Jennifer Wider graduated from Princeton University in 1994 with B.A. in the humanities. She received her medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1999. During medical school, she interned at a CBS local news affiliate and 20/20 in New York City. Jennifer worked as a senior editor at Medscape/CBS HealthWatch out of medical school. She has had many publications in newspapers, magazines and websites across the country and has been a guest on CBS News, National Public Radio and various cable channels. Jennifer was formerly the managing editor of the health channel at iVillage.com and currently reports on health and medical issues for the Society for Women's Health Research. As well, she is co-author of The Savvy Woman Patient.

Jennifer Wider--

Diabetes can take a toll on a person’s overall health, but amidst all of the possible problems that may arise sexual dysfunction is not often talked about and is more common than most people realize. According to the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mass., roughly 35 percent of women with diabetes may experience some form of sexual dysfunction related to their disease. 

Most of the past research about diabetes’ impact on sex has focused on men. But it has become quite clear that women suffering from diabetes may experience sexual difficulties as a result of complications from the disease. A recent study in the journal Lancet revealed that diabetes frequently impairs normal sexual functioning in both men and women. 

According to the study’s research team from the Department of Endocrinology at the Boston University School of Medicine, “The effect of diabetes on women's sexual function is complex: the most consistent finding is a correlation between sexual dysfunction and depression.” 

In addition to the psychological effects of the disease, the study’s authors were quick to point out that more research in body physiology was needed to fully understand the toll diabetes can take on the female patient. “More research on the sexual effects of abnormal adrenal and thyroid function, hyperprolactinaemia, and metabolic syndrome should also be prioritized,” the study authors wrote. Hyperprolactinaemia is the presence of abnormally-high levels of the hormone prolactin in the blood. Unusually high amounts of prolactin are suspected to be responsible for impotence and loss of libido.

Women with diabetes who suffer from sexual dysfunction often have a wide variety of complaints.  Nerve damage from the disease can result in a decrease of sexual arousal and lowered libido. Diabetic women are also more prone to problems with decreased vaginal lubrication. In addition, some women with diabetes may suffer from recurring vaginitis, or inflammation of the vagina, as a result of yeast infections, which can make sexual intercourse painful. 

There are treatments available for sexual dysfunction, which vary based on the underlying cause. The key is to have an open, honest discussion with a health care provider who can assist patients in narrowing in on the cause and finding the proper therapy.   

Diabetes results from the body's inability to produce or respond to insulin, a hormone necessary for the absorption of sugar. There are several types of diabetes—the main ones are type 1 and type 2. Type 2 is the most common and usually affects overweight people who are older than 45 with a history of the disease in their family.

“Increases in obesity and sedentary behavior are the major drivers of the diabetes surge,” says Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, M.D., chief of the Diabetes Epidemiology Section at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga.

Although the number of people suffering from diabetes is at an all-time high, there are measures people can take to cut their risk. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can lower the chance of getting diabetes for both men and women. “Exercising thirty minutes per day, five to seven times a week and keeping your weight under control with a healthy diet,” explains Narayan.

SOURCES: Bhasin S, Enzlin P, et al.  Sexual dysfunction in men and women with endocrine disorders.  Lancet. 2007 Apr 21; 369(9570): 1346.
© March 13, 2008 Society for Women's Health Research

More In Sexual Matters

Is sex keeping your relationship alive?  Or better yet, is your relationship keeping your sex life alive?

Dr. Gary Smalley and Pastor Ted Cunningham have just published The Language of Sex: Experiencing the Beauty of Sexual Intimacy. Written from a Christian perspective, this is Dr. Smalley's first book on the topic of sex.  Long held as a taboo topic within the church, today's Christians are beginning to open up about their sex lives, its problems, and solutions. Dr. Smalley believes that sex is largely undiscussed because it is a private often uncomfortable subject, similar to talking about one's own funeral.  However, to properly honor and protect the sexual relationship, he states that it must be discussed.  The Bible, he writes "provides more instruction and guidance for how to make a baby than for how to take care of one!  God has given us sex as a gift and it's one to be thoroughly treasured, celebrated and enjoyed."

After being in relationship ministry for 45 years, Dr. Smalley has traced most sexual issues in marriage back to relationship problems.  Each marriage has a formula for great sex, beginning with honor, developing into security, leading to intimacy, and finalizing with sex.  "The best sex of your life starts in your heart, not in your head or between your legs."  Sex is the result of building upon a secure loving relationship.  "Sexual problems are indicative of greater issues."

Think about your relationship with your spouse.  Do you:

Consider your husband/wife to be extremely important?

Value your spouse's thoughts?

Have you kept your commitment to the relationship since your marriage?  Sexually?  Emotionally?

Do you speak derisively about your spouse when he/she is present?  When absent?

Unresolved conflicts about work, money, friends, etc..lead to a lack of security and intimacy in marriage.  Dr. Smalley believes that security must be nurtured within the relationship. 

Dr. Smalley's Top Tips on Growing Security Within Marriage:

Guard your spouse's heart: Don't go to bed angry at each other.  Commit to this, if possible, at the beginning of your marriage.  You'll never need to sleep on the couch or leave the home.

Create boundaries: Form a union between you and your spouse, that cannot be separated by anything or anyone.  This includes old girlfriends, addictions, and parents.

Don't use sex as a weapon or a reward: Do you have a headache tonight?  Once in awhile, that's ok.  Every time your spouse wants to have sex? That's a no-no. Do not attempt to control your marriage or spouse with sex.  Sex is for both the husband's and wife's mutual enjoyment. 

Commit sexually to your spouse for life: Keep sex completely within the bounds of your marriage: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Enjoy make-up sex by practicing the five-minute rule: Take a five-minute break after an argument.  Listen more, speak less, anger slowly.

Today it's easy to just dump the marriage when difficulties arise, looking elsewhere for happiness.  But relationships rarely improve with a change of partners.  Instead, both men and women should spend a little more time investing in an awareness of their spouses' needs, desires, and uniqueness. Your spouse is the person you chose to love, honor, and commit to. The Language of Sex, a must read for every marriage, will certainly help couples resolve issues, leading to greater intimacy within the marriage.

BackStory: Gary Smalley, best-selling author of The Language of Love (Angel Award Winner), The Blessing and The Two Sides of Love (Gold Medallion Award Winners), is president and founder of the Smalley Relationship Center.  His books have sold over six million copies.

Ted Cunningham is the pastor of Woodland Hills community Church in Branson, Missouri, which received a Purpose Driven Church Health Award in 2006.  Ted is a speaker with the Smalley Relationship Center.

More Experts in Sexual Matters

Joyce Catlett, MA is the co-author of Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships, Fear of Intimacy, Psychological Defenses in Everyday Life (originally published as The Truth), and Creating a Life of Meaning & Compassion. Since 1982, Ms. Catlett has been a national lecturer and workshop facilitator in the areas of child-abuse prevention and couple relations. She has co-produced forty educational documentaries for the Glendon Association in the areas of parent-child relations, suicide, couple relations, voice therapy and violence. Ms. Catlett developed and trained instructors in the Compassionate Child-Rearing Parent Education Program throughout the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica. She has collaborated with Robert Firestone in writing over thirty articles and ten books, including The Fantasy Bond, Compassionate Child-Rearing, and Voice Therapy.  Ms. Catlett has appeared on numerous broadcast and print media outlets including The Merv Griffin Show, Dr. Joyce Brothers/ The Los Angeles Times, WebMD.com, KABC Radio/ “O” Magazine, MSNBC.com, Men’s Health, Psychology Today, NPR’s KPCC/Los Angeles, and Cosmopolitan. She can be reached at  JCatlett@glendon.org.

Guest Blogger Joyce Catlett--

Returning to Geraldine’s and Luke’s problem, (see More Sex Please, We’re Married, Part 1), the authors of Sex & Love in Intimate Relationships recommend taking the longer, more challenging route rather than using a quick-fix approach to rekindling sexual intimacy and maintaining emotional and sexual closeness. Improvement can only come by first uncovering the deeper-lying causes of the problem – usually rooted in childhood - rather than focusing on external factors most couples tend to blame for their diminished desire.

According to Dr. Robert Firestone, sexuality in a relationship usually deteriorates when members of the couple reach their intimacy tolerance threshold, which triggers psychological defenses created in childhood. The irony is that the same defenses we developed to protect ourselves against pain, frustration, and anxiety in our earliest relationships now become barriers to happiness and satisfaction in our present-day relationships. Firestone points out that ”Most people have a fear of intimacy, yet at the same time are terrified of being alone. Their solution is to form a fantasy bond – an illusion of connection and closeness – that allows them to maintain emotional distance while relieving loneliness. Destructive fantasy bonds exist in a large majority of couple relationships The process of forming a fantasy bond greatly reduces the possibility of achieving a successful personal relationship.”

Couples believe they want intimacy, but in fact have very low tolerance for it, and retreat from intimacy. They may form a pleasant, albeit non-sexual, bond which they both draw on to relieve feelings of insecurity, deprivation, and emotional hunger left over from their childhoods. They tend to cling to each other and play out either the parent or child roles with each other rather than engage in adult sexual intimacy.

Therapy can help by focusing on each partner’s psychological development. The goal is to give up the negative behaviors we learned in childhood which alienate our partners and push them away. Understanding why we become irritable and argumentative after being close sexually and emotionally can also help us rekindle the feelings we enjoyed early in our relationship. We need to work to reestablish our independence as a separate unique individual -- the person we were when our partner fell in love with us. Then we will once again be able to love each other freely and deeply.

A few corrective suggestions recommended by the authors of Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships:

(1) Acknowledge to each other that things are not the same as when you first became involved,

(2) Try to have an honest conversation, ideally with a counselor, to express directly the underlying anger. Also admit that you have been distorting your partner’s traits in a negative direction or exaggerating his or her weaknesses, and

(3) Most importantly, recognize that many of the ways you distort your partner actually come from critical inner voices or negative thoughts that we all have about our selves and other people.

It is also important to remember that these critical inner voices originated as a defense that we erected to protect ourselves as children from painful experiences in the family. We idealized our parents and as a result thought that we were at fault and believed that we were bad. This negative way of thinking about ourselves, our partner, and our relationship is not really our own view. Instead this unfriendly, alien point of view is made up of negative messages we picked up from some of the unloving ways our parents may have related to each other, from how they may have treated us when they were angry, and from how they may have distorted us as children. When we understand this and identify and challenge these negative thoughts, we will be better able to sustain sexual intimacy and emotional closeness in our relationships.

Recommended Readings:

Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships Robert W. Firestone & Joyce Catlett, (2006)

Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice Robert W. Firestone, Lisa A. Firestone, & Joyce Catlett, (2003)

More Expert Opinions in Sexual Matters

Dr. Mark Goulston is a former UCLA professor who helps high performing leaders, senior management and  sales people reach their full potential using skills he learned training FBI and police hostage negotiators. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches and writes the weekly Tribune syndicated career advice column, "Solve Anything with Dr. Mark", columns on leadership for FAST COMPANY, Directors Monthly, and is an expert at PeopleJam. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with regard to contemporary business, national and world news by television, radio and print media including: Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, Los Angeles Times, ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox/CNN/BBC News, Oprah, and Today. Mark Goulston is the author of The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship, Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior, Get Out of Your Own Way at Work and PTSD for Dummies. For more information visit: www.markgoulston.com.

Guest Blogger Mark Goulston--

As more of the facts behind the Eliot Spitzer scandal come to the fore, it may be clear that once again grandiose, narcissistic men come to believe that they live by different rules than others. It may also be clear that men who possess a great drive to succeed not infrequently have that drive cross over into a sex drive that doesn't seem to be satisfied within a mundane typical marriage.

On the other hand, even non narcissistic men are not immune to discovering that sex is a great way to relieve tension.

Men in fact did not ask that sex for sex sake would be such a great tension reliever. It just is. (And as women are becoming more competitive and aggressive in the world, they are not far behind in discovering it). But if a guy is married to a woman who demands and deserves to be treated with respect who would not take too kindly to serving as a
vehicle for purely carnal sexual relief, and is someone he respects, he can sometimes have problems covering up his desire to sometimes just use her (and in his mind not very respectfully) for a release rather than to make love.

So… if a man has a large uncontrollable sex drive, feels it is the only way to relieve tension and he has a wife
who either has less of a sex drive, would be turned off to having sex the "imaginative" way he would like to and talking about the problem only makes it worse (as he can come off as whining, complaining or sullen and not much of a turn on), what should that man do?

Related: What About Eliot Spitzer's Wife?

Joyce Catlett, MA is the co-author of Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships, Fear of Intimacy, Psychological Defenses in Everyday Life (originally published as The Truth), and Creating a Life of Meaning & Compassion. Since 1982, Ms. Catlett has been a national lecturer and workshop facilitator in the areas of child-abuse prevention and couple relations. She has co-produced forty educational documentaries for the Glendon Association in the areas of parent-child relations, suicide, couple relations, voice therapy and violence. Ms. Catlett developed and trained instructors in the Compassionate Child-Rearing Parent Education Program throughout the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica. She has collaborated with Robert Firestone in writing over thirty articles and ten books, including The Fantasy Bond, Compassionate Child-Rearing, and Voice Therapy.  Ms. Catlett has appeared on numerous broadcast and print media outlets including The Merv Griffin Show, Dr. Joyce Brothers/ The Los Angeles Times, WebMD.com, KABC Radio/ “O” Magazine, MSNBC.com, Men’s Health, Psychology Today, NPR’s KPCC/Los Angeles, and Cosmopolitan. She can be reached at  JCatlett@glendon.org.

Guest Blogger Joyce Catlett--

The Problem

According to recent surveys, married couples and those in long-term relationships have less, not more satisfying sex as compared with singles in short-term relationships. ”We love each other, but sex has disappeared from our lives,” – complain a growing number of couples seeking professional help. Almost epidemic in proportion, diminished sexual intimacy in married life nonetheless remains a taboo subject for most couples.

Why does sexual desire so predictably disappear from the lives of couples after they become committed to the relationship and to each other? Why do so many couples believe, rightfully, that the sexual sizzle of their early relationship will inevitably wane in a long-term relationship? Can we recapture the early spirit of our mating dance, and again become our mate’s object of desire?

I firmly believe we can. As I emphasize in my workshops, combining passionate sex and emotional intimacy is rarely as natural and easy as we want it to be. Instead, maintaining a healthy erotic sex life in a close relationship is often complicated and confusing. Let’s look at Geraldine’s story: She and her husband Luke were interviewed by Dr. Robert Firestone, my co-author, for our book Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships.

Luke and Geraldine started out as friends and had much in common. They both loved motorcycling and Geraldine really enjoyed working alongside Luke in his carpentry shop. Gradually it dawned on her that she was in love. One evening Luke told her that he had fallen in love with her. She was thrilled. The next day, they were having dinner with another couple who were close friends, and Luke repeated what he had told Geraldine the previous evening. She was slightly self-conscious, but liked the fact that he had confided in their mutual friends and shared his feelings with them. That was about two months ago.

Now she finds herself being annoyed by him. She says he seems bossy and demanding. “He keeps asking me when I’m coming by the shop to work with him. But truthfully, I can’t tell whether he’s all that provoking or if I’m being extra critical of him. I have to admit that this has happened before in a relationship I had last year. I was head-over-heels in love and then I just cooled off. Is this a pattern? Whose fault is it? Did both these guys change for the worse or does familiarity breed contempt?’

Geraldine’s story underscores a puzzling fact about human beings. Paradoxically, when people are loved for who they really are, very often they feel compelled to reject this love and to punish their lover. Being loved and appreciated for their positive traits is very different from the negative identity they may have grown up with.

Of course, most people would say that they want love in their lives, and they would be telling the truth. However, it has been our experience that very few people can accept or even tolerate genuine appreciation, approval and affection, especially from someone they love and admire.

Unbeknownst to most lovers, their reactions to being loved include anxiety and anger. Anxiety aroused by feelings of being loved is unpleasant at best, and disturbing or even agonizing at worst. On an unconscious level, we feel angry at the person who is making us upset and anxious, but so often we can’t explain why. We may become irritable with our partner or we may begin to withhold the qualities that he or she originally admired in us. We are afraid to express our anger directly because we don’t want to hurt our partner’s feelings. However, in an intimate relationship, unspoken anger kills off sexual desire more effectively than anything else. In addition, we often distort our partners, exaggerating their human foibles and weaknesses while rationalizing our lack of attraction by dwelling on these distortions.

In Geraldine’s case, she couldn't stand being loved because it threatened the negative view she had of herself that she had formed in her family. She was unloved, rejected and made to feel unattractive and even superfluous. Accepting Luke's positive feelings toward her would have turned her world upside down and caused her tremendous anxiety, so she protected herself without even knowing why.

Later in the same interview, Geraldine admitted: ”I’ve never thought of myself as a loving soft woman, and that’s exactly what I started to give up when our relationship became ’public.’ I changed my actions so I wouldn’t have to see myself that way again, the way Luke saw me. In my mind I created a monster out of Luke. I began to seen him as mean and demanding. I found faults wherever I could. Luke’s natural feelings for me made me feel differently about myself, made me feel that I was lovable, and I couldn’t live with that identity, so I twisted everything to do away with that feeling about myself, and I hurt Luke so much in the process.”

So it appears that Geraldine answered her own question, “Whose fault is it? Does familiarity breed contempt?” when she realized this core truth about human beings. (Of course, Luke also pulled away from being close to Geraldine; it’s never one person. To some extent, everyone has the tendency to retreat from the very thing they want the most.)

Understanding why people have difficulty sustaining feelings of love and sexual attraction over an extended period of time in a personal relationship can help. It is important to know that we all suffer to some extent from a basic fear of intimacy. When we take a chance on trusting a relationship partner, we’re going to feel anxious, fearful, sad and emotionally vulnerable. These feelings, even though they may be operating below our conscious awareness, cause us to distort our loved ones, as Geraldine did. The way out of this problem is to raise our awareness of this paradoxical truth about ourselves and to struggle to “hang in there” and remain close to the one we love.

Related: What Is Healthy Sex?

              Take Two Pills And Speak To Each Other In the Morning

Guest Blogger Wendy Maltz--

Sexual energy is a powerful, very natural force in our lives. But like any natural force we encounter -- be it wind, sun, rain, or our own laughter -- our sexual energy has the potential to be channeled and experienced in either destructive or life-affirming ways.

Healthy sex involves the conscious, positive expression of our sexual energy in ways that enhance self-esteem, physical health, and emotional relationship. It is mutually beneficial and harms no one.

Negative influences and problems

Unfortunately, we live in a society that constantly bombards us with images of sex that have very little to do with healthy sexuality. In movies, on television, in books, over the Internet, and in magazines, we are exposed to countless examples of impulsive, irresponsible, uncaring sex. People are treated as sex objects and sex is often portrayed as a form of power and control over another person. It’s no wonder that many of us have experienced some tragic consequences of poorly channeled sexual energy, such as sexual abuse, sexual addiction, porn problems, sexual exploitation, sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancy, and/or chronic sexual unhappiness.

The number of people harmed by sexual experiences is staggering. Studies in the United States reveal that:
1 in 3 females are sexually abused in childhood.
1 in 5-7 males are sexually abused in childhood.
1 in 4 women are raped sometime in their lifetime.
1 in 4 people suffer from a sexually transmitted disease sometime in their lives.
1 in 3 women have at least one abortion by the time they are forty-five years of age.
1 in 7-10 people develop a sexual addiction.
1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men report that sex gives them no pleasure.

What’s been missing

Most of the sex education available in the world today, focuses on reproduction, birth control and disease prevention. While this is important information, it stops short of helping us learn what we need to know to prevent sexual abuse, addiction, and dissatisfaction. In addition, many of us need new information to overcome problems caused by past sexual hurts so that we can go on to experience healthy and deeply satisfying sexual intimacy with a partner.

As sex and relationship therapists, we speak with many people who have trouble conceptualizing healthy sexuality. They want to know: “How does healthy sex differ from sexual abuse?”, “How does healthy sex differ from sexual addiction?”, and “What are the conditions necessary to ensure that the sex I’m experiencing is good for me and for my sexual partner?”

More In Sexual Matters

This month’s print edition of Fast Company (3/08) highlights the popular male history of Viagra (sildenafil). Patented in 1996 and FDA approved in 1998, this Pfizer developed drug began as a potential treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, but was found to be better suited for penile erections. During the first month available, pharmacists filled 367,857 prescriptions. Annual sales for the years 1999-2001 were more than $1 million. Prescribed in 120 countries with more than 150 million filled prescriptions for 40 million plus men, the erectile dysfunction (ED) market is worth an estimated $3 million dollars. 60% of this is the property of Viagra, and their US patent is set to expire in 2011. Other ED meds include Viagra’s competitors—Cyalis (tadalafil) and Levitra (vardenafil).

Erectile dysfunction is estimated to affect 18 million American men, ages 40 to 70, or two of every 100 men. The condition is commonly associated with stress, performance anxiety, relationship problems, depression or other mental illness, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, prostate disease, stroke, and prescribed medications. Most recently, studies have shown that smoking causes ED. The habit sends nicotine and other vasoconstrictors into the body which shut down blood vessels, including those within the penis.  A quiet personal dilemma, depression often accompanies erectile dysfunction. Medline Plus states that it is not a result of the natural aging process.

Viagra is meant to prolong and harden an erection by relaxing the blood vessels in the penis, allowing more blood to flow to the area. For men with heart problems this medication will carry the risk of cardiac arrest. Vision difficulties , stomach upset, possible priapism, and hearing loss are further potential side effects. Those who take nitrate medications must strictly avoid Viagra. Speak with a doctor about other drugs and supplements you use which could cause possible adverse interactions with Viagra:

1. Blood pressure medications

2. Pain relievers

3. Antipsychotic medications

4. Acid blockers

5. Seizure medications

6. St. John’s wort

7. Grapefruit/grapefruit juice

Suzy Cohen, R. PH. , author of The 24-Hour Pharmacist, has devoted an entire chapter on this subject, “When He Wants Viagra And You Want A Valium.” She writes, “As far as I’m concerned, a person’s low sex drive might just be a preference. Or maybe it’s a natural part of aging. It’s certainly not a disease as the drug makers imply.” Instead Suzy Cohen advocates hormone testing for those who believe their sex drive is too low. Using a lab, one can produce a sample of urine or saliva at home and send it out for testing. Another option is asking an endocrinologist to test for hormone deficiencies. Once the problem is known, the doctor can prescribe medication or over-the-counter supplements.

Advertised prominently online and in print are herbal substitutes for Viagra. Buyer beware. These products have not yet been proven safe.

Prevent the risks of erectile dysfunction by not smoking or using illegal drugs, exercising daily, eating nutritiously, and getting adequate sleep. Furthermore, reduce stress, limit alcohol intake, receive regular doctor checkups, and get necessary help for depression and anxiety.

UPDATE:  A recent study by Dr. David Glenn, a consultant gynecologist at Queen's University Belfast has linked Viagra use to damaged male fertility.  Researchers have suggested that the drug harms sperm. Men are warned not to use the drug recreationally. Preliminary results were released in 4/'04, when Glenn found that sperm treated with Viagra seemed to speed up and release an enzyme necessary for fertility to early, nullifying the sperm.

More In Sexual Matters

I have a friend who works as a neonatologist and his practice is picking up its pace, primarily because a neonatologist must be present when a cesarean section is performed. Women with genital herpes are usually scheduled for this operation because of the risk of fatally passing the virus to their newborn infants during a vaginal birth.

Genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), results from the herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) or type 2 (HSV-2) infecting an individual. The CDC reports that genital herpes is quite common, at least 45 million people ages 12 and up, have had a genital HSV infection. Approximately one million are infected yearly. Symptoms of herpes includes blisters which break open, becoming sores or ulcers which are treatable. But because the infection is a result of a virus, it cannot be cured. It will remain in the body indefinitely.

Many carriers, an estimated 90%, of the STD do not know that they carry the virus because they are asymptomatic.

Herpes is also associated with the spread of HIV in the United States.

The system of a woman is open, versus a man’s “closed” system, therefore one of four women will become herpes infected, whereas only one of five men will.

Currently, the National Institute of Health, partnered with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline are researching the feasibility of an HSV vaccine for the protection of women.

Some people believe that herpes cannot be transmitted if there are no open sores. Not true, states the CDC. Transmission could occur from an infected person who does not have a visible sore and who may not even know that he or she is infected. The herpes virus (HSV-1) is transferred by oral-genital or genital-genital contact. HSV-2 is generally transmitted during sexual contact.

You cannot get herpes from a toilet seat, bathtub, or washcloth. The virus does not exist long on surfaces, but requires skin to skin contact. Keep your pants on.

If you contact genital herpes, you can expect to have around four or five outbreaks in the first year. Occasionally, the first outbreak may not show itself for several years. Healing from each outbreak takes two to four weeks. Some people endure flu-like symptoms—fever, swollen glands near the lymph nodes and groin, headaches, and even painful urination.

Other missed signs of a herpes infection mistakenly may include: “insect bites, yeast infection, jock itch,” and abrasions. These symptoms can appear on the penis, vulva, anus, thigh, and buttocks.

Treatment for suppressing the virus and healing outbreaks includes three antiviral drugs—Acyclovir (Zovirax), Valacyclovir (Valtrex), and Famciclovir (Famvir). Triggers of recurrent epidsodic outbreaks involve recognizable factors, such as stress, illness, inadequate diet, or friction against the infected area.

To improve the odds of less outbreaks, carriers need to exercise, eat properly, and get enough sleep.

If you are infected, it is important that the diagnosis of herpes not be kept a secret from your partner. Allow the other person to make a choice in how to prevent herpes being spread to him or her. It will build trust, intimacy, and reduce the risk of future legal action against you.

To avoid herpes, abstain from sexual contact, or enter a monogamous relationship with a tested partner. Latex condom use will help decrease the odds of contracting the virus. If you already have herpes, you need to put off sexual activity with your uninfected partner during outbreaks, and protect your partner when no symptoms are active.

Read Managing Herpes: Living and Loving With HSV

For More Information Contact The American Social Health Association

More On Sexual Matters

Dr. Manny Alvarez, author of The Checklist and Fox News Health Correspondent has been revving up his male viewers with a new online video about why it's necessary and productive to have more sex. Citing the report, Dr. Alvarez states the findings included that men should have sex 21 times a month.  This practice reduces disease by 1/3 and improves circulation.  The Hot Latin Diet, being published in April, 2008 will be Dr. Alvarez's lastest printed offering.  He reports, you decide.

View The Video      JAMA Study

The Hot Latin Diet--A FirstLook Feature

More on The Checklist

More From Men's Health Issues

Patrick Walsh, M.D., the world's foremost authority on prostate cancer, the Distinguished Service Professor of Urology at the Brady Urological Institute of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, and the author of Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer, regularly dispels myths of prostate cancer causes. 

In the Guide, Dr. Walsh explains that many men wrongly assume that increased sexual activity causes prostate cancer.  These individuals assume that ejaculation increases testosterone levels.  This he says, is not true.  In fact, studies have also shown that priests have about the same risk as married men.   The risk to sexually active men lies in transmitted diseases, which could cause inflammation and possibly infect the prostate, leading to a risk of prostate cancer.

The upside for men rests with other scientific studies, showing that more frequent ejaculation "cleans house," states Dr. Walsh.  The prostate then is less likely to store cancer-causing or infectious agents which could lead to inflammation.  This is supported by the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

How much is a good thing?  Dr. Walsh reports, "that men who reported more ejaculations--more than twenty-one a month, on average, across their adult lives--had two-thirds the lifetime risk of prostate cancer of men who reported fewer (four to seven) ejaculations a month."

The bottom line: authors of scientific research suggest that increased ejaculations cut the risk of prostate cancer, and it most certainly does not cause the cancer itself.           MORE FROM SURVIVING PROSTATE CANCER

PATRICK WALSH