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.
