Tag: Sexual Health

Protect The ‘Winkie’

It is Sunday and it is Halloween….. I was looking for something unusual to post….and I found it…..and if you are young then it can be very scary.

When I was young and staring showing interests in girls my grandfather sat me down and told me to be careful in my choice of girls for there is a bug out there that would rot your ‘winkie’ off….as I got older I was amused at the horror story my grandfather spun….

Just found out that his story may not be as fanciful as he had painted…..

Doctors in the UK are warning about a rising number of cases of a sexually transmitted disease that can cause genitals to “rot away.” Donovanosis, caused by the bacterium Klebsiella granulomatis and spread through unprotected sex or other skin-to-skin contact, doesn’t eat the skin but is often described as “flesh-eating” due to the appearance of red and sometimes bloody sores on the genitals and anus that, if left untreated, can progressively damage body tissue, per the Washington Post. Cases usually pop up in tropical areas, including India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Caribbean, and southern Africa, per USA Today. But cases have also been appearing in the UK and US in recent years.

Some 19 cases were reported in the UK in 2016. That increased to 30 cases in 2019, followed by 18 cases in 2020, per the Post. Though the infection was eradicated in the US in the 1950s and ’60s, about 100 cases are now reported in this country each year, most in people who’ve spent time in areas where the disease is common, according to the National Library of Medicine. But Dr. Melinda Pettigrew of the Yale School of Public Health tells USA Today that cases could “theoretically” increase in the US as risk factors for unprotected sex are on the rise. “The worst thing we can do is shame people,” she adds. “Then they don’t talk to their partners, they don’t get diagnosed, and they don’t get treated.”

Donovanosis, which is a risk factor for the transmission of HIV, is treated with antibiotics. The CDC notes a relapse is possible six to 18 months following treatment. But without treatment, “extragenital infection can occur with infection extension to the pelvis, or it can disseminate to intra-abdominal organs, bones, or the mouth.” A pharmacist told the Liverpool Echo in 2018 that even a delay in treatment “could cause the flesh around the genitals to literally rot away.” Luckily, donovanosis cases represented just .004% of the 2,554,908 STD cases reported in the US in 2019. More than 1.8 million (72%) of those were chlamydia, and some 616,392 (24%) were gonorrhea, per USA Today.

That is just scary….I mean really…..I am so glad that I am an old fart and sex is not as important to me as it once was….dodged the bullet on this one.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

FYI Sunday

Did you Spring forward?

How many enjoy a good historic movie and/or book?

What about all those great costumes from the various eras?

Now here is your FYI for this Sunday……some of the great fashion trends in history were because of an STD….

You read that right….syphilis may have been a boon to trends in fashion….

Syphilis, while nothing to be ashamed of, is not what you’d call a glamorous condition. It starts with painless sores followed by a rash, but left untreated by antibiotics, the disease’s tertiary phase can cause unsightly bulbous growths, necrotizing ulcers, and hair loss, not to mention more pressing concerns like heart and neurological damage. According to some scholars, these unfortunate side effects didn’t necessarily leave sufferers cowering in the shadows—in some cases, fashion may have evolved to help hide the signs of late-stage syphilis.

The most commonly cited example of this is the powdered wig, which didn’t become the sign of polite society we see in period films until the influence of King Louis XIV of France. Historians note that the wigs were of middling popularity until this young king began to don them during the 17th century. Louis XIV started to lose his hair around age 17, so it’s not surprising that he turned wigs into a fashion trend. But it’s quite possible that his hair loss—and perhaps that of his cousin, King Charles II of England, who also loved a good powdered wig—was due to syphilis. In any case, the royal love of fussy wigs provided a great cover for the truly countless number of syphilis patients running around Europe at the time.

Another, slightly more controversial theory: That codpieces served to mask the otherwise suspicious bulge created by medicated bandages wrapped around genital sores. Not all historians buy this notion, and the codpiece’s remarkably short-lived period of popularity means we know precious little about them. Too bad shoving stuff down your pants didn’t stick around.

Finally, our third potential syphilitic fashion moment: Sunglasses. Because, well, where else are you going to put your fake nose? Listen to this week’s episode to find out more.

(Popular Science)

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Random Thoughts

How many have seen the ads by some jock who’s head looks so small compared to his body hawking some pill that will put lead in your pencil…..like they would know…steroid use makes the “pencil” a useless appendage.

Okay off my soap box…..do these testosterone pills have any side effects?

In a new study, researchers found that testosterone therapy may double a man’s risk of suffering a potentially life-threatening blood clot.

They found that men had twice the risk for a deep vein blood clot if they’d been receiving testosterone during the previous six months.

The increased risk occurred whether or not a man had the low-testosterone condition known as hypogonadism, but appeared to be more pronounced in middle-aged men than in seniors

The research was conducted by a team at the University of Minnesota.

The “low-T” fad caused testosterone prescriptions to soar early in the 21st century, increasing more than 300% between 2001 and 2013, the study authors said in background notes.

Common testosterone supplements may increase men’s risk of blood clots

I love museums…all the history, the art, the artifacts…..it is a culotural adventure that everyone should participate in……but there is a new museum in London…..a Vagina Museum…..

An new exhibit opening in London this weekend is a glittery and garish homage to the hooha.

The Vagina Museum, built in Camden’s Stables Market, was made possible through a fundraising campaign, which collected almost $64,484 (£50,000) from more than 1,000 vag advocates.

Museum director Florence Schechter was inspired by a similar concept in Iceland: a museum all about the male member. “I discovered there was a penis museum in Iceland but no vagina equivalent anywhere else, so I decided to make one,” she told The Guardian.

https://nypost.com/2019/11/15/worlds-first-vagina-museum-tackles-female-body-taboos/

Speaking of museums….would you like to eat like a Babylonian?

What did a meal taste like nearly 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylonia? Pretty good, according to a team of international scholars who have deciphered and are re-creating what are considered to be the world’s oldest-known culinary recipes.

The recipes were inscribed on ancient Babylonian tablets that researchers have known about since early in the 20th century but that were not properly translated until the end of the century.

The tablets are part of the Yale Babylonian Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum. Three of the tablets date back to the Old Babylonian period, no later than 1730 B.C., according to Harvard University Assyriologist and cuneiform scholar Gojko Barjamovic, who put together the interdisciplinary team that is reviving these ancient recipes in the kitchen. A fourth tablet was produced about 1,000 years later. All four tablets are from the Mesopotamian region, in what is today Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/11/16/779930201/eat-like-the-ancient-babylonians-researchers-cook-up-nearly-4-000-year-old-recip

Speaking of the desert and sand…..is it possible that the world is running out of sand?

South African entrepreneur shot dead in September. Two Indian villagers killed in a gun battle in August. A Mexican environmental activist murdered in June.

Though separated by thousands of miles, these killings share an unlikely cause. They are some of the latest casualties in a growing wave of violence sparked by the struggle for one of the 21st Century’s most important, but least appreciated, commodities: ordinary sand.

Trivial though it may seem, sand is a critical ingredient of our lives. It is the primary raw material that modern cities are made from. The concrete used to construct shopping malls, offices, and apartment blocks, along with the asphalt we use to build roads connecting them, are largely just sand and gravel glued together. The glass in every window, windshield, and smart phone screen is made of melted-down sand. And even the silicon chips inside our phones and computers – along with virtually every other piece of electronic equipment in your home – are made from sand.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is-running-out-of-sand

That is my randomness for this Saturday.

Have a day……Be well….Be safe

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

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!

Saturday–08Sep18

I try to make IST something for everyone and a good source of FYI…

As the weekend begins news comes that my state has the second highest incidents of sexual transmitted diseases (STDs)……another list that my state should be embarrassed of ….if it is a “Good” list we are at the bottom, if it is a “Bad” list we are at the top and it has been that way for a very long time.

http://backgroundchecks.org/these-are-the-most-sexually-diseased-states-in-the-us.html

All that comes with more terrible news about STDs…..

A record has been set in the US, but not one to celebrate: Almost 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were diagnosed last year—more than 200,000 over the record set in 2016, per the CDC in a report released Tuesday. One CDC director says there have been “steep and sustained increases” in sexually transmitted diseases over the past five years, a “very concerning” trend that hasn’t been seen in two decades. Experts suspect that with newer drugs lowering the risk of HIV infection and making the virus itself less lethal if it is contracted, condom usage has declined, leading to the rapid rise in STDs. But experts tell NBC News that other factors likely contributing include less funding for agencies focused on STD prevention, doctors failing to test patients for STDs, and a general lack of awareness about sexual health—including the need to get tested even if no symptoms are present.

These are the estimates of the number of people with new and existing cases of eight STDs in the United States. The estimates are based on 2008 data.

Another fact is the Deep Red South has 10 out of the top 15 states with the highest cases of STDs.

Sad that in the 21st century that this health issue should be in the news…..and as an aunty of mine use to always say…”keep in your pants and you will always smile”…..

As long as sex is the subject of this post…..there is another aspect of the exercise…..this study is one that I would never have considered…..some of this is not news that is uplifting….actually it is kinda sad.

Daniel Noah Halpern checks in on the state of the world’s sperm in a lengthy piece for GQ, and the upshot at its worst is that there is “the possibility that we will become extinct.” That line comes from Hagai Levine, who co-authored a 2017 Hebrew University/Mount Sinai meta-analysis of 185 studies that involved more than 40,000 men’s sperm and found a worsening picture, and sharply so: In 1973, sperm counts were about 99 million sperm per milliliter of semen; by 2011, that count was down to 47 million per milliliter, and it’s still dropping. “We are producing half the sperm our grandfathers did. We are half as fertile,” writes Halpern, and the numbers prod him to ask: “Would 40 more years—or fewer—bring us all the way to zero?”

Halpern explores a number of other questions, among them, why haven’t we noticed such a drastic change, and what’s the cause? In his view, the answer to the latter question is clear, and “the scientists I talked to were less cautious about embracing this explanation than I expected”: chemicals, which we’ve been ingesting since the industrial revolution but even more so since WWII. He offers a primer on endocrine disruptors like phthalates and BPA, which are found in more obvious places like water bottles, less obvious places like grocery store receipts, and far, far less obvious places like pasta and eggs. He also talks about the significance of a man’s anogenital distance (that’s the distance between the genitals and anus) and how it interrelates with those endocrine disruptors. What’s the solution? IVF, perhaps ultimately. Read his full piece for more.

The “Anogenital” distance?

chuq is out….I will relax today and tomorrow…..there is a “honey do” list waiting…..a really long list……have a good day.

What Is FGM?

Have you had enough gossipy shit yet?

Sunday and I am working in the orchard bringing in the Satsumas…….the tangerines will be ready next month…….yesterday my better half and I had breakfast at that place with the “arches”….2 bacon, egg and cheese biscuits, 1 sausage and egg biscuit, 2 hash browns and 2 small OJs…..price $17.49….later I picked up  my pain meds from a local druggist cost….$17.54….what does that tell you?

I was at a local coffee shop with my granddaughter….she was doing some ‘net surfing and I was enjoying a fine cup of Blue Mountain…..

In the table next to us were 3 older ladies…..60’s maybe 70’s….they were talking and laughing but then one brought up a subject that made me stop and look at the door (as not to let on that I was eavesdropping)……

This one lady said that her daughter asked her if she had heard of “female gentle mutilation”?  Apparently my granddaughter heard the comment also for she gave me her WTF? face……..I was about to smile when I realize that even though she had misspoke…how many people in this country are aware of what this procedure is all about?

FGM, or cutting, as it is also sometimes known, is the removal of the external female genitalia. The procedure has no health benefits, but can cause great harm and serious health complications for those who undergo the procedure. Besides causing severe pain, the practice has immediate and long-term consequences for the health of women and girls, including complications during childbirth, which could endanger the lives of both mother and child.

Source: Senegal: Breaking the cycle of FGM | Al Jazeera English

This is a horrible thing to do to a young woman…..while the older ladies term was a bit humorous….there is NOTHING humorous about this procedure……I hope this well give my reader a little knowledge about this despicable practice.

It is exhausting trying to be informative…..tee hee….

I hope everyone has a good Sunday and I will be back to form tomorrow….that is the internet provider is up to it…..

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.

 

How To Cure Jolly Floggin’

Yep, the weekend and time for some silly stuff…….what is life without a little humor?

First, something I thought about while researching the other day…….For the life of me I cannot see the point of a circle!  Think about it.

Now…………… Sriracha?  I am sick of this crap!  Just as I was sick of the crap it replaced….Buffalo Sauce……you want hot then man up and eat Harissa……that should have you begging for ice cream…..

Now to the grits and the gravy of day’s post……..it is a bit personal….I do not usually do personal….but what the hell we are all friends, right?……

I recall when I discovered what to do with the horribly big erection in the morning…….all I had to do was get a hold of myself and……Flog my Jolly!

Then it became almost mandatory to do so……surely there was a cure for that compulsion……VIOLA!  There was and you will not believe what it was…….

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes sure are tasty, crunchy, and a great cure for masturbation. Sorry, the last bit’s not true—but it’s partly why John Harvey Kellogg and his brother invented the cereal back in 1878, Real Clear Science reports. An outspoken surgeon, writer, and medical chief at Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, Kellogg abstained from sex and warned against the alleged dangers of masturbation. Such dangers included insanity, impotence, epilepsy, acne, poor posture, and blindness, in Kellogg’s view. Among his tips: Avoid all “exciting and irritating food,” wrote the Seventh Day Adventist. “A man that lives on pork, fine-flour bread, rich pies and cakes, and condiments, drinks tea and coffee and uses tobacco, might as well try to fly as to be chaste in thought.”

He also invented a few grain breakfast cereals “as healthy, ready-to-eat anti-masturbatory morning meals,” reports Mental Floss. Brother Will, who managed the sanitarium’s books, helped him invent corn flakes but wanted sugar on them to help them sell—an addition John refused to accept. Meanwhile, John suggested more severe anti-masturbatory practices, like running a wire through boys’ foreskins to curb erections and burning the clitoris with carbolic acid to keep girls’ fingers away. Today we know the health benefits of self-love, like reduced depression, lowered prostate-cancer risk, and a better immune system, the Conversation notes.

There you have it…..the next time you get the urge to flog your jolly just pour yourself a bowl of corn flakes and relax……..the urge will dissipate……

AHHHHHH………….I feel better already!

It Makes A Comeback

Keeping with the weekend’s topic….SEX.  Many of history’s notables have died from a historically reoccurring disease…….Columbus, Capone, some say Pasteur….and No one is sure where it originated…..some say in monkeys and others are convinced with sheep……..whatever….it is making a comeback…….

Syphilis cases are rising sharply in the US, especially among gay and bisexual men, reports the CDC. The highest rates were among black men, but white and Hispanic men also saw noticeable increases, reports Reuters. From 2005 to 2013, the number of syphilis cases nearly doubled from 8,724 to 16,663, and 91% of those cases occurred among men in 2013. Over that same stretch, the annual rate rose from 2.9 to 5.3 cases per 100,000 people, reports NBC News.

“After being on the verge of elimination in 2000 in the United States, syphilis cases have rebounded,” says the CDC report. Researchers warn that the increase among gay men is worrisome because it suggests unsafe sex practices that could also spread HIV. The CDC recommends that men who have sex with anonymous or multiple partners get screened for syphilis at least once every six months. While rarely fatal, the disease can lead to blindness and stroke.

It looks like there is only one relatively safe form of sex…..if you want to avoid herpes or the clap or HIV and now syphilis…….the only safe form is……Phone sex!  Where’s the fun in that?  That gives a whole new definition of….oral sex……..

But this disease is NOT alone…..making a comeback are polio, TB, Measles………and others……….what could cause this resurgence of disease?

Surely someone would like to weigh in about here.

The Vacu-Suck!

The weekend and I attempt to bring a little humor and enlightenment into my readers lives…..I remember back in the days when an instrument of sexual pleasure was sold as the Swedish Penis Pump….and then in the early days of the 21st century the Penis Pump became the Vacu-Pump….same product but with a new ad campaign….I know….what the Hell am I going on about?  Right?

On the surface this is NOT a big deal…but that is only on the surface.

Just stay with me a few more moments…..and the government spends a lot of wasted cash on superfluous things…..crap they right off on MediCare or MedicAid………but this is beyond moronic and just chaps my butt…….

Newser) – Between 2006 and 2011, Medicare spent $172 million on penis pumps, according to a report out yesterday by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services. That figure is outrageous for a reason other than that you might think. As NBC News reports, penis pumps, more properly known as vacuum erection systems, are actually one of the “few viable treatment courses” for men with erectile dysfunction, per the National Institutes of Health. So it’s not the coverage of the item for some 474,000 men over those six years that’s the problem, but the amount that was spent: Each claim cost Medicare an average $361—more than double what the pump would have cost if the user just bought it online. (And OIG verified this by … Googling. It reports that “research on 22 different Web sites yielded pricing information for 105 VES … the average Internet price … was $164.74.”)

And if Medicare had adjusted its “grossly excessive” coverage amount to be in line with what a non-Medicare consumer pays (and, the report noted, what the Department of Veterans Affairs pays), the government would have spent an average of $14.4 million less per year for each of the years under review, reports Reuters. And the savings wouldn’t end there. Beneficiaries are responsible for 20% of the cost of the pump, plus any unmet deductible, which worked out to an average $90; a Medicare fee adjustment would have saved them roughly $3.6 million a year. It could have come to pass, had the issue been dealt with when it previously came up—in 1999, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services suggested changing the VES fee schedule, reports the Washington Free Beacon.

Now, if you can, justify this for me….please.