Homosexuality, Sex Drive and PMS: Why Do You Blame Hormones?

Hormones are confusing and downright irritating little devils. You know you have them, and you know they wreak havoc on your sexual health and emotional wellness, but do hormones get given the blame too often? Over the years, hormones have been blamed for everything from causing cancer to encouraging homosexuality, but contrary to popular belief, hormones might not have as much influence over your wellbeing as you think, and the influence they do have is not so scary. Let’s take a look at some of the more ridiculous myths associated with hormones.

 

1. Hormones in food can make you turn homosexual: Award-winning wellness writer Hope Gillette notes, ‘Contrary to the some people’s belief female hormones used to promote chicken growth will turn a man homosexual, the fact is there are no studies supporting this theory…All in all, the only issues ever examined for a link to hormone use in poultry were those related to early onset of puberty, and no substantial evidence was ever found.’ According to CornellUniversity, ‘Steroid hormones in food were suspected to cause early puberty in girls in some reports. However, exposure to higher than natural levels of steroid hormones through hormone-treated meat or poultry has never been documented. Large epidemiological studies have not been done to see whether or not early puberty in developing girls is associated with having eaten growth hormone-treated foods.’

 

2. Hormones lower your sex drive: While Andrew Goldstein, MD, director of the Centres for Vulvovaginal Disorders in Washington, DC, admits that hormones do have an impact on your libido, he argues that relationship or emotional issues – not hormones – are often the primary driving force behind a lack of libido. Other contributing factors include stress, depression, poor body image, and lack of sleep. When it comes to a low sex drive, your underlying causes may be different to other peoples’. However, if you’re an older woman going through menopause, hormones do have quite a bit of influence on your libido. Gillette explains, ‘Decreasing levels of oestrogen can cause vaginal dryness, making intercourse uncomfortable. A loss of female hormones can also desensitise a woman’s female organs, making arousal difficult and thus leading to a lack of sexual desire. Some post-menopausal women actually experience an increase in libido, but this is attributed to a lack of pregnancy anxiety rather than hormonal fluctuations.’

 

3. Hormones lead to mood swings: Gillette details, ‘PMS, the condition attributed to drastic mood swings during hormone fluctuations, only affects approximately 15% of women. For the rest of the population, emotional changes are probably just the result of a bad day or a cumulative response to a series of bad days. This doesn’t mean that hormones won’t cause mood swings; it just means not every mood swing is hormone-related.’ Nanette Santoro, MD, director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Montefiore Medical Centre and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, adds, ‘Every study done on women with PMS shows their circulating levels of hormones are normal, but some researchers believe that certain hormone metabolites in the brain cause the mood changes – or that some women just metabolise hormones differently. No one knows for sure.’

 

4. Urinary tract infections cause hormone fluctuations: Lauren F. Streicher, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at NorthwesternUniversity’s Feinberg School of Medicine, asserts that true urinary tract infections (UTIs) occur due to bacteria in your urinary tract system that usually builds up due to sex or lack of hygiene. Gillette weighs in, ‘Hormone fluctuations will have no direct effect on bacterial growth.’

Categories: early puberty, Homosexuality, hormone fluctuations, hormone treated, hormones, md director, Mood Swings, Myths, Sex Drive, steroid hormones, tract infections, urinary tract

Everything Your Man Wants You to Know About His Equipment

Your man’s equipment seems pretty straightforward – that is, until you talk to the sexual health experts. For example, creator of lovelifemd.com Edward Ratush, MD, says ‘There’s a difference between ejaculation and orgasm,’ – really? Who knew?! Here are some of the other things you never knew about the male anatomy, which can help you to give your bedroom wellbeing a major boost:

 

1. The Main Event: Though the penis resembles something no more complex than a Polish sausage, it’s actually very complicated. You have the the nerve-packed, helmet-shaped head or glans, and then, moving down, there’s the shaft, the bulk of which is made up of corpora cavernosa, two columns of spongy tissue that fill with blood to produce an erection. Why do you need to know this? Because the difference between the two sections means that they respond best to different kinds of touches. According to sex therapist Ian Kerner, PhD, author of He Comes Next, ‘The upper areas — near the head — respond to friction. The lower parts — nearer the base — respond to pressure.’ Tightly encircling the base of the penis during foreplay can increase pressure, which makes your man’s erection harder and delays orgasm, while adding a bit of friction at the head with your mouth or other hand will make him all-too happy to reciprocate (and do the washing up for a month!)

 

2. The Erection: Karen Boyle, MD, director of reproductive medicine and surgery at the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, points out, ‘There are three kinds of erections.’ Actual contact incurs reflexogenic erections, fantasy or audiovisual stimulation bring out psychogenic ones, and night you get – funnily enough – nocturnal erections.

 

3. The Size: Even though the average penis is a decent 5.5 to 6.2 inches, there are things you can do to make his equipment seem bigger – which can only be good for your sexual wellness as well as his! Sexuality educator Amy Levine, founder of sexedsolutions.com, advises getting on top, tilting your pelvis in the direction that feels most pleasurable, and pushing down for greater depth. Alternately, place your feet on his chest when in missionary. This will give you a better angle for G-spot stimulation, and make your vaginal canal feel shorter.

 

4. The Boys: Author of The Male Biological Clock Harry Fisch, MD, director of the male reproductive centre at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Centre, claims, ‘In general, the larger a man’s testicles, the higher his testosterone level and the more sperm he’ll produce.’ However, anything the size of a walnut or more should get the job done. Still, if you’re concerned about his reproductive wellness, get him to avoid hot tubs and speedos (which no one wants to see anyway!) as too much restriction or heat can throw a spanner in the works. When it comes to pleasuring The Boys, Kerner advises, ‘It’s more about stimulating the scrotal skin than the actual testicles.’ A great way to do this is to locate the central line that runs down the middle of his scrotal sack (known as the raphe, if you’re interested) and trace it with your finger or tongue.

 

5. The Space Between: That smooth runway of flesh between the scrotum and the anus is known as the perineum, and is home to a small army of nerve endings. However, before you take the perineum to pleasure town, not all guys want to explore that frontier so it’s important to make sure he’s interested before you freak him out. Begin by gently cupping his testicles, and then slide your finger down, grazing the area and applying gentle upward pressure. If he doesn’t jump a mile, you can start to gradually increase pressure, and even switch from fingertips to knuckles if he’s a big fan.

Categories: equipment, erections, increase pressure, md director, nbsp, penis, Perineum, pressure, Testicles

Could the Debate Over Female Sexual Dysfunction Affect You?

When there’s an issue with your sexual health, as a woman, you face a long history of sexist stereotypes, as well as a fierce current debate as to how these stereotypes can be undone. Though you’d expect your doctor to be up-to-date with contemporary opinion, there still remains a problem with uneven diagnosis and treatment. Wellness experts and frustrated patients assert that while a man with a sexual dysfunction will most likely be taken seriously and given treatment by his doctor, as a woman, you’re more likely to be told to “relax,” and the problem is probably “all in your head.” Let’s take a look at the female sexual dysfunction debate; does it exist? And how does it affect your wellbeing?

 

In 1999, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study in which 43% of all women (and 31% of men) surveyed reported experiencing an episode of a sexual problem (meaning lack of interest in sex, difficulties with orgasm or erection, or finding sex painful). In this widely cited study, the researchers termed these troubles as “sexual dysfunction,” noting that these episodes were “significant public health concern” and needed new treatments—especially for women. But if it’s happening to almost half of women, doesn’t that make sexual problems “normal”, rather than dysfunction?

 

According to Irwin Goldstein, MD, director of San Diego Sexual Medicine and the editor in chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, “We can’t as physicians tell people what is normal.” Yet still we have a burgeoning industry of sexual health medications and centres which tell a different story; your sex drive and/or sexual response falls short of that nonexistent “normal” – but we have the solution for you. However, psychologist Joy Davidson, PhD, who’s on the board of directors of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counsellors and Therapists, asserts “If you say for two weeks out of the past year you had no interest in sex … Well, maybe you were stressed out at work, maybe you were pissed off at your husband. Maybe you had the flu! You can be a very sexually healthy, sexually vital person, but there may be times when your sex drive is low. That’s not a dysfunction; that’s life!”

 

Experienced sexologist Leonore Tiefer, PhD, a psychiatry professor at NYU School of Medicine, has taken this belief one step further and spear-headed a campaign against the “disease-mongering” actions of labelling problems with desire and arousal as female sexual dysfunction. Tiefer explains, “Sexuality is much more a cultural matter than it is a biological matter.” Biology she reserves for dysfunctions in terms of sexual pain, which she acknowledges can be a medical issue. Sexual problems with desire and arousal, then, may occur for non-medical reasons, so does that mean you have to grin and bear it?

 

Andrew Goldstein, MD, an associate professor at George Washington University, argues, “Hurricanes, AIDS, and earthquakes are all natural, but not desirable,” questioning how a doctor can dare to deny your wish to get back your sexual pleasure? In fact, during one of Dr. Tiefer’s lectures about the naturalness of losing libido after menopause, a woman in the audience reportedly protested “But I liked sex!” Aside from the sheer fun of it, sex is important in many wellness areas, be it for starting a family, connecting and growing as a couple or boosting your self-esteem.

 

So whether your sex problems are psychosocial or biological, who cares? “I think both issues are real,” says Marjorie Green, MD, director of the Mount Auburn Female Sexual Medicine Centre, and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. Biology and psychology overlap in the study of sex drive and sexual function more so than in most other areas of human health, and Dr. Green claims she prescribes therapy as often as she prescribes drugs. The important thing to note is that help is available, in whatever treatment it comes, so don’t let your sexual wellness suffer unnecessarily just because your problems are “normal”.

Categories: biological, female sexual, Female Sexual Dysfunction, goldstein md, md director, psychological, Sex Drive, sexual, sexual dysfunction, sexual health, sexual medicine, sexual problems