Risk Factors for Safer Sex
A recent article detailing the risk factors for oral sex brings up a number of interesting points. Foremost among them is that oral-genital (or oral-anal) sex is, by nearly all accounts, safer than genital-gental sex.
As is noted by the article, such infections as HIV and Chlamydia have little evidence of transmission through the oral-genital route. This may come off as encouraging at first, but the fact remains that oral-genital contact has risks. Condoms, dental dams and techniques such as not ejaculating into the mouth are important to consider when weighing the risks of your behaviour.
Some of the infections, such as Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea, while undesirable, are at least treatable. Others, however, are not. Herpes and HPV have no cure, and each one has its own scary potential repercussion (Alzheimer’s and cancer respectively).
My recommendation is still to ensure that as many risks as possible are mitigated while still being able to have fun!
Safer Sex In A Pill? Don’t Count On It!
New Scientist is reporting that a doctor in the US is prescribing pre-exposure prophylactic medications which prevent HIV infections in, as reported, about two-thirds of cases. There have been no significant studies that have concluded that such measures, known as PrEP, have any measurable effect. Studies are underway, however.
About five paragraphs in to the article is where we get to me. I would fall under the category of a critic. Not because I don’t believe that it’s a good idea, necessary. Because, as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
My issue with the process is just exactly as outlined in the New Scientist article. I fear that this will give the users a false sense of security and, therefore, they’ll be more likely to take risks. This is referred to as risk compensation and studies have been performed on drivers that show that the safer that cars become technically the more wrecklessly drivers drive them.
Obviously it’s up to the individual to not allow themselves to fall into a pattern of risky behaviour, but the fact remains that there is a chance - a likelihood, even - that general levels of risk will increase if one thinks they’re better protected.
All things considered this has the potential to be a beneficial new therapy (in the abesnce of a vaccine).
Dominatrix mounting constitutional challenge says sex is safest indoors
1 day ago
TORONTO — A woman calling herself Canada’s most famous dominatrix says the best years of her life were spent spanking and tying up clients in her north Toronto bondage hotel.
Terri-Jean Bedford, whose infamous “bondage bungalow” in Thornhill was raided in 1994, laid out her life story for federal and provincial Crown attorneys Friday as an example of why prostitution should be decriminalized.
“The safest and happiest period in my life was when I was up in Thornhill, running the (bondage) service from my house,” she said.
“I just want them to know that indoors is much safe from outdoors, from my own experiences.”
Source: Canadian Press
Canada issues warning about unlicensed sex drugs
Fri May 23, 2008 12:50pm EDT
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadians should avoid unlicensed drugs that claim to improve sexual performance because they could cause problems such as loss of consciousness, prolonged erections and chest pain, the health ministry said on Friday.
Health Canada issued the warning in a release about a product called Desire, which was found to contain the prescription drug phentolamine — something not indicated on the label.
“Health Canada advises consumers not to use Desire or any other unauthorized products promoted to increase sexual performance that are advertised as ‘all natural’, as such products may contain undeclared prescription drugs that may pose serious risks to health,” it said in a statement.
Phentolamine is used in the prevention and control of high blood pressure in patients with adrenal tumors.
Source: Reuters
Canadian pierces lover’s heart in botched sex game
Fri May 16, 2008 10:20am EDT
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian man who asked his lover to carve a heart-shaped symbol on his chest during a rough sex game almost died when she accidentally pressed too hard and punctured his heart, a newspaper said on Thursday.
The Winnipeg Free Press said the 25-year-old woman had been sentenced to three years’ probation after she pleaded guilty to assaulting the man in February 2007.
Source: Reuters
Icelandic museum offers long and short of male organ
Thu May 15, 2008 12:06pm EDT
By Bob Strong
HUSAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Sigurdur Hjartarson is missing a human penis. But he’s not worried: four men have promised to donate theirs to him when they die.
Hjartarson is founder and owner of the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which offers visitors from around the world a close-up look at the long and the short of the male reproductive organ.
His collection, which began in 1974 with a single bull’s penis that looked something like a riding crop, now boasts 261 preserved members from 90 species.
Source: Reuters
Masturbation May Prevent Prostate Cancer
April 18, 2008
Frequent masturbation may help men cut their risk of contracting prostate cancer, Australian researchers have found. It is believed that carcinogens may build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly, BBC News reported on Wednesday. The researchers surveyed more than 1,000 men who had developed prostate cancer, and 1,250 men who had not. They found that men who had ejaculated the most between the ages of 20 and 50 were the least likely to get cancer. Men who ejaculated more than five times each week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Source: Advocate
Forget Tantra. My mantra is ‘13 minutes or less’
From The Times
April 14, 2008
Whenever I read one of those ‘We made love all night long!’ kiss’n'tell scoops, the logistics of it terrify me
Caitlin Moran
Big news from what we could refer to as “the sexual realm”. Despite decades of insistence that all the best sex lasts 15 hours, spans a minimum of nine positions and has both parties hammering dementedly away at each other’s nether regions like a pair of autistic woodpeckers, it seems the truth is a little different. Well, totally different. According to a poll of 50 sex therapists, the most desirable sex lasts, in actual fact, mere minutes. Between 3 and 13, optimally. Or, to break it down another way, a span somewhere between Penny Lane and the second half of an episode of My Family. The time it takes to get from Finchley Road to Wembley Park. Barely enough time to toast a muffin.
It should be made clear that, apparently, this paradigmatic shag snack does not include foreplay. Nor does it include the enigmatically named “afterplay” - something that, presumably, in some manner of sexual paradise, would consist of snuggling, reverential caressing and pleasingly stupefied recitation of love poetry, but which, in actuality, comprises three minutes of lying flat on your back, going “Arrrr, that was smashing”, then a sleepy exchange vis-à-vis the location of the cat, and whether the central heating has been left on or not.
No, it doesn’t include any of that. None of it. This 3-to-13-minutes statistic is devoted purely to the central, core, essential, elemental, no-frills act of jiggy-jiggy. And, I for one, am greatly cheered by the whole thing. I am hugely in favour of the “capsule poke”, as we could perhaps start referring to it. I dislike shilly-shallying in all matters, and see no reason to make an exception when it comes to extreme rudeness. From a health and safety standpoint alone, there are huge problems with a lengthy rut. We are, after all, dealing with fairly fragile areas of the human body here. Frankly, I find the concept of these night-long marathons baffling. Whenever I read one of those News of the World “We made love all night long” kiss’n'tell scoops, the logistics of it terrify me. Loving all night long would, surely, be equivalent to rubbing the tip of your nose between two pork chops for 19 hours. Essentially, it’s an abrasive act. I can’t see how you wouldn’t injure yourself terribly.
Source: Times Online
Why We Fantasize: The Science of Sex
By: Brie Cadman
If you want to enliven your next dinner party, bring out this question: what was the subject of your last sexual fantasy?
Forks and jaws might drop, but only because almost everyone in attendance will be recreating the scene last played in their head, or claiming that they don’t fantasize, or claiming to only fantasize about their partner. However, chances are everyone at the table (assuming you’re not dining at a senior center) has erotic and illicit fantasies, and does so on a normal basis. But rarely, if ever, do we want to talk about it.
Source: DivineCaroline
1 out of 4 teen girls has an STD, study finds
By LINDSEY TANNER – Mar 11, 2008
CHICAGO (AP) — At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease, suggests a first-of-its-kind federal study that startled some adolescent-health experts.
Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens’ own sense of invulnerabilty. Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention.
Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases.
Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing — 40 percent had an STD.
Source: Associated Press