Tag: Sex Studies

A Random Thought Saturday

I have returned to the normal FYI stuff for the weekend…..I apologize for the momentary lapse but it was news that needed reporting.

I attempt to find some interesting stuff to write about on weekends for my readers have had enough politics and news for at least a couple of days.

SEX!

I read an article that stated that we were in a “sex recession”……

Sex is like sleep or protein: people freak out if they’re getting too much, and they freak out if they’re getting too little. So it comes as little surprise that when a news story emerges that hints at the latter possibility, it’s guaranteed to go viral. Such was the case earlier today with a report from CBS News focusing on Japan’s “sex recession,” or the idea that Japanese millennials aren’t having sex, which comes with the ominous warning that America may — gasp! — be next.

The CBS News story appears to be pegged to Japan’s National Fertility Survey, which found that one in every 10 men in their 30s have never had sex before — a fairly high number compared to that of other industrialized nations. Experts quoted in the story blame the rising virginity rates on a fairly wide range of factors, from rising national financial instability to the advent of apps offering digital companionship. Whatever the cause, such statistics, in combination with Japan’s extremely low fertility rate, has prompted panic among public health researchers and demographic experts in the country, who predict that Japan’s population will be halved if the trend continues over the next 100 years. The story ends on the ominous note that “this problem isn’t unique to” Japan, and that the United States “could be next.” But is that actually true, and is the so-called Japanese “sex recession” going global?

Are We In the Throes of a Global ‘Sex Recession’? Eh

It sucks to be in Japan these days….and then the article said the America could be next……not if the other news is accurate……

A big number out of the CDC on Tuesday, and it’s not a good one: The health protection agency says there were 2.4 million infections diagnosed and reported from three sexually transmitted diseases in 2018, the “most cases” ever documented in a one-year span, per a CDC epidemiologist. This stat comes by way of the CDC’s newest “STD Surveillance Report,” which has found combined cases of gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia rising in the US for the past five years, CNN reports. Chlamydia claims the lion’s share of these cases, with 1.8 million cases last year—a 19% increase since 2014. Meanwhile, there were more than 580,000 cases of gonorrhea, and about 38,000 cases of primary, secondary, and congenital syphilis. Untreated, these STDs could lead to everything from infertility and drug-resistant conditions to congenital syphilis, which could in turn lead to infant death.

The cases seem to most often involve teens and young adults, and three states in particular rank high: Alaska for chlamydia, Nevada for primary and secondary syphilis, and Mississippi for gonorrhea. The District of Columbia, however, had the highest rates for all three. Perhaps as unnerving as the numbers is that progress on these has “unraveled,” per Dr. Gail Bolan, head of the CDC’s STD Prevention Division. “Not that long ago, gonorrhea rates were at historic lows, syphilis was close to elimination, and we were able to point to advances in STD prevention,” Bolan writes in the report’s foreword. Factors that may be contributing to the steep numbers: a decrease in condom use, cutbacks in funding that led to fewer prevention programs, and increased screening accessibility, which generates more known cases. “Americans have stopped taking STDs seriously,” notes the Atlantic.

I have a thought on the two different takes on sex…..Japan is leading the world in “sex dolls”…..and the US could curb these disturbing numbers…..I will let Jefferson Airplane…..finish out the post…..

Once again we are getting much needed rain…..but that does not preclude a walk for MoMo…..

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Peace Out!

Sex, Sex And More Sex

The weekend begins and I look forward to my granddaughter and some mental relaxation for these two days……

Today I would like to write about a subject that is near and dear to most people’s mind……SEX!

I may live to regret this post……kinda like a post I did 8 years ago…..”Does Watermelon Make You Horny”…..sadly it is one of my most popular posts……and this one has all the earmarks of another such phenom……

Back in the day the idea of virginity was all consuming for men and women…..for the most part those days are behind us……but did you know it is predictable when one would lose their virginity?

Sure, people become sexually active under countless circumstances for countless reasons and at many different ages, but at least part of the timing appears to come down to our genes, Cambridge University researchers report in the journal Nature. Studying the genes and life histories of nearly 400,000 people, they conclude “there is a heritable component to age at first sex,” reproductive aging expert John Perry tells the Guardian, “and the heritability is about 25%, so one-quarter nature, three-quarters nurture.” Genes also appear to influence the age of the onset of puberty, first birth of a child, and even total number of offspring, reports the Telegraph. Perry’s example: The genetic variant in CADM2 is associated with higher odds of risk-taking, earlier sex, and a greater number of children.

So what accounts for the other 75%? New Scientist reports that previous research has found teens are more likely to become sexually active younger if they are not religious, come from poorer families, and if their parents didn’t get involved in their lives. But this study found that the earlier onset of puberty is associated with earlier sexual activity, notes Popular Science. In the mid-1800s, for instance, girls were getting their period at an average age of 18—a number that plummeted to age 12 by 1980. Earlier loss of virginity ricochets, adds a clinical epidemiologist, into “other consequences such as, all things being equal, earlier first birth, having more children, less likely to remain childless, and poorer educational outcomes.” Future studies may look at non-Western countries (this one focused on the UK, Iceland, and US) to account for different cultures and attitudes about sex, one expert tells the Verge. (Earlier this year, South Africa was offering scholarships to virgins.)

Nope not finished yet……

For decades there had been a debate on the pros and cons of circumcision….and the whole sensitivity thing……is it is or is it ain’t?

Men who are circumcised as infants are no less sensitive than those who keep their foreskin. At least this is what Queen’s University scientists are reporting in the Journal of Urology after testing 62 men between the ages of 18 and 37, half of whom had been circumcised as babies and half of whom hadn’t. They performed both tactile and heat sensitivity tests on each participant at four different locations of the penis: per the New York Times, “the midline shaft, the area next to the midline, the glans and, for the uncircumcised, the foreskin.” The researchers tested the inside of the forearm to serve as the control. Turns out the men didn’t differ in sensitivity to either touch or heat at any place tested, and for both groups the forearm was less sensitive than any part of the penis. “We can conclude that there are no significant differences in sensitivity between the circumcised and uncircumcised groups,” says a study co-author.

“One researcher who only used fine touch to measure penile sensitivity claimed the foreskin is the most sensitive part of the penis, so removing it via circumcision is detrimental to men’s sex lives,” the lead researcher says in a Queen’s University statement. “We found that while the foreskin was more sensitive to fine touch, it was not more sensitive to the other stimuli we used, and those stimuli are likely more important in sexual pleasure.” One-third of males in the world are circumcised, per the release, a number that could climb with both the US in favor of neonatal circumcision and a push for it in African countries to reduce HIV transmission. The Independent reports that only 8.5% of men in the UK have been circumcised since the NHS stopped covering the procedure in 1948, while more than 75% of men in the US have been circumcised. (Here’s why the CDC is in favor of neonatal circumcision.)

Let me see….I have covered the wide range of sexual info…… virginity thing and the whole “schmeckle” thing and now there has got to be a third part of any trinity…..thinking…….got it!  STDs!

Sex like all other joys there is a good side and a bad side…….and the bad can be really BAD!

Last year’s emergence of so-called “super gonorrhea” in Leeds hasn’t ended in the UK city. The STD is now popping up in new British cities including London, and doctors are worried it may spread faster just as it becomes untreatable. Because the STD is so good at fighting off antibiotics, treatment typically involves a combination of two drugs—azithromycin and ceftriaxone—but resistance to azithromycin is spreading and doctors worry ceftriaxone will soon be next, reports the BBC. The spread is a “further sign of the very real threat of antibiotic resistance to our ability to treat infections,” says Public Health England, which has had only limited success in tracking down sexual partners of those diagnosed with super gonorrhea, reports the Independent.

“The spread of high level azithromycin-resistant gonorrhea is a huge concern and it is essential that every effort is made to contain further spread,” says Dr. Elizabeth Carlin, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV. While the outbreak seems to have started among heterosexual couples, it is now infecting gay men as well. Just last week Chancellor George Osborne declared resistance to antibiotics “an even greater threat to mankind than cancer” if there is no concerted global action. Caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, gonorrhea spreads by unprotected sex, but can also pass from mother to child in utero. In the past few years the infection rate in the UK has more than doubled, reports Vice, with only chlamydia higher up the list. Syphilis infections are up for the first time in years as well. (A study says syphilis can’t be blamed on Columbus.)

Enough is enough, chuq!

Thanx for your visits and please go now and joy your weekend.

 

Apparently, Size DOES Matter!

Sunday last day to post something absurd other than our politics, that is……and today I have found a couple good ones….Quin or Quintessential Havoc (blogroll will assist you to get to his site….visit soon) and I over the years have bitched and been amazed at the studies that get funded…..we have even considered trying to get on the list of government grants…..it has got to be a better living that greeter at Walmart………any way…..how about these for absurd?

From Gawker and Maureen O’Conner………

A Finnish economist took one of those ridiculous worldwide penis studies that are always circulating and charted it againstGDPs, to study that critical ratio between penis size and wealth. It’s the classic golddigger’s dilemma—are any of the rich ones worth fucking?—but on a global scale!

From 1960-1985, nations with smaller penises grew at a faster rate than their well-hung counterparts, the University of Helsinki’s Tatu Westling found. Overall GDP was highest in nations with average penises and lowest in nations with outlier penises. In other words,

The size of male organ is found to have an inverse U-shaped relationship with the level of GDP in 1985.

Or, as Jason Kottke writes, “flaccid-ish.”

With due reservations it is also found to be more important determinant of GDP growth than country’s political regime type. Controlling for male organ slows convergence and mitigates the negative effect of population growth on economic development slightly. Although all evidence is suggestive at this stage, the ‘male organ hypothesis’ put forward here is robust to exhaustive set of controls and rests on surprisingly strong correlations.

A really great study, huh?  But wait there is even better one…. from The Inquisitr website…….

Regardless of what some economic experts may say, we are not out of the clear when it comes to the “great recession” and therefore we shouldn’t be spending money on ridiculous studies, such as the National Institutes of Health survey which attempted to tie the size of gay men’s penises with their preferences to be a “top” or “bottom.”

The study, funded in part with taxpayer money was meant to “tie the size of a gay man’s penis” with their choice in being a “bottom” or a “top” and found that men with bigger penis sizes tend to be the “top” in the relationship, while men with smaller penises often gravitate towards the “bottom” role in the relationship. Researchers also claim that gay men with smaller penises tend to be more psychologically troubled then men with larger penises.

The National Development and Research Institute received money from the NIH to conduct the study which began in 2006. Money from the program has been provided since 1985 and is often used for “behavioral science research on drug abuse, AIDS, and crime,” which the group claimed their study fit into.

According to the President of the Traditional Values Coalition:

 ”We’ve got nameless, faceless bureaucrats who thought this was a good use of taxpayer money,” while adding,  ”[They] seem to think the American taxpayers are a limitless ATM machine.”

What is with the preoccupation with wankers?  I hope all the taxpayers that read this are just as pissed as I am……please if the government must waste money then do so on lunches for kids or more after-school activities….but for God sake…..get off the wanker kick!  Conservs…that means YOU!

She Is Full Of Hot Air!

Once again the weekend is here I can kick back and have a Zen-fest….clear the mind of the Kabuki that is politics……and NO I am NOT talking about Bachmann or even Palin……and on these two days….I kinda like the absurd.

In these days of economic uncertainty there are some signs that businesses, some at least, are doing pretty good….. alcohol consumption being the most obvious….when economic times are tough more people turn to drink to try and forget their problems……but whiskey is not the only business that is showing signs of progress………

Richard Lawson of CNBC recently had a story on one industry that is doing well…….

“At a time when unemployment is high and bank account balances are low, people are passing the time by getting busy,” Stefan Dallakian, the owner of Paris Intimates – an online sex toy distributor-told me. It’s estimated that the sex-toy business is a $15 billion industry. As the U.S. economy has worsened, Dallakian said that he has seen sales for sex toys skyrocket.

[…]

A steady 9 percent unemployment rate and growth in self-employment also means that Americans are spending more time at home. And, as the idea of a “Staycation” has only received more buzz lately, people continue to opt to stay home in order to save money on gas and lodging.

So if you are unemployed or under-employed maybe you should for go the local “meat market” and head to a sex store and get yourself a box labeled “Niki, The Greek Goddess”…..think of the money you could save….the only problem is to NOT smoke after sex if Niki gets touched by a lit cig…..she will fly around the room like a balloon……

More Sex Studies (Go Figure)

From time to time I bitch about the endless studies that we hear about almost daily…….some are good (I guess) and others seem like a waste of time and money….below are two more to add to the endless array of studies….but if you can get grant cash for a study, then SEX would be the ideal study….

The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea risks becoming a drug-resistant “superbug” if doctors do not devise new ways of treating it, a leading sexual health expert said.

Gonorrhea is a common bacterial sexually-transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women.

Globally, the WHO estimates that there are at least 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections — including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis — every year among people aged 15 to 49.

Ison said the highest incidences of gonorrhea were in south and southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but as yet the WHO has no breakdown by individual infection type.

Current treatment for gonorrhea in most countries consists of a single antibiotic dose of either cefixime or ceftriaxone.

So gentlemen, keep an eye on the prize……a sick wnkie has NO chance to reward….

Could there possibly more?  You bet your scrotum there is……

The number of head and neck cancers linked to a virus spread by oral sex is rising rapidly and suggests boys as well as girls should be offered protection through vaccination, doctors said Friday.

Despite an overall slight decline in head and neck cancers in recent years, cases of a particular form called oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) have increased sharply, particularly in the developed world.

This growth seems to be linked to cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), scientists said in a report in the British Medical Journal.

More than 500,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually in women and it kills around 200,000 a year. Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer among men and women, with about 640,000 new cases each year worldwide.

A recent study found the risk of developing oropharyngeal carcinoma was linked to a history of six or more lifetime sexual partners, four or more lifetime oral sex partners, and, for men, an earlier age at first sexual intercourse.

“Sexual transmission of HPV — primarily through orogenital intercourse — might be the reason for the increase in incidence of HPV related oropharyngeal carcinoma,” wrote Mehanna.

Thanx to Reuters for the above articles……

These types of studies just suck all the fun out of SEX (pun intended)……

Do YOU Need Sex?

From time to time I try to lighten up the stuff to keep from going completely batshit….and in doing so I usually post of sex thingy…..oh well…today is NO different….

Do YOU need sex?

The short answer is you bet your ass you do…..but with that said….how can we tell if we are approaching critical mass?

First of all,  Times of India is reporting:

Practically, a non-existing sexual life causes a lot of reactions, more or less explicable, and in some extreme cases it can lead to severe physical and philological reactions: skin itches, irritations, anger etc. You could end up hurting the ones beside you, emotionally or even physically, because you did not “read” one of your body’s cries for help.

Once you fully and completely understand your body’s message: “I need sex!” it will be a lot easier for you to identify the time periods these unpleasant symptoms occur. If you manage to do this, you will also be able to prevent them. Of course, these intervals vary from person to person, and they are dependent to certain factors, such as age, sex, lifestyle, physical condition, pregnancy, menopause etc.

All in all, make sure you take some time and really analyze yourself and your body, your needs and your desires, and that way you will manage to understand the course of action you have to take so that everything returns on its’ right normal “path” again.

Oh crap!  But how can I know if there is a need?
Must-have-sex signals
– Excessive nervousness
– Long states of unjustified anxiety, migraines
– Permanent stress
– Lack of food appetite
– Lack of the need to sleep
– Contradictory feelings regarding certain persons
– Frequent sexual fantasies, especially during nighttime.

Check the list…check it twice……

Dammit!  I need to get laid!

Weed Puts Limber In Your Joint!

This one is for all those stoners from high school…you know those guys that hit the pipe and would sit in the corner contemplating the meaning of string….

Yes, there has been yet another study on sex and weed:

Men who smoked pot daily were found to be four times more likely to have trouble reaching orgasm than men who did not inhale, according to the La Trobe University study.

Other daily male cannabis smokers experienced premature ejaculation at nearly three times the rate of non-smokers.

Professor Anthony Smith says while the habit often had a significant impact on a man’s sex life, the effects were not always something the smokers would consider a “sexual health problem”.

“The findings suggest that men are self-medicating with cannabis to delay orgasm,” said Prof Smith from the Melbourne-based university’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.

“While many male smokers experienced sexual problems, they also reported more partners than non-smokers.

The study took in more than 8600 people, aged 16 to 64, who were surveyed by telephone as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships.

Participants were asked whether they had used cannabis in the previous year and, if yes, their frequency.

Overall, 8.7 per cent said they had used cannabis in the last year, with twice as many men (11.2 per cent) in the positive compared to women (6.1 per cent).

People under 36 were more likely to smoke marijuana than older participants.

The research also found women who smoked cannabis daily were more likely to have had two or more sexual partners in the previous year.

They were also seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year than non-smokers.

Now if that does not put the limber in your joint (pun intended), then nothing will….

Is He Mr. Right?

I will put all the Nobel bitching behind for a day and focus on something that most of us think is just fine….SEX!

The greatest ionvention in the last 50 years has been “The Pill” or at least to those of us who enjoy a good toss every now and then….but if you, the ladies, are taken the pill does it change your consciousness about who you mate with?

In an article in Health Day the pill could be changing evolution.

“The use of the pill by women, by changing her mate preferences, might induce women to mate with otherwise less-preferred partners, which might have important consequences for mate choice and reproductive outcomes,” said Alexandra Alvergne, lead author of a study appearing in the October issue of Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

“One prediction is that offspring of pill users are more homozygous than expected, possibly related to impaired immune function and decreased perceived health and attractiveness,” according to the report by Alvergne, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of animal and plant sciences at the University of Sheffield in England, and colleague Virpi Lummaa.

Women who are ovulating tend to be attracted to so-called “manly men,” those with more masculine facial features and traits of dominance and competitiveness, according to background information in the study. They also tend to prefer the man who is not like them, genetically speaking.

And men, given a choice, will gravitate towards an ovulating female rather than a non-ovulating female.

But women on the pill are more consistently in a state that mimics pregnancy, the authors stated.

According to the study authors, who stress that “modern contraception has improved the quality of life worldwide,” 100 million women around the globe are on the pill.

“There are important limitations from previous studies, due to the fact few of them have been addressing the question as their main focus,” Alvergne said.

Future research should focus on two questions in particular, she said: Does use of the pill affect marital relationship, satisfaction and durability; and does it affect the ability of couples to reproduce?

Okay ladies if you are taking the pill and think you have found Mr. Right….you might want to think it over….and here is another question…is the high rate of divorce have anything to do with the pill?  Like women stop taking it to try and have a baby…and once the pill wears off do they realize that they do not have any attraction to their mate?  It would be interesting to find out one woman at a time…..

Another Teen Sex Study

As usual I try to lighten up the tone on Sundays, a least a bit, we are bombarded daily with the politics of NOW…there are other things happening; just not as covered as the bitch slapping of politics……It’s Sexy Sunday and Franco is still dead!

Tina Jordahl, a former Iowa State HDFS and public policy graduate student who is now a market research specialist with Hospice of Central Iowa, collaborated with Lohman on the study. It analyzes data from the “Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study” — a six-year longitudinal investigation of low-income families living in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio. Their paper, titled “A biological analysis of risk and protective factors associated with early sexual intercourse of young adolescents,” was posted online in the Children and Youth Services Review and will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal.

Interview data for the study was first collected in 1999 on youth between the ages of 10 and 14, and again in 2001. Lohman says she also has data collected in 2006 from the same subjects, who were between 16 and 20 by that time.

In the study, boys reported their first sexual intercourse at younger ages (averaging 12.48) than girls (13.16). Boys also had nearly 10 percent higher frequency of intercourse than girls and were also more likely to experience sexual debut (20 percent to 14 percent) between the two years when the first two waves of data were collected.

Recent national research has found that 13 percent of girls and 15 percent of boys have had sex by the time they’re 16. Lohman says that means the rate of sex among her low-income sample is only slightly higher among the girls, but almost double among the boys

African Americans also had 12 percent more early sexual intercourse than whites (29 to 17 percent respectively), although racial differences did not change the age of their first intercourse.

The authors report that periods of instability in family structure and welfare use serve as risk factors for early sexual activity. They found that additional maternal education — beyond a high school level — was found to inhibit some of that activity.

For that reason, the researchers propose allotting public funding to increase maternal education as a way to reduce early sexual promiscuity among their children.

The study also found the youths’ involvement in delinquent acts drastically increases the chances of early sexual activity.

Because of the gender differences in sexual debut, the authors also urge more gender-specific prevention programs that are implemented at earlier ages, especially among high risk populations.

Study after study on all sexual titles have been done, results tabulated, funds allocated and yet we as a nation cannot figure out how to education the kids on what is good and what is bad with sex.  Parents are shy about the talk, government is just plain stupid about the subject and worst of all funds a squandered on programs that are totally ineffective…..and the beat goes on…..what will be the next great program to teach the children?

Will Men Become Obsolete?

I know that there are some that think it would be a good idea to eliminate men for various reasons, like that start wars to mention only one.  But these scientists are going a bit far.

A team of British scientists claimed Wednesday to have created human sperm using embryonic stem cells, in a medical first that they say will lead to a better understanding of fertility.Researchers led by Professor Karim Nayernia at Newcastle University and the NorthEast England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) developed a new technique that allows the creation of human sperm in the laboratory.

They stressed that the sperm, developed from stem cells with XY chromosomes (male), would not be used for fertility treatment, as this is prohibited by law and in any case is not their main interest.

The team’s work involved developing stem cells that had XY chromosomes into germline cells — cells that can can pass their genetic material to future generations.

These were then prompted to complete meiosis, or cell division, which then produced “fully mature, functional sperm.”

Stem cells are immature cells that can develop into different cell types.

The scientists tried to develop cells with XX chromosomes (female) in the same way but they did not progress beyond early stage sperm, called spermatagonia. The team concluded that the genes on a Y chromosome are essential for sperm maturation.

Careful guys our days could be numbered, remember about the only thinbg we guys are good for, at least according to some women, is making babies.  If that is true and they take that away from us….why keep us around?