www.ismaili.net

"All mankind are children except him that is intoxicated with God; none is
grown up except him that is freed from sensual desire.

He (God) said, "This world is a play and pastime, and ye are children"; and God speaks truth.

If you have not gone forth from (taken leave of) play, you are a child:
without purity of spirit how will you be fully intelligent (like an adult)?"

Know, O youth, that the lust in which men are indulging here (in this
world) is like the sexual intercourse of children.

What is the child's sexual intercourse? An idle play, compared with the
sexual intercourse of a Rustam and a brave champion of Islam." (Mathnavi of Rumi Book 1, 3430 onwards)

The following quotes from the Buddhist tradition allude to how spiritual enlightenment attained through Ibaadat may assist in overcoming lower passion and ignorance.

“When tranquility is developed, what purpose does it serve? The mind is developed. And when the mind is developed, what purpose does it serve? Passion is abandoned.

When insight is developed, what purpose does it serve? Discernment is developed. And when discernment is developed, what purpose does it serve? Ignorance is abandoned.”

-Anguttara Nikaya
From "The Pocket Buddha Reader,

***
Drinking the nourishment,
the flavor,
of seclusion & calm,
one is freed from evil, devoid
of distress,
refreshed with the nourishment
of rapture in the Dhamma.

-Dhammapada, 16, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

***
Don't give way to heedlessness
or to intimacy
with sensual delight--
for a heedful person,
absorbed in jhana,
attains an abundance of ease.

-Dhammapada, 2, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Is Sex Good for You?
by Daphne Howland


In the age of AIDS and busy, two-career households, sex is in somewhat of a decline. According to the Masters and Johnson Institute, at least a third of American couples experience "inhibited sexual desire." Yet research shows that people who neglect their sex lives may be missing out on real physiological and psychological benefits.

What Is Good Sex?
When doctors and therapists say sex is good for you, they really mean that "good" sex is good for you. But what is good sex?

"Anything that promotes intimacy and closeness seems to be good for your health," says Anthony Fiore, PhD, a sex therapist in Santa Ana, CA. "Everybody has different standards for what good sex is."

Making time and saving energy for sex should be a priority for even the most harried couples, therapists say. Sexual ability and physicality can atrophy.

The Human Touch
Studies have shown that physical touch between mothers and babies is essential to infant health. Today, hospitals finally allow skin-to-skin contact between new mothers and their newborns because this early touching is so essential to the mother-and-child bond. But many researchers now believe that we never lose the need for human touch. Throughout our lifetime, physical touch enables our bodies to relax and feel comfortable and protected.

Other Physical Benefits of Sex
There is evidence that sex has measurable physical health benefits. Some researchers believe that regular sex promotes a regular menstrual cycle in women, improves women's fertility, and may have a role in promoting calcium into bone. There is even evicence that postmenopausal women who have sex at least once a week have higher levels of blood estrogen and fewer detrimental changes in their vaginal lining.

The Side Effects
While the health benefits of sex may be very real, that's no reason to jump in bed with just anyone. Sexually transmitted diseases are perhaps the most obvious threat to health that can come with indiscriminate sex.

Sex without intimacy is also potentially devastating psychologically. Men and women may find that sex without love or intimacy leaves them vulnerable and depressed.

The Health Benefits of Sex
Many researchers believe that sex and masturbation may provide the following benefits:

Helps regulate menstrual cycles in women whose cycles are irregular
Helps promote fertility
Increases estrogen in women's blood, especially important to post-menopausal women
Lessens vaginal dryness and hot flashes in post-menopausal women
Helps men and women relax
Eases pain in joints and muscles, including the pain of conditions like arthritis
Shields the body from illness and the mind from depression or aggression
Promotes a healthy heart
Lengthens lifespan

Resources:

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
http://www.aamft.org/

Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
http://www.siecus.org/

What about masturbation? Is it good or bad for health? How soon is it normal to have masturbation? I see it as human instinct but what would be a typical normal age when anyone starts.

Ahh...I wonder if we are brave enough to even talk about these things in open. LOL.

[quote="curious2"]What about masturbation? Is it good or bad for health? How soon is it normal to have masturbation? I see it as human instinct but what would be a typical normal age when anyone starts.

Ahh...I wonder if we are brave enough to even talk about these things in open. LOL.[/quote]


CURIOUS2


LOL!!!IS IT THAT HARD FOR YOU?? WHERE ARE YOU COMING FROM???

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
by Amy Scholten, M.P.H.

What are STDs?


Also known as venereal diseases, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are infections that are acquired through sexual contact-vaginal, oral or anal-with an infected person. They are passed to a sexual partner through semen, vaginal fluids and blood, or by direct contact with infections on the skin. STDs afflict the lives of sexually active men and women of all ages, teens, children, homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, and people of all races and colors. Approximately one in five adults in the United States has an STD.

If left untreated, many STDs pose significant health risks, leading to problems such as infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, and diseases in newborns. In some cases, untreated STDs can lead to cancers, blindness and even death. If you have an STD, it is important that you be treated by your doctor or an STD clinic right away. Most STDs need some form of treatment to be cured. There are several STDs that cannot be cured at the present time, although they can and should be treated. Incurable STDs include herpes, genital warts, chronic hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS.

What are symptoms of STDs?

Do not assume that just because you have no symptoms, you do not have an STD infection. Many people with STDs have no symptoms, and they look and feel healthy. For this reason, you should seek testing from your doctor if you have had sex with someone who you think may have an STD infection.

It's important to know what symptoms to look for in yourself and others (since anyone can have an STD). Typically, symptoms affect the genital area. They may appear and disappear-or they may not show up for a period of weeks or even months. Even if the symptoms go away, you can still infect other people if you have sex with them. Likewise, they can infect you.

Common symptoms of STDs include:

redness or swelling in or around the genital area or throat
blisters, sores, or bumps near the genitals, anal area, or mouth
burning or pain in the genital area, especially during urination
any burning or itching in or around the vaginal area
unusual vaginal bleeding (not during the menses), unusual vaginal discharge or odor
pain in the pelvic area or vagina during sexual intercourse
any discharge from the penis
pain in the testicles

How are STDs diagnosed and treated?

How an STD is treated depends upon which particular STD you have. Your health care provider, Planned Parenthood clinic or STD clinic will provide a private and safe examination and whatever testing they think is necessary to identify the source of infection. Usually this is a very simple process. Some STDs can be diagnosed with a urine specimen or by taking a sample of vaginal secretions and looking at it under a microscope. Other STDs are diagnosed through blood samples or by taking a sample of fluid from sores or blisters. Most STDs can be cured with antibiotics which are taken orally. Even if you have an STD that cannot be cured such as herpes, genital warts, chronic hepatitis B, and HIV/AIDS, you still need to be treated. Medications for herpes can help reduce the number and severity of outbreaks. Genital warts can be surgically removed, although the virus that causes them remains active on the skin.

What should I do if I'm diagnosed with an STD?

1. The first thing you need to do is contact anyone you may have infected so that they can get tested. If you are unsure of how to go about doing this, your local health department should be able to help.
2. Take all of your medicine and see your health care provider as prescribed, even if your symptoms have disappeared before your treatment schedule is over.
3. Do not have sex while being treated.

How are STDs prevented?

The most certain ways to avoid contacting an STD are abstaining from sexual relations (including vaginal, oral or anal sex) or having sex with only one partner-someone who only has sex with you. Also, keep in mind that some STDs, such as HIV/AIDS can be spread through the sharing of intravenous drug needles.

In general, your risk of acquiring an STD increases with the number of people with whom you have sex . However, even if you are having sex with only one person, your risk increases if he or she has sex with other people, something which you may or may not know. Keep in mind too that some people who know they have an STD won't tell you. If you or your partner are having sex with more than one person, or if you are unsure of your partner's sexual history, the following steps can reduce your risk of getting STDs:

Use condoms correctly every time you have vaginal, oral and anal sex. Latex condoms offer the best protection against HIV, which is a small enough virus to penetrate other condoms.
Spermicides used in birth control foam, cream or jelly can kill certain STDs. They can offer some extra protection if used along with condoms.
If you use a lubricant along with a latex condom, make sure it's water-based (such as K-Y Jelly). Oil-based lubricants such as Vaseline damage latex.
If you have more than one sexual partner, make sure you are examined for STDs by your health care provider several times per year, even if you have no symptoms.

Medically it is ok having sex during menses, but prohibited in the Holy Quran [fa'tazilunnisa' fil maheezi]. What are your thoughts o­n this issue?

GMR wrote:Medically it is ok having sex during menses, but prohibited in the Holy Quran [fa'tazilunnisa' fil maheezi]. What are your thoughts o­n this issue?

Know any person who likes to do that??? I don't.

Prairie youths having less sex
View Larger Image

Dr. April Elliot, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at the Alberta Children's Hospital, holds a copy of a new study on sexual behaviour and attitudes of teens Tuesday.

CanWest News Service, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Canadian kids are having lots of casual, unprotected sex -- many with multiple partners -- although Prairie teens appear to be doing it less.

According to new research released Tuesday, 18 per cent of Prairie kids aged 14 to 17 are sexually active, compared with 28 per cent in B.C. and 37 per cent in Quebec.

Those figures are in line with what Calgary student Roz G. sees among her peers at Queen Elizabeth High School.

Roz, who asked that her last name not be published, called that reality "frightening."

"It's not right that kids that young are having sex that often," she said. "Some of them have no supervision or they don't know better."

While those numbers may shock some, it's the 24 per cent of sexually active Canadian teens who do not use protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) -- and the nearly 70 per cent who have engaged in oral sex -- that has health officials concerned.

"Risky business," said Dr. April Elliot, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association for Adolescent Health, the Montreal-based group behind the online survey of Canadian youth.

"There is all this information out there that says when you have unprotected sex you are at risk of STIs, yet when you get down to the nitty-gritty these teens are not very knowledgeable," said Elliot, a Calgary pediatrician.

"There are 100,000 kids in this country engaging in very unsafe sexual practices."

Nearly 1,200 teens between 14 and 17 years old and 1,100 mothers were interviewed by Ipsos-Reid last fall. The survey results are considered accurate within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

In another national finding, about 25 per cent of sexually active teens didn't use condoms the last time they had sex, even though 16 per cent knew their partner wasn't monogamous.

Nearly 70 per cent had had oral sex, but many don't know syphilis and gonorrhea can be transmitted via oral sex, the survey found.

"That's so concerning because 90 per cent of teens claim to be knowledgeable and think they are having oral sex to be safer . . . they really don't know the consequences," said Elliot.

"(About) 25 per cent think it can be contracted by sitting on the toilet seat or swimming in a pool," added Montreal pediatrician Jean-Yves Frappier, head of the adolescent division at Sainte Justine Hospital and president of the association.

Roz blames the sex education programming in schools.

The survey appears to support her claim students ignore the lessons. While 82 per cent said they took classes in school, only 22 per cent characterized the information as "very useful."

"It's hard to take a 50-year-old woman talking about sex seriously," Roz said.

But Elliot said parents need to shoulder more responsibility for their teens' sexual knowledge. The survey found an overwhelming number of kids rely on their parents for information, but most parents expect their children to learn from media and movies, she said.

Nationally, about five per cent of sexually active teens say they've been infected with STIs.

On average, teens report having had three partners in their sexual history, and 38 per cent of them engage in casual sex.

In another finding, researchers said more than half the teens identified their parents as their most significant source of information about sex and sexual behaviour.

The Prairie figures, representing Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, are not broken down by province.

dtetley@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2006

Teen sex survey alarms adolescent health experts
Parents 'in denial,' says pregnancy centre director

Joe Woodard, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, March 25, 2006

Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre director Wendy Lowe was not surprised at survey figures from the Canadian Association of Adolescent Health, late last month, showing that almost one in three Grade 9 boys (32 per cent) and one in four Grade 9 girls (22 per cent) have taken part in oral sex.

Centre volunteers teach Take Charge abstinence education in Calgary junior and senior high schools, and they've found that many of their students don't see oral sex as sex.

When one young innocent heard the act described, she blurted out, "Oh, gross!" But then her more jaded classmate responded brusquely, "Get used to it; this is life!" It was a sign, Lowe says, of "a culture in collapse."

"They think, because they can't get pregnant, oral sex is not sex; it's no big deal," Lowe says.

"When we tell them about STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) being transmitted orally, they say, 'No waaay!' Well, yaaah, waaay!"

For the CAAH, Ipsos-Reid surveyed 1,200 teens and 1,100 mothers. They found the proportion of sexually active teens climbed from seven per cent at age 14, to 20 per cent at 15, 34 per cent at 16, and 45 per cent at 17 years of age.

Fully 58 per cent of teens -- and 29 per cent of their moms -- considered oral sex "a good alternative for someone who wants to remain a virgin."

"Parents are in denial," Lowe says.

"It's sex without relationship. The girls call it 'friends with benefit.' Not boyfriend-girlfriend, but friends with benefit. But the benefit's all the boys'. When I ask girls, 'What's the benefit for you?' they can't say anything."

Most media commentary on the CAAH survey focuses on the dangers of sexually transmitted disease among the 17 per cent of youth who believe that oral sex has no STD risks.

But Lowe worries as much or more about the cultural and spiritual risks for everyone. In the survey, teens say their parents have by far the greatest influence on their sexual attitudes -- but their mothers assume that their peers do. So, Lowe says, "the failure of feminism" has created a youth culture where the girls are desperately needy and the boys, mindless spasms.

An article in The Atlantic (Jan/Feb 2006) described the trend as "a nation of girls on their knees."

And a 2005 Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry study of 1,413 girls under 16 strongly links adolescent sexual activity with serious psychological and social problems: "more symptoms of depression, a more pessimistic outlook, less motivation."

Says Lowe, "What's driving this is a desperate need for intimacy. Teenage girls are doing oral sex because it makes them popular with the guys.

"The boys have no need to court. So they're hardwiring their young brains for impersonal sex, and don't realize they're setting a pattern for the rest of their lives -- lives without intimacy."

Multiple surveys show that almost all youth want a lifelong marriage and a stable family, Lowe says, but "when we don't teach adolescents about self-restraint, how can we expect them to practise fidelity in marriage?"

Colorado Springs therapist Doug Weiss, who periodically runs sexual addiction workshops at Centre Street Church, says North America is facing "a long nightmare" because kids now live in "a sexual sewer."

"Sex without meaning, sex without emotional or spiritual commitment, sex that's lost its soul," says Weiss, who has appeared on Oprah and Good Morning America, among others.

"The relatively tame Playboy of the '50s gave us the marriage breakups of the '70s. So what'll the Internet and latchkey homes give us?"

Weiss predicts adolescent "object sex" will result in "more divorce, more abandoned children, more disease and more empty hearts." He begs parents, teachers and pastors to "bring the soul back into sex." And, "It wouldn't hurt if parents knew where their kids were."

"Kids want moral guidance. But the parents forfeit that, because of their own guilt and shame. So they leave their kids defenceless, when they have a responsibility to keep them safe."

Youth pastor Carmen Kokol, 33, with Friends Church in the city's northwest, says STDs are now "old news." And "no-one talks about the repercussions" of adolescent sex "from a psychological and spiritual perspective."

"I tell kids, there's no such thing as 'just sex,' and anyone who says there is, is lying," Kokol says.

"Sure, kids give their parents grief, but they respect them a lot more than parents realize. They want their parents to be honest with them, to say what they really think."

A 17-year-old Sir Winston Churchill High student says oral sex is now "a common thing."

"There's a lot of it," says the teenager. "Girls do it, 'cause they think they'll have a relationship, and then the boys dump them in a week."

CPCC's Wendy Lowe likens the trend to the degraded sexuality of slave-holding ancient Rome, "where men did whatever they wanted with women, because they owned them." Only now the girls are disposable.

In the end, Lowe says, "Rome could be redeemed only by the Gospel. And our kids are so far gone, there's no other answer for us."

jwoodard@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2006

Ok now this something goes against my principals because I have not read this forum nor I know what it is all about but thought about writing as one of those journal entries that you just write.
I usually have post sex problems (I am not sure if that is considered a problem):
In my teenage years, after my rendezvous with my girlfriend(s) I’d be thirsty and hungry.
In my post teenage years I remember my girlfriend calling sex my sleeping pill.
And now afterwards it is like I would like to go hunting for a buffalo, just too much energy!
I must admit I did go see alice (I know how to spell the brad name, just humor me, and no not the city in France either) -once, but it was like winning a world series with a corked bat in 50 minutes or so; although I didn’t mind the extra 15 minutes of overtime, I’d say the ED-Pills are just overrated.

Talking to Your Kids About Sexually Transmitted Infections
by Skye Schulte, MS, MPH

http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandheali ... mc_id=NL44

It used to be that all kids had to worry about was the math test they didn’t study enough for or who they were going to go with to the prom. As a parent, it may be difficult to accept that your children are sexual—and even harder to think of them engaging in behaviors that would put them at risk for diseases like AIDS or herpes.

More than three million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are diagnosed in teenagers each year, making conversations with children about prevention, screening, and early treatment very important. Below are a few strategies you can use when talking to your children about sex and sexually transmitted infections.

Strategies for Talking to Your Kids
-Educate yourself about the facts. See Facts about Sexually Transmitted Infections for information on common symptoms, risk factors, treatments, and ways to protect against specific STIs. Share this information with your children.
-Don’t use scare tactics. Empower your children with the facts and try to correct misconceptions about STIs. For instance, many teens may think that oral sex or mutual masturbation is safe even though many STIs can be passed on these ways.
-Be a good communicator.
It is ideal to start talking to your children about sex and sexually transmitted infections as soon as they first ask about it. This communication can start when they are very young and just asking about their body parts and “what makes babies?”
-Focus on the facts. Try not to spread sexual misconceptions like “you’ll grow hair on your palms if you masturbate.”
-Express compassion, morals, and your position, without harsh or oppressive words.
-Answer questions simply and look for ways to expand the conversation. Make the talk more of a dialog than a lecture.
-Use age-appropriate language. How you talk to a four-year-old about his body is very different than the teenage pre-prom talk. Children ask for and need different information at different ages.
-Shift focus of your talks to the social and emotional aspects of sex, including:
Dating/date rape
Setting limits to sexual activity
Decision-making
Resisting peer pressure
Birth control and STIs
Masturbation and other activities

-Be prepared to learn that your children have become interested in sex. It may be difficult to think of your children as sexual, but ignoring the issue could put them in danger.
-Talk about prevention techniques. Abstinence, masturbation, other types of intimacy (massages, talking, cuddling) and safer-sex are all ways your chidren can reduce their risk of getting an STI.
-Remember your childhood and adolescence. What were the risks you took? The consequences? Relating personal stories and experiences can make the threat of STIs seem more real.
-Provide a variety of resources for later questions. Your children may have questions that they are embarrassed to ask. Help them find resources or information that may answer such questions. This could also include encouraging them to talk with their doctor or other trusted adults if they have questions.
-Take advantage of “teachable moments.” Television programs, a friend’s pregnancy, or other times that sex or STIs are mentioned are good times to initiate discussions about STIs and how your children can protect themselves. It is generally better to have many smaller discussions about sex than one big talk.

Help Your Children Protect Themselves

-Provide good role models: Children can learn from your example and the example of other good role models like older siblings, relatives, and friends.
-Promote self-confidence: Praise honesty, independence, talent, effort, responsibility, and good decision-making. This will promote self-confidence, which can help your children to overcome peer pressure and to make good decisions about sex.
-Encourage positive feelings about sex: People who have positive feelings about sex, their bodies, and masturbation are more likely to protect themselves from STIs, unintended pregnancy, and sexual abuse. Try to instill these positive feelings about sex in your children.
-Foster good decision-making skills: Offer options instead of giving orders. By making good choices and decisions from an early age, children will gain practice in making good decisions.
-Develop trust: If your children know that you will be there for them no matter what errors of judgment they make, they may be more willing to trust you with information about their sexual activity and ask questions. Try to be patient and reasonable to foster this trusting relationship. Respecting your children's privacy, personal space, and individuality can also help gain trust.
Reassure your child: Children can feel isolated and depressed going through the teen years. Stress that "being different is normal" and that other teens have similar feelings. This will help to reassure them that the experiences they are going through are normal.

Preventing and Minimizing the Impact of STIs
Getting vaccinated: A vaccination is available for hepatitis B. Vaccines are also being developed for other STIs caused by viruses. Ask you doctor about new vaccines that may be available.
Avoiding contact: It is much easier to prevent an STI than to cure or treat it afterward. The only way to completely prevent STIs is to have no type of sexual contact.
Reducing the risk of exposure when having sex: Condoms are the only birth control method that offers protection against STIs. The risk of getting an STI can also be reduced by having sex within a monogamous relationship and by making sure you and your partner have tested negative for infection.
Getting annual medical check-ups: These are important even if you do not believe your child is sexually active. You child should have regular gynecological or male genital exams by the time they are 18 years old, or sooner if they are sexually active.
Accessing confidential health care: Often teens will have a difficult time telling their parents or even friends about STI symptoms or exposures. Having access to confidential health care assures that they will get the medical attention and tests that they need.

What to Do if Your Child Has an STI
Provide access to treatment. STIs must be accurately diagnosed and fully treated (when possible) to prevent long-term health problems and permanent disability or even death.
Reassure your child that having an STI does not make him or her a bad person.
Offer access to counseling to address any sexual, emotional, or relationship issues.
Encourage your child to communicate his or her sexual health status to future sexual partners.
Work with your health care provider to develop strategies for reducing complications from an STI.
Don’t play the blame game. There are some STIs, including hepatitis B and bacterial vaginosis, which may be spread in other ways than through sexual activity. Jumping to conclusions and accusing your child can have a negative impact on your relationship.

RESOURCES:

Kidshealth for Parents
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent

Planned Parenthood Federation of America
http://www.plannedparenthood.org

Sources:

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Komaroff AL. Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster; 1999

The following article that appeared in today's Calgary Herald makes one wonder whether there is any ethical method of contraception apart from abstinence.

Study raises rhythm method ethical questions

Published: Thursday, May 25, 2006
A British medical ethics journal has published a new and controversial claim -- that the rhythm method of birth control could be creating more "embryonic deaths" than morning-after pills, IUDs or other methods often attacked by groups opposed to abortion.

Luc Bovens, a London School of Economics political science professor, says "massive" numbers of embryos are conceived through the rhythm method, but lost when those early embryos are unable to implant in the womb because they are made from "old" eggs or "old" sperm lingering at the fringes of a woman's most fertile period.

It's an argument that rests heavily on the assumption that embryos conceived outside the "heightened fertility period" are less viable than those created in the middle. Doctors say no firm evidence exists to prove that theory.

However, a prominent Canadian fertility expert says the argument is valid, raising the possibility that the success of the only birth control method sanctioned by the Catholic Church partly hinges on creating embryos that cannot survive.

Author Bovens, who fielded calls Wednesday from media outlets, says he wrote the article, published today in the Journal of Medical Ethics, out of a concern for consistency.

The philosopher and professor of ethics says the same logic that turns groups opposed to abortion away from morning-after pills, IUDS and oral contraceptives "should also make them nervous about the rhythm method."

He says condoms, long opposed by the Catholic Church, would cause fewer embryonic deaths than the rhythm method.

"Even a policy of practising condom usage and having an abortion in case of failure would cause less embryonic deaths than the rhythm method," Bovens writes.

The method relies on abstinence during the most fertile period of a woman's menstrual cycle -- around days 10 to 17 for a woman who has regular 28-day cycles.

"If you really care about a conceived ovum, and consider it to be a full-fledged human being . . . you have to give up the fact that you're deeply concerned about embryos" if using the rhythm method, Bovens said in an interview.

The Catholic Church decrees that life begins at the moment of conception.

"I think they're really in a tricky position here," Bovens said.

© The Calgary Herald 2006

Birth defects tied to father's age
Quality of sperm deteriorates in older men

Published: Tuesday, June 06, 2006
From the female point of view, one of nature's seeming inequities is that men can father children well into their senior years, while women's child-bearing window slams shut many decades earlier. Well, it turns out that becoming a dad later in life may not be such a hot idea after all, researchers say.

In a study of sperm from almost 100 healthy, non-smoking men aged 22 to 80, U.S. scientists found that the prevalence of certain genetic damage appears to increase with age -- and that can lead to infertility, unsuccessful pregnancies for their partners and the risk of passing on such genetic diseases as dwarfism to their offspring.

"There is consequence to delaying fatherhood," said principal investigator Andrew Wyrobek, a biophysicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. "The probability of infertility goes up, the risk of abnormal pregnancy goes up and the risk of dwarfism goes up, and perhaps other genetic diseases as well."

The researchers found that the more birthdays a man had seen come and go, the higher the prevalence of DNA breakage in their sperm, a condition that can lead to infertility or pregnancies that end in miscarriage. Also more common with age was a gene mutation that causes dwarfism, an inherited defect that occurs in about one in every 25,000 births. Affected individuals have shortened arms and legs and reach a full adult height of about only four feet.

Compared with men in their 20s, a 50-year-old has a 34 per cent higher risk of producing a child who is a dwarf, while an 80-year-old's risk is 85 per cent higher. Put another way, "one-third of men will have double the risk of having a child with dwarfism," Wyrobek said Monday from Livermore, Calif.

However, the multicentre study found no correlation between male aging and an increased risk of Down syndrome or other forms of birth defects associated with too few or two many chromosomes, including Turner syndrome and triple X syndrome.

© The Calgary Herald 2006

Unlike a virgin: the power of music
Sexy tunes fuel teen promiscuity, survey suggests

Lindsey Tanner, The Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Teenagers whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study suggests.

Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behaviour appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.

Songs depicting men as "sex-driven studs," women as sex objects and with explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual behaviour than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed, the study found.

Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

Among heavy listeners, 51 per cent started having sex within two years, versus 29 per cent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music "gives them a specific message about sex," said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corp. in Pittsburgh. Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said.

"We think that really lowers kids' inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful" about sexual decisions and may influence them to make decisions they regret, he said.

The study, based on telephone interviews with 1,461 participants aged 12 to 17, appears in the August issue of Pediatrics, released Monday.

Most participants were virgins when they were first questioned in 2001. Followup interviews were done in 2002 and 2004 to see if music choice had influenced subsequent behaviour.

Natasha Ramsey, a 17-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J., said she sometimes listens to sexually explicit songs because she likes the beat.

"I won't really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl," Natasha said.

Even so, the message "is being beaten into the teens' heads," she said.

"A lot of teens think that's the way they're supposed to be, they think that's the cool thing to do. Because it's so common, it's accepted," said Natasha, a teen editor for Sexetc.org , a teen sexual health website produced at Rutgers University.

"Teens will try to deny it, they'll say 'No, it's not the music,' but it is the music. That has one of the biggest impacts on our lives," Natasha said.

Benjamin Chavis, CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a coalition of hip-hop musicians and recording industry executives, said explicit music lyrics reflect "social and economic realities."

© The Calgary Herald 2006

Abstinence still works


Calgary Herald


Thursday, August 17, 2006


It should come as no surprise that a new study shows teaching kids abstinence results in them delaying their first sexual experience. The study of 662 Grade 6 and 7 kids in Philadelphia found that those taught abstinence were less likely to have engaged in sex two years later when researchers followed up than kids taught only about the mechanics of contraception.

That is likely because teaching abstinence is not merely a matter of waggling a chiding finger at kids and telling them to stay away from sex. It also involves discussions about respect for self and others, and about the values of waiting until marriage or a committed relationship.

Kids taught solely from a utilitarian point of view pick up the assumption from adults that they're going to do it anyway, so here's a condom and here's how you use it.

Sex is not elevated beyond the status of a purely physical act and does not come with taboos except that of protecting oneself from disease and pregnancy.

Educators need to realize that for best results, discussions of sex cannot be divorced from the issue of morality and self-respect.

© The Calgary Herald 2006

I applaud Brother KMaherAli for excellent posts. But I think that most succinct is in his first post, i.e. spiritual imbalance leads to a void and any temporary drug like habit can fill it and cause gradual degeneration.

However, the teenagers have a more difficult problem. They dont have the analytical skills to understand and refute the baits thrown at them. Children blame their parents for the disciplining that they ought to be thankful for. For example even adults have been unable to analyse the lies that media throws at them. I am sure that one day a lot of people will know that muslims never demolished the WTC towers. I have read the history of actual conspiracies well and understand the progression. How the land of Palestine was traded by England for the support jews would bring for England in WW1 from the entry of United States on their side.

I have particularly found great benefit from a book called the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion on how to abolish the temptation of sex, by understanding its origin. It is irrelevent to me if the protocols was a hoax or who ever wrote it. What is relevant to me is the fact that its a superb piece of psychology and understanding of human condition. And it was written by not one person but a committee because such a brilliant piece of analysis could not have been formulated by any individual and within a lifetime of experience. One needs several lifetimes of experience to synthesize that understanding.

Protocols preceeded the works of Freud, Marx, and possibly Darwin. It preceeded the Communist revolution as well as Benjamin Disraeli, the first Jewish Prime Minister of England.

Protocols has many brilliant ideas, but one is to use the unattainable idea of freedom as a bait to trap and mislead its adversaries. You can find it now freely on plenty of websites on the internet. It was a highly suppressed book and a must read for the development of analytical abilities, a strong antidote to the propaganda of sex. Still, it is reactionary attitude, but I think both fear of Satanic forces and the love of God are simultaneously needed to protect ourselves. The last Sura of Holy Quran embodies that fear of satanic forces (ie awareness and protection from it), "min sharr-i-l Waswasil Khannas".

As for masturbation, though not unlawful in Islam (if I am correct), any indulgence is bad, and very bad. Perhaps it is indication of too much unused energy, or some physical imbalance, or mismanagement of bodily and mental resources. Regular physical exercise and healthy jamatkhana life as many of our parents generation had conveniently in the muslim countries is an excellent shield.

On the issue of gay, wild animals inside yourself should be domesticated and can be domesticated.

I don't think it's unlawful in islam, after all we're not like some christian sects who promote celibacy. If we're not hurting anyone masturbation is okay, but too much of anything is not good. There has to be a balance. And it's a good alternative for those who abstain until marriage.

Purity balls
In praise of chastity
Nov 16th 2006 | VAN WERT, OHIO
From The Economist print edition
Staving off the evils of sex before marriage


“YOU'RE here to celebrate the idea of purity,” intones the pastor solemnly. “You find people in the sack all the time in the movies...But God has a better plan.”
Some 40 couples showed up at a country club in the tiny Ohio town of Van Wert on November 11th—not boyfriend and girlfriend but fathers and their school-age daughters, several as young as 10, dressed up in glittery gowns and heels.
After the pastor finishes, fathers and daughters sign pledges to help keep the girl chaste before marriage. Daughters agree to “remain sexually pure until the day I give myself as a wedding gift to my husband.” Then the father gives the daughter a ring, to be worn on her fourth finger until it is replaced by a wedding band. Hugs ensue, then a prayer, and then fathers and daughters take to the floor to the strains of “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?”
Purity balls are one of the newest ways that Christians are trying to keep their children chaste and free of sexually-transmitted diseases. The first started seven years ago in Colorado Springs, a city that is home to the lately disgraced Reverend Ted Haggard. That event is now held at a five-star hotel. This month over 200 people attended.
The concept is spreading around the country. Van Wert got its ball after the pastor and his wife moved from Albuquerque, where they had run another such event. The Van Wert ball is now in its second year, and has inspired two other nearby towns to begin their own. In Colorado Springs, Lisa Wilson, the ball organiser, says she has sent information packs to groups in 21 states and four countries—New Zealand, Sweden, France and Canada. Sponsors, including Wal-Mart and McDonald's in Van Wert, sometimes help pick up the tab for the events.
But what about the boys? Surely they bear at least half of the blame for the scourge of pre-marital sex? In Colorado Springs, Ms Wilson and her husband have created a private “manhood celebration” for their 12-year-old son. He is handed an engraved sword and urged to “grow into the weight of manhood”, which includes purity. In Van Wert, ball-goers agree that there should be an event for the boys. Which, if indoctrination of the girls works, seems a reasonable idea. Otherwise the chaste will constantly be chased.

http://chinadaily.cn/world/2006-12/04/c ... 749801.htm

Muslim woman gives sex advice on Arab TV
(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-04 11:46

CAIRO, Egypt - Heba Kotb is a conservative Muslim, wears an Islamic head scarf, and goes on television once a week to talk - frankly and in great detail - about sex.


Muslim sexologist Heba Kotb, who on her weekly television show answers questions from Muslims across the Middle East about the most intimate bedroom issues with an openness that is shocking to some and revolutionary to others in a society where talking about sex remains taboo, speaks to an Associated Press reporter in Cairo, Egypt Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006. [AP]

On her show, "Big Talk," Kotb answers questions from Muslims all over the Middle East about the most intimate bedroom issues with an openness that is shocking and revolutionary in a society where discussing the subject is taboo.

"How do I talk about these issues? Very seriously," the Egyptian sexologist says. "I put on a mask-like face and make sure I speak in the right tone of voice."

She also does it by talking about sex in an Islamic light, arguing that the faith is in favor of pleasure for both men and women, with one important caveat - that it be only in the context of marriage.

"I'm very proud of my religion," Kotb told The Associated Press in an interview at Cairo University, where she teaches forensic medicine. "My studies revealed to me more and more how Islam was ahead in all sexual matters ... I discovered that Islam understood sex long before the rest of the world."

For example, Islam "stresses the importance of foreplay," Kotb said, and she often stresses to listeners that women should also enjoy sex.

Kotb's frankness is a hit in a region where sex education is minimal, male-female contact is often discouraged and talk on the subject is usually in hushed tones, allowing myths to circulate freely.

She lectured in Saudi Arabia and Yemen recently, where she said many men in the audience where shocked, while women - some with veiled faces - bombarded her with questions.

Kotb, 39 and married with three daughters, studied sexology with Maimonides University, a private school in Florida, and combined it with her own knowledge of her religion to produce a dissertation titled "Sexuality in Islam." She opened a sexology clinic in Cairo in 2002, wrote sex advice columns in newspapers, appeared on talk shows and answered questions on an Arabic Web site.

She started "Big Talk" on the independent Egyptian satellite channel El-Mehwar more than two months ago.

Much of her advice is straight biology - laying out facts rarely aired elsewhere. Nothing is too sensitive. She discusses sexual positions, female orgasm, oral sex (allowed, "since there is no religious text banning it"), even masturbation (frowned upon but at least preferable to unmarried or adulterous sex, which is "haram," meaning forbidden by religion).

She takes a strict Islamic line on homosexuality - she calls it a disease.

Along with doctors, she sometimes brings Islamic clerics onto her show, and many callers ask about the religion's rulings on sexual issues.

Because Islam trumps all else on her show, some complain that it's part of a general inclination in the Middle East to view everything through the prism of religion.

"After Islamic banks, Islamic fashion, Islamic TV channels, Islamic hairdressers, Islamic swimsuits, Islamic writers ... now Islamic sex? This is too much," protested feminist writer Mona Helmi in a column in the Egyptian pro-government weekly Rose el-Youssef.

"Sex is an emotional and human condition, not a religious or identity issue," she said.

Some complain that youngsters are watching the show.

"So now girls and boys have heard all about Heba's talk about sex ... that will let them know more than they should and will get them excited," Somia, a housewife, told AP as she watched "Big Talk," too embarrassed to give her full name.

Kotb says frankness is essential and believes 80 per cent of divorces in the Arab world are due to sexual problems brought on by ignorance and societal pressure, such as the idea that man must marry a virgin.

"Many women know nothing about their bodies, not to mention sex, and they were raised to believe sex is for men and a dirty thing," she says.

She gives sex education courses for unmarried youths with the consent of their parents, but in her consulting practice takes only married couples. She says she is booked up for two months with couples from across the Arab world.

"It's a beautiful thing what she is doing," said Abier El-Barbary, a psychotherapist and faculty member of American University in Cairo. "It's a long overdue topic tastefully done," she said.

Vaccines don't alter values


Calgary Herald


Saturday, February 03, 2007


If researchers came up with a vaccine that, given in childhood, prevented men from developing prostate cancer or protected girls against breast cancer, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that children should receive the shot.

There is no reason to take a different attitude toward Gardasil, the new vaccine that protects against four forms of sexually transmitted human papilloma virus that can cause cervical cancer.

The backlash against the vaccine stems from the virus's link with sexual activity, and the supposedly implicit assumption behind a mass vaccination program that all girls are suspected of being promiscuous until proven innocent.

That's nonsense. A woman who remains chaste until marriage can still contract the virus if her husband has had multiple sex partners before her. Nor will the vaccination make girls feel invincible and thus more likely to engage in risky behaviours. The moral teachings instilled in a person run deeper than that; vaccines do not alter values.

Hepatitis B can be picked up from contaminated needles used to inject illicit drugs. Hepatitis B vaccinations are now routine in schools, but nobody has ever suggested they spur children on to become heroin addicts.

Several U.S. states have mandated the Gardasil vaccine -- which is 95 per cent effective against the viruses that cause 70 per cent of cervical cancer -- be given to all girls by the time they enter Grade 6. Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization is also recommending mass vaccinations.

Pushback is coming from people who appear to believe that good girls don't get cervical cancer, with the tacit suggestion that if they do, it's their just due for not being as virtuous as they ought.

The kind of double standard that dictates women should be denied a vaccine that can potentially save their lives belongs in another century. Girls should no more be denied this vaccine than they should be denied protection from polio.

© The Calgary Herald 2007

Governor orders girls to get vaccine

Herald News Services

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Bypassing the legislature, Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

By issuing an executive order, Perry apparently sidesteps opposition in the legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way parents raise their children.

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering Grade 6 -- generally girls ages 11 and 12 -- will have to get Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.

Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the United States mandating Gardasil for girls.

© The Calgary Herald 2007

School girls may get cancer vaccine

Alberta studies controversial HPV program

Eva Ferguson
Calgary Herald; with files from Canwest News Services


Monday, February 05, 2007


Alberta Health and Wellness is looking at providing the public school system with a new vaccine to immunize girls against the virus that causes cervical cancer.

A final decision isn't expected for another year while the Canadian Immunization Committee examines the benefits and costs of offering the shot against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).

But local health experts are thrilled about the unprecedented introduction of a simple injection that stops a certain cancer.

"I'm really excited about this. This is a new vaccine that actually has the possibility to prevent a large proportion of a type of cancer," says Dr. Peter Tilley, a medical microbiologist for Alberta Health and Wellness's provincial lab in Calgary and program leader for sexually transmitted diseases.

"This has never happened before."

Last week the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended all girls and women aged nine to 26 should be vaccinated.

Tracy Welsh, public affairs officer for Alberta Health, says the province likes the idea of a vaccine and the fact that it can be preventative. But more information needs to come forward, including whether it's more beneficial to put funding into a vaccine or put more funding into education, awareness and screening programs.

"This vaccine will prevent two strains of HPV -- the two which cause 70 per cent of all cervical cancers," Welsh said.

"But our decision to publicly fund this has been put on hold," Welsh said, while the Canadian Immunization Committee weighs various factors.

She said that committee, which is separate from the national advisory group, is examining how exactly the vaccine affects cervical cancer rates, different characteristics of the vaccine, its effects on the public as well as operational requirements like funding and staffing a vaccination program.

Last week, Virginia lawmakers endorsed legislation requiring girls be vaccinated for HPV before going into Grade 6. At least a dozen other U.S. states are considering similar bills.

And Canada could soon see school-based HPV vaccination, says Dr. Shelley Deeks, senior medical specialist in the immunizations and respiratory infections division at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Because Canada has been successful in other school-based immunization programs, like hepatitis B shots for Grade 5 students, support for an HPV shot could follow.

Officials with the Calgary Board of Education didn't want to comment on the vaccine until a final decision is made by Alberta Health.

But parents of girls were supportive of the idea.

"I'd be in favour of anything that prevents anyone from having to fight any type of cancer," said Dolores Van Lee Uwen, the mother of a 17-year-old girl, who sits on two parent councils at Terry Fox Elementary and James Fowler High School

"Why go through it if you don't have to?"

Jerry Berger-Martindale, spokeswoman for the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils, says she's open to introducing the vaccination program in schools, particularly if it's proven to be safe and effective.

"It sounds sensible, like a really good long-term strategy."

Berger-Martindale, the mother of a high-school daughter, adds that introducing the vaccine could be an opportunity to educate parents and their daughters about sexually transmitted diseases. "The kids all think they're so immortal, especially the younger ones. They're the ones who often think they can get away with unprotected sex."

Studies suggest 10 to 29 per cent of women in Canada are infected with HPV, making it the most common sexually transmitted infection in Canada.

HPV causes almost all cervical cancers, killing an estimated 290,000 women worldwide, including about 400 in Canada, each year.

Still there may be controversy over the vaccine's introduction.

Tilley admits introducing a shot for girls as young as nine for a sexually transmitted disease means many parents may have to raise discussions about sex or HPV much earlier than they'd like.

That's one of several issues the Canadian committee may be considering, Tilley says.

And adding the vaccine to the hepatitis B shot that all Grade 5 students receive may ease some of the stigma surrounding HPV.

Van Lee Uwen says parents will always have the choice of whether they approve the shot for their daughters and whether they'll have a discussion about sexually transmitted viruses like HPV.

"Parents would still have the option to say yes or no, like they do with hep B already.

"Either way, it should be readily available to the public."

The high cost of the vaccine may also be a stumbling block.

Merck & Co. had its Gardasil vaccine approved in July. It's available privately through family doctors at $135 a shot.

Girls, however, must receive the injection three times for it to be effective, totalling a cost of $405 per patient.

Welsh says that's why the Canadian committee is weighing the cost of providing the shot against the cost of increased awareness and screening programs.

eferguson@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2007

Kids playing HIV roulette
Reckless sexual attitudes heighten risk for teens


Calgary Herald


Saturday, February 17, 2007


It's not working. Kids still are not getting the message about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS.

Gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia are on the rise in Calgary, according to statistics from the Calgary Health Region. All three diseases have seen a jump in the number of cases, with chlamydia up 20 per cent in the first nine months of 2006 over the previous year, gonorrhea also with higher year-over-year numbers and syphilis staging a comeback.

Even more frightening is the perception among teenagers that AIDS is nothing to fear. Dr. Ron Read, medical leader of the Calgary Health Region's Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic says kids aren't motivated to use condoms because they view AIDS as a controllable disease.

This, despite the ocean of information in which these kids are swimming. There is no reason for them not to be informed, but either they don't understand the implications of what they're hearing, or thanks to a pernicious sense of adolescent invincibility, they think it won't happen to them and if it does, it's no big deal.

Information on AIDS is now given to kids as early as Grade 6. Alberta Learning's sex-ed curriculum, taught in required high school Career and Life Management classes, makes AIDS education a priority. Several videos available to high school teachers focus on AIDS prevention, transmission and treatment, as well as interviews with HIV patients who talk about how the disease has affected their lives.

Yet, teens continue to behave as if somehow, the existence of anti-retroviral drugs has mitigated AIDS' 100 per cent fatality rate by putting off the inevitable into what, from a teen perspective, must seem a very distant future -- by which time there'll probably be a cure anyway.

"Kids hear about people contracting it and lasting 15 years or longer -- and they wonder what the big deal is," says Susan Cress of AIDS Calgary. The average age of death from AIDS is 40 -- an unimaginably distant age for someone who's 15.

A 2003 national school sex survey revealed that half of Grade 9 students across Canada believed AIDS is curable. Forty-five Alberta schools backed away from the survey after then-learning minister Lyle Oberg declared he thought it could lead to promiscuity.

This type of attitude on the part of adults may be contributing to the problem. Adults can hide their heads in the sand and take a "see-no-evil" attitude toward teen behaviour, but that isn't going to stop the kids from having sex.

Far better to face facts and find ways to make sure kids stay safe, especially with scary stats floating about such as those from the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, which show that in 2001, females between 15 and 29 had 45 per cent of the AIDS cases among Canadian women.

And according to AVERT, an international AIDS charity, as of June 2006, there were 1,252 cases of AIDS in Alberta, which is among the top four provinces responsible for 95 per cent of national cases (the other three are B.C., Ontario and Quebec).

AVERT estimates that of the 58,000 Canadians living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005, 30 per cent were unaware they had been infected, with 4,500 new cases occurring each year.

How do you reach kids who seem amazingly blase about all this grim information being fed them?

The message needs to be hammered home. Paramount, of course, is their own health, and protecting them from an always fatal disease. Preventing infection also has implications for the public health system. Alberta pays for some AIDS drugs, but the high costs of treating the opportunistic infections that come with the disease must be figured in as well.

Apart from abstinence, which is an unrealistic expectation, using condoms is the best way to prevent the spread of infection.

If kids are tuning out to this message in school, then let them hear it elsewhere: through online ads at such websites as kiwibox.com and nexopia, posters in high school washrooms, or maybe even cellphone advertising.

The message is a simple one: Use condoms -- your life depends upon it.

© The Calgary Herald 2007

Doctors running out of ways to treat gonorrhea
Bacterium now resistant to all antibiotics but one

Helen Branswell
The Canadian Press


Friday, April 13, 2007


The wily gonorrhea bacterium appears to be en route to vanquishing yet another class of antibiotics, leaving just one last weapon in the arsenal to fight this very common sexually transmitted disease.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Thursday urged American doctors to stop using all antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone class to treat gonorrhea, a decision prompted by rising rates of resistance among gonorrhea strains isolated in the United States and beyond.

Doctors should use antibiotics from the cephalosporin class, said Dr. John Douglas, noting this is the only class of drugs still effective against the infection. He also warned there are no new antibiotics in the pharmaceutical pipeline to fight gonorrhea.

"Clearly there is an urgent need for new, effective medicines to treat gonorrhea, as we are running out of options to treat this serious disease," said Douglas, director of the sexually transmitted disease division of the CDC's national centre for HIV-AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention.

Canadian health authorities haven't yet issued this guidance nationally. But this country is seeing the same phenomenon of rising fluoroquinolone resistance in gonorrhea, said Dr. Tom Wong, director of the Public Health Agency of Canada's community acquired infections division.

"It is alarming and it is bad news," Wong said from Ottawa. "The development of superbugs really is something to be concerned about, whether it is gonorrhea or some other bugs in Canada."

After chlamydia, gonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted disease in Canada, with roughly 9,000 confirmed infections in 2005. The most common complications of untreated gonorrhea are pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility in women, and sterility in men.

Since antibiotic-like drugs were introduced in the 1930s, gonorrhea has developed resistance to each new class used to fight it -- sulfa drugs, penicillin and tetracycline.

The Canadian national resistance rate to fluoroquinolone is slightly higher than the U.S. figure, reaching 15.7 per cent in 2005 compared to the 13.3 per cent the American agency found in the first half of 2006.

But the public health agency says the wide variation in the resistance problem across geographic regions suggests there are still parts of the country where fluoroquinolones can be effective.

Canadian treatment guidelines issued last year say physicians treating a patient with gonorrhea should check local resistance levels and take a travel history from the patient to get a sense of whether the infection was acquired locally or in another area where rates might be higher or lower.

Based on that information, doctors should decide whether to treat with fluoroquinolones or use a cephalosporin drug, Wong said.

© The Calgary Herald 2007

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/19/op ... nted=print

May 19, 2007
Guest Columnist
Let's Talk About Sex
By ATUL GAWANDE

One statistic seems to me to give the lie to all the rhetoric about abortion, and it's this: one in three women under the age of 45 have an abortion during their lifetime. One in three. All politicians — Democrat and Republican — say they want to make abortion at least rare (as Giuliani did in Wednesday's debate). On, this they could reach agreement. But it's clear they haven't been serious; the U.S. has 1.3 million abortions a year.

Reducing unintended pregnancy is the key — half of pregnancies are unintended, and 4 in 10 of them end in abortion. For a while now, we've had solid evidence about how to effectively do this. But it requires getting specific about two subjects that are perilous in politics: sex and contraception. That, politicians won't do. So let me try to help with four facts everyone needs to know.

Fact one is that, with children, parents do matter. Reviews of multiple studies have shown that parents who maintain a close relationship with their teenage children, monitor them carefully, and send a certain message about sex actually do reduce unintended pregnancies. That message, when most effective, is neither permissive about sex nor focused only on abstinence, but instead combines two components. First, it emphasizes throughout high school that teenagers should wait until they're older to have sex (because the majority regret not waiting; because having a child as a child wrecks their lives); and second, it makes it clear that when they ultimately have sex, they should always use protection.

More children are, in fact, getting this message. Pregnancies at age 15 to 17 are down 35 percent since 1995, according to federal data; one-fourth of the drop is from delaying sex, and three-fourths is from increased use of contraceptives. Today, just 7 percent of abortions occur in minors.

Fact two follows from this: Abortion is mainly an adult problem. Forty-five percent of abortions occur in adults ages 18 to 24; 48 percent occur after age 25. Most are in women who have already had a child. The kids are all right. We are the issue.

Fact three is that our biggest problem is not using contraception properly: 92 percent of abortions occur in women who said they used birth control. Six in 10 used contraception the month they got pregnant. The others reported that they had used birth control previously but, for one reason or another, not that month. (Many, for example, say they didn't expect to have sex.) The trouble appears to be blindness to how easy it is to get pregnant and what it takes to make birth control really work.

Oral contraceptive pills, for example, are nearly 100 percent effective when used consistently. But in the real world, they fail 8 percent of the time — that is, 8 in 100 women on the pill get pregnant in a year. The lower dose hormone formulations used nowadays have fewer side effects, but missing a dose by even six hours puts a woman at serious risk. (One should add condoms for that whole month, experts say.) Miss two days and one is effectively not on birth control at all. Anyone prone to missing really needs to consider switching methods.

Birth control requires constancy, and most people overestimate how constant they can be. Fifteen percent of women who rely only on condoms get pregnant in a year, largely from inconsistency in using them. Withdrawal is even more dicey — it has a 25 percent failure rate.

The most effective methods are long-lasting: I.U.D.'s are safe and nearly 100 percent effective in actual practice. So is Implanon (the under-the-skin implant which replaced Norplant) and surgical contraception. But no method is perfect. Each has downsides — costs, risks, side effects. Every woman must weigh them. A few good Web sites have the details. WebMD is one, for example. But this is where you come to the last fact.

Fact four: you have to educate yourself. The details matter. An effective national campaign would provide the details — on television, on billboards — and actively use what evidence shows works best to cut our massive rate of unwanted pregnancies. But politics precludes this. There's not going to be such a campaign anytime soon.

Nonetheless, there's no reason you have to join the one in three — or as a male, contribute to it. You just have to understand: the effort is strictly Do-It-Yourself.

Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a New Yorker staff writer, is the author of the new book "Better." He is a guest columnist this month.

<H1 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in">Strong Religious Views Decrease Teens' Likelihood of Having Sex<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comoffice" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></H1><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Teens — particularly girls — with strong religious views are less likely to have sex than are less religious teens, largely because their religious views lead them to view the consequences of having sex negatively. According to a recent analysis of the NICHD-funded Add Health Survey, religion reduces the likelihood of adolescents engaging in early sex by shaping their attitudes and beliefs about sexual activity. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The study also found that parents' religious beliefs and attitudes toward sex did not directly influence teens' decisions to have sex. Rather, parents' attitudes toward sex seemed to influence their teens' own attitudes toward sex, and indirectly, their teens' behavior. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">When teens do have sex, their beliefs about the consequences of sexual activity become more permissive — meaning more positive or favorable — but their religious views do not change. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">In particular, adolescent girls who had sex reported that they were more positive about having sex in the future. However, the greatest predictor of whether teens would have sex — regardless of their religious views or attitudes — was whether or not they were dating. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Sexual intercourse places teens at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, and unintended pregnancy. The information provided by the study may prove important for health researchers and planners devising programs that help prevent teens from engaging in sexual activity. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">"A better understanding of why religious adolescents are less likely to engage in early sexual intercourse may help in designing prevention programs for this behavior," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>

July 18, 2007
Abstinence Education Faces an Uncertain Future
By LAURA BEIL

HALLSVILLE, Tex. — When Jami Waite graduated from high school this year in this northeastern Texas town, her parents sat damp-eyed in the metal bleachers of Bobcat Stadium, proud in every way possible. Their youngest daughter was leaving childhood an honor graduate, a band member, a true friend, a head cheerleader — and a steadfast virgin.

"People can be abstinent, and it's not weird," she declared. With her face on billboards and on TV, Ms. Waite has been an emblem of sexual abstinence for Virginity Rules, which has risen from a single operation in nearby Longview to become an eight-county abstinence franchise.

For the first time, however, Virginity Rules and 700 kindred abstinence education programs are fighting serious threats to their future. Eleven state health departments rejected abstinence education this year, while legislatures in Colorado, Iowa and Washington passed laws that could kill, or at least wound, its presence in public schools.

Opponents received high-caliber ammunition this spring when the most comprehensive study of abstinence education found no sign that it delayed a teenager's sexual debut. And, after enjoying a fivefold increase in their main federal appropriations, the abstinence programs in June received their first cut in financing from the Senate appropriations committee since 2001.

But the final outcome is in question. Some $176 million in federal support has survived several early maneuvers in the House, and the full House plans to debate the issue July 18 as part of the proposed Health and Human Services budget.

Lost in the political rancor, however, is that teenagers throughout the country are both abstaining more, and, especially among older ones, more likely to use contraception when they do not abstain.

While the reasons are not all understood, government data show the trend began years before abstinence education became the multimillion-dollar enterprise it is today. Through a combination of less sex and more contraception, pregnancy and birth rates among American teenagers as a whole have been falling since about 1991. Texas, however, has seen the smallest decline despite receiving almost $17 million in the name of virginity.

No state has more to lose in this battle than Texas, which draws more abstinence money than any other. Drive through the piney woods of northeastern Texas, and the earnest faces of adolescents appear on billboards with slogans like "No is where I stand until I have a wedding band."

The Longview Wellness Center, which sponsors Virginity Rules, collects almost $1 million annually in abstinence financing, and serves 33 area school districts.

Even in this state, where President Bush acquired his loyalty to the policy, abstinence cannot be typecast. Megan Randolph of Dallas, who like Jami Waite just finished high school, believes in the abstinence message. But she is bothered by courses that try to scare teenagers with harrowing talk of ruined lives. "In those classes, there are going to be kids who have had sex and that hasn't happened," Ms. Randolph said. "So they're going to think that doesn't apply to them."

Teenagers, she said, crave unfettered information — the kind restricted under federal abstinence education law, which discourages intimacy outside marriage but provides no instruction for safer sex.

At her school, Ms. Randolph, 19, was the "sexpert," the one girls often called late at night, asking questions. And this year, before leaving Dallas to attend the Air Force Academy, Ms. Randolph was hailed as volunteer of the year by the area's Planned Parenthood — part of abstinence education's axis of evil.

In northeastern Texas, advocates of abstinence education vow to fight for their mission because to them, it is not just a matter of sexuality or even public health. Getting a teenager to the other side of high school without viruses or babies is a bonus, but not the real goal. They see casual sex as toxic to future marriage, family and even, in an oblique way, opposition to abortion.

"You have to look at why sex was created," Eric Love, the director of the East Texas Abstinence Program, which runs Virginity Rules, said one day, the sounds of Christian contemporary music humming faintly in his Longview office. "Sex was designed to bond two people together."

To make the point, Mr. Love grabbed a tape dispenser and snapped off two fresh pieces. He slapped them to his filing cabinet and the floor; they trapped dirt, lint, a small metal bolt. "Now when it comes time for them to get married, the marriage pulls apart so easily," he said, trying to unite the grimy strips. "Why? Because they gave the stickiness away."

Shoring up marriage was Robert Rector's vision a decade ago. A fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Mr. Rector wrote the first bill that legally defined abstinence education, and got it attached as a stowaway to the 1996 welfare overhaul, backed with $50 million for the states. A later Congress, irked at states' finding loopholes in the original intent, designated a second pool of abstinence money in 2001, now the lifeblood of the movement.

Mr. Rector says viewing abstinence primarily through the lens of public health distracted the focus from marriage. "Once you understand that that's the principal issue," he said, "you understand that handing out condoms to a 17-year-old is utterly irrelevant."

Strengthening marriage this way may resonate with teenagers like Ms. Waite, whose conviction is planted in a deeply held marital value, but not necessarily with Ms. Randolph, who says she is more preoccupied with succeeding in the Air Force than with marriage.

In abandoning abstinence education, states have largely said that comprehensive sex education programs, which discuss contraception beyond the failure rates, have a better scientific grounding. New laws in Colorado, Iowa and Washington state that sex education must be based on "research" or "science" — which is often interpreted as code for programs that include discussions of safer sex.

Much of the data cited in support of the efficacy of abstinence programs are from surveys taken immediately before and after a program. These commonly find an increase in intentions to stay abstinent, but do not necessarily mean that a year later, high on emotion, teenagers will follow the script.

Most studies so far have found no significant impact on behavior, and the few that do see only modest changes. In April, Mathematica Policy Research released a report that was nine years and $8 million in the making. Scientists followed middle school children enrolled in four separate abstinence programs for about five years, and found no difference in the age of first intercourse between them and their peers.

Opinions vary on whether the absence of evidence — to borrow from Carl Sagan — is evidence of absence. One of the leading experts on sex education programs, Dr. John Jemmott of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania , says some abstinence education programs in the future might show promise. He is hopeful about an abstinence curriculum that he has designed which, unlike many, tries to get teenagers to think long-term about their behavior and its consequences, questioning, for example, whether a boyfriend would really love you if you had sex with him. Many programs dwell on the risks of sex, not the reasons.

Dr. Jemmott knows many colleagues view abstinence education as a failed experiment. "I think that is unfair," he said. "I think what they should say is there is not enough evidence to state whether it is efficacious." On the other hand, he said, it is also unfair to say that sex education that discusses — without maligning — condoms encourages sex. Data from many programs, in fact, find the opposite.

[Those who thought abstinence education financing would decline swiftly under a Democratic watch were wrong: On July 11, the full House extended state grants through September — a reprieve at the edge of expiration. That same day, the House Appropriations Committee increased spending, a political move to make the proposed Health and Human Services budget more appealing to Republicans, said Representative David R. Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, the committee chairman.]

While the future of abstinence education is unclear, Mr. Love, back in Longview, believes "the message will go on, whether the government decides to fund it or not."

Just ask Jami Waite. The former cheerleader is carrying her resolve to college, where she is on her way to becoming a nurse. One day she plans to wed. Until then, she says, virginity will rule.

Jacqueline Palank contributed reporting from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/educa ... ?th&emc=th

Doctors endorse cancer vaccine for girls

Maria Kubacki
CanWest News Service; with files from Calgary Herald


Tuesday, September 25, 2007


Your little girl may still be playing with dolls and sleeping with her favourite teddy bear, but the Canadian Paediatric Society says she should receive the vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection identified as the major cause of cervical cancer.

On Monday, the group representing more than 2,500 pediatricians across Canada officially endorsed the vaccine, saying it should be given to girls aged nine to 13.

"It's a very safe, efficacious and exciting vaccine," said Dr. Lindy Samson, lead author of the pediatricians' position paper on Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine approved for use in Canada.

Samson stressed the importance of vaccinating girls before they become sexually active.

Several provinces, including Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, P.E.I. and British Columbia, have announced vaccination programs.

The Alberta government has yet to make a decision on a vaccination program.

Health and Wellness spokesman Howard May says officials are still waiting for the Canadian Immunization Committee's upcoming report.

"(The committee) has indicated that it might be the end of the calendar year before they have their recommendations ready," said May.

Other countries, including Australia, have also adopted universal HPV vaccination.

"We're very excited to have (the pediatricians') support," said Dr. Guylaine Lefebvre, president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, which also backs the vaccine touted as significantly lowering the risk of a cancer that kills about 400 women a year in Canada.

Pediatricians administer other childhood vaccines, and so are in a good position to influence parents with regard to the HPV vaccine, said Lefebvre, adding that children should be given Gardasil along with age-appropriate sex education.

The Paediatric Society indicated earlier this year that it intended to support the vaccine.

Canadian pediatricians and gynecologists are hardly alone in their enthusiasm for Gardasil, which clinical trials have found to be 98 per cent effective against pre-cancerous lesions caused by the two high-risk strains of HPV responsible for 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer.

The vaccine, approved for use in Canadian girls and women aged nine to 26 last year, already has the support of the federal government.

Calgary pediatrician Dr. Peter Nieman said most families he sees are surprised with and opposed to the recommendation that girls as young as nine receive the vaccine. "I suppose I can understand that, because most girls are not going to be sexually active at that age," he says.

Nieman said he believes nine is too young when it comes to HPV vaccination. Personally, he wouldn't vaccinate his own daughter (who is 12) at age nine.

Dr. Jeff Pivnick, a Calgary-based physician, said he has seen a lot of interest in the vaccine. "I've got parents asking about it all the time," he said. "I haven't had parents of girls nine years old, but I've had parents of teenage girls, and I'm now starting to recommend (the vaccine)."

© The Calgary Herald 2007

I used to masturbate regularly for three years.

Now I don't see any porn but still I do it once in 2-3 days. I feel alot guilty now but when it gets 2-3 days....i start feeling very uncomfortable down there...it feels like i must have to do it...

Is it okay to do it ? Is it forbidden in Islam ?

As with changing times, almost everyone do it but is there still a restriction applies? Is it sinful ?

As more I read on our Faith and try to practice it, still I am finding it a bit difficult to completely stop it. I lose it in 2-3 days. I feel I am putting a burden on my soul but I seriously feel very uncomfortable and it feels like I should go and watch a porn but I know I can't do it and I'll never do it.

Please guide me thoroughly on this issue.

And I don't masturbate thinking of any normal girl. I think of those scenes which I used to see before.

Thank You.


Kmaherali..I guess you're the right person to guide me on this topic. But anyone else who also has information on this topic can guide me out.

Thanks in advance.

Anyone who has experienced such problems and got success in controlling please help me.

st0necol wrote:Please guide me thoroughly on this issue.

Kmaherali..I guess you're the right person to guide me on this topic. But anyone else who also has information on this topic can guide me out.

Thanks in advance.

Anyone who has experienced such problems and got success in controlling please help me.

If you search the word 'masturbation', you will get all the relevant threads that discuss it. In particular you may want to go to:

Current Issues --> This is a sad question...but have to ask.