While there has been a significant amount of research on teenagers’ initial sexual experiences, the IU study is among the first to examine changes over time in decision-making about sexual abstinence among sexually active teenage girls. This information may help tailor effective counseling to prevent adolescent pregnancy and STDs.

The new findings are reported in the March 2010 issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Ritual circumcision is practised across many cultures in the world and is one of the “most resilient of all traditional African practices within [the] urban industrialised environment”. In South Africa, every year, young abakwetha (Xhosa: male initiates) are hospitalised or die from circumcision wounds undergone during traditional initiation rites. Ritual circumcision¹ under some circumstances can put young men at risk of contracting STDs, HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne infections. Countering this, new epidemiological research demonstrates that circumcised men carry a lower risk of contracting HIV than uncircumcised men. Merely from the above, it is indisputable that ritual male circumcision is a cultural issue that is complexly linked to public health.

¹Literature refers to circumcision in this cultural context as male circumcision, ritual circumcision , traditional circumcision or plainly circumcision. In that the act of circumcision is intricately involved in initiation rites, I have favoured the terminology ritual circumcision for purposes of this paper.

If you were the parent of a baby boy and were told a minor operation could provide him with protection against three diseases (at least) that kill millions worldwide, would you be interested? It is safe to assume that you would. When, however, you discovered that the operation in question was circumcision, would your enthusiasm dwindle?

Circumcision is the world’s most common surgical procedure. But it is also among the most sensitive – politically, culturally and ethically. Even within the scientific community it is difficult to have a reasoned debate about the pros and cons, examining the evidence, without people taking sides. For several decades, the medical community has kept quiet about circumcision, mindful of the sensitivities around it. Doctors are broadly agreed that the operation is “not medically necessary” – except in a tiny minority of cases, for example where the foreskin will not retract. They say it is for parents and the public to decide about the ethics of circumcision for religious or other non-medical reasons. 

“The benefits persist as long as men continue to use it,” said Dr. Frank Schonlau, a co-author of the study, who works for the London-based supplement maker Horphag Research UK.

The supplement, Prelox, contains pine bark extract and the amino acid L-arginine aspartate. Studies lasting up to six weeks have shown it improves erectile function in men with mild to moderate erectile problems. The researchers conducted the current study to determine if it would continue to help men who took it for up to six months. There had been concerns, Schonlau noted, that men might become less responsive to the supplement over time.

Black women had the highest rate of infection at 48 percent and women were nearly twice likely as men to be infected, according to an analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 21 percent of women were infected with genital herpes, compared to only 11.5 percent of men, while 39 percent of blacks were infected compared to about 12 percent for whites, the CDC said.

Is oral sex considered sex? It wasn’t to around 30 percent of the study participants. How about anal sex? For around 20 percent of the participants, no. A surprising number of older men did not consider penile-vaginal intercourse to be sex. More than idle gossip, the answers to questions about sex can inform—or misinform—research, medical advice and health education efforts.

“Researchers, doctors, parents, sex educators should all be very careful and not assume that their own definition of sex is shared by the person they’re talking to, be it a patient, a student, a child or study participant,” said Brandon Hill, research associate at the Kinsey Institute. 

The study included 373 sexually active men aged 30-57 years of whom 255 were circumcised (mean age 37.1 years) and 118 were not (mean age 38.2 years). Of the 255 circumcised men, 138 were sexually active before circumcision, and all were circumcised after the age of 20 years. To address the effects of circumcision on the quality of sex life, including masturbation, a modified Brief Male Sexual Function Inventory (BMSFI) which included additional questions about whether sex life and masturbatory pleasure had improved or worsened after circumcision.

The new findings, from a study of men and adolescent boys in Uganda, show that circumcision provides only partial protection against these three viruses, and the researchers caution that it should not be considered a full shield.

Nevertheless, that partial benefit could have a huge public health impact, says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. For example, herpes ulcers make a man more susceptible to HIV infection.

The vast majority of the world’s men, including most Europeans and Scandinavians, are uncircumcised. And before 1900, circumcision was virtually nonexistent in the United States as well--except for Jewish and Muslim people, who’ve been performing circumcisions for thousands of years for religious reasons. Believe it or not, circumcision was introduced in English-speaking countries in the late 1800s to control or prevent masturbation, similar to the way that female circumcision--the removal of the clitoris and labia--was promoted and continues to be advocated in some Muslim and African countries to control women’s sexuality. [1]

Routine female circumcision, which has been practiced in some cultures, is completely unacceptable.

The disorder, called HSDD for short, is diagnosed when a person has a persistently low interest in sex, and that disinterest is causing personal distress or relationship problems.

In the new study, Iranian researchers found that bupropion sustained-release (Wellbutrin SR) generally boosted sex drive among 116 women with HSDD who took the drug for 12 weeks. Compared with 116 women given an inactive placebo, their scores on a standard measure of sexual function were twice as high, according to findings published in the medical journal BJU International.