction, but I’m not convinced of a clinically meaningful benefit for this drug”.
The FDA will make its own decision on the drug in coming months, though it usually follows the advice of its panelists.
The attempt to trigger sexual interest through brain chemistry is the drug industry’s latest approach to find a female equivalent to the blockbuster success of Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra.
Since Viagra’s 1998 launch, more than two dozen experimental therapies have been studied for so-called “female sexual dysfunction,” a market worth an estimated $2 billion.
Initially, Pfizer tested Viagra on women, hoping that the drug’s ability to increase blood flow to the genitals would increase libido. When that didn’t work, drugmakers turned to hormones, including testosterone.
In 2004, an FDA panel rejected Procter & Gamble’s testosterone patch, Intrinsa, due to unknown risks from long-term use. Two years earlier a massive government study found that hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women increased heart disease and breast cancer, raising concerns about the safety of all hormones.
(courtesy MSN.com)
Read full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37786581/ns/health-sexual_health
Teen pregnancy trends alarming!
More Than 40% of U.S. Teens Have Had Sex
June 2, 2010: More than 40 percent of unmarried U.S. teenagers — or 4.3 million teen males and females — have had sex at least once, according to the report by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.
.These figures reflect a flattening trend of teen pregnancies seen since 2002 and capping of downward trend witnessed between 1995 and 2002.
“One of the great success stories of the past two decades has been the extraordinary declines in teen pregnancy and childbearing,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. “This progress has recently stalled out.”
What is quite alarming is that 1 in 5 teen girls and 1 in 4 teen boys who had had sex said they would be pleased if they or their partner got pregnant.
The study, which analyzed data from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth, also found that
· about one-quarter of female teens and 29 percent of males reported two or more sexual partners, the same as 2002. Females who started having sex when they were younger were more likely to accumulate more partners.
· While most teens had not had intercourse in the month before being asked about this (76 percent of females and 79 percent of males, the same as 2002), 12 percent of females and 10 percent of males reported having sex in the prior month.
· The majority of teens had used some form of contraception during their first intercourse: 79 percent of females and 87 percent of males. And condom use is on the rise. As in 2002, it ranked as the most common form of birth control and was used at least once by 95 percent of teens.
· The next favored form of birth control was withdrawal (58 percent), then the pill (55 percent).
· Seventeen percent of teens said they had used the rhythm method, as compared to 11 percent in 2002.
· Seventy-one percent of female teens in 2006-2008 “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that “it is OK for an unmarried female to have a child,” about the same proportion as 2002. But now 64 percent of males agreed with the statement, up from 50 percent in 2002.
· Fourteen percent of females and 18 percent of males interviewed said they would be “a little pleased” or “very pleased” if they or their partner got pregnant. On the flip side, 58 percent of never-married female teens and 47 percent of males said they would be “very upset” if this happened, pointing to the importance of motivation in not getting pregnant.
“With nearly half of all teenagers stating that they are sexually active, we cannot afford to keep our heads in the sand about ensuring that our young people have access to comprehensive sex education,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “While it’s encouraging to hear that a majority of them are using some form of birth control, many of the attitudes revealed in this report tell us that there is plenty of room for more comprehensive sex education that includes information about abstinence, contraception, healthy relationships, and responsible decision-making.”
The full report is available at National Center for Health Statistics, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source: http://news.health.com/2010/06/02/more-than-40-of-u-s-teens-have-had-sex/#more-36058