Researching Sexual Health

Swingers, straight couples who swap sex partners or have group sex, have some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, Dutch researchers said.

The researchers at the University of Maastricht based their findings on the data on patients seeking treatment in 2007 and 2008 at three sexual health clinics in South Limburg, Netherlands.

During the study period, there were just under 9,000 consultations at the three clinics, in which 12% were identified as swingers.

The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections , found swingers were among those with the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections -- young people and gay men.

The combined rates of Chlamydia and gonorrhea were 10% among straight people, 14% among gay men, just under 5% in female prostitutes and 10.4% among swingers.

While other risk groups for sexually transmitted infections, such as young straight people and gay men, are systematically identified at sexually transmitted infections healthcare facilities and provided with appropriate services, this is generally not the case for swingers, the authors said in a statement.

Men who don't use their erections lose them, Finnish researchers find.

Aging men who have sex at least once a week have only half the risk of developing erectile dysfunction as do men who have sex less often.

But once-a-weekers shouldn't gloat. More sex means even less ED risk. Men who have sex at least three times a week are only one-fourth as likely to get erectile dysfunction as are men who have less-than-weekly sex.

Regular sexual activity preserves potency in a similar fashion as physical exercise maintains functional capacity, conclude Juha Koskimaki and colleagues at the University of Tampere, Finland.

The findings come from questionnaires mailed to Finnish men aged 55 to 75. Only the 989 men who did not have erectile dysfunction at the beginning of the study - and who returned a second questionnaire five years later - were included.

Interestingly, the study found that men who have less than one morning erection per week are 2.5 times more likely to get erectile dysfunction as are men who have two or three morning erections per week. But having a morning erection every day did not lower a man's risk of erectile dysfunction.

One major limitation of the study, Koskimaki and colleagues note, is that they did not ask the men about masturbation, which might conceivably have the same salubrious effect on erectile dysfunction as intercourse. So as far as the researchers can tell, the study findings apply only to sex with another person.

Doctors should support patients' sexual activity, they conclude.

Koskimaki and colleagues report their findings in the July 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

An increasing number of 70 year olds are having good sex and more often, and women in this age group are particularly satisfied with their sex lives, according to a study published recently.

Knowledge about sexual behaviour in older people (70 year olds) is limited and mainly focuses on sexual problems, less is known about "normal" sexual behaviour in this age group.

Nils Beckman and colleagues from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, studied attitudes to sex in later life among four representative population samples of 70 year olds in Sweden, who they interviewed in 1971-2, 1976-7, 1992-3, and 2000-1. In total, over 1 500 people aged 70 years were interviewed about different aspects of their sex lives including sexual dysfunctions, marital satisfaction and sexual activity.

The authors found that over the thirty year period the number of 70 year olds of both sexes reporting sexual intercourse increased: married men from 52% to 98%, married women from 38% to 56%, unmarried men from 30% to 54%, and unmarried women from 0.8% to 12%.

In addition, the number of women reporting high sexual satisfaction increased, more women reported having an orgasm during sex and fewer reported never having had an orgasm.

While the proportion of women reporting low satisfaction with their sex lives decreased, the proportion of men reporting low satisfaction increased. The authors suggest that this might be because it is now more acceptable for men to admit "failure" in sexual matters.

They also note that the number of men reporting erectile dysfunction deceased, whereas the proportion reporting ejaculation dysfunction increased, but the proportion reporting premature ejaculation did not change.

O ral sex raises your risk of throat cancer scientists have warned.

A new study found the sex act can pass on the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can trigger a specific type of throat cancer in both men and women.

And they claim oral sex is an even bigger killer than smoking or drinking.

The researchers found those who had more than six oral sex partners in their lifetime and an HPV infection were 8.6 times more likely to develop the cancer than those who had never engaged in oral sex. Whereas smoking raised the risk of throat cancer three times, and drinking by 2.5.

Researcher Dr Gypsyamber D'Souza, from the Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, US, said: It is important to know that people without the traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use can nevertheless be at risk of oropharyngeal cancer.

There are around 7,600 cases of oesophageal cancer diagnosed in the UK each year and 7,400 deaths related to the disease.

But co-author Dr Maura Gillison said: People should be reassured that oropharyngeal cancer is relatively uncommon, and the overwhelming majority of people with an oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer.

The findings are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.