Medical News Today - DHEA Helps Menopausal Symptoms And Sex Life

Medical News Today, 20 Dec 2011   

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239463.php

The hormone DHEA has been found to help relieve menopausal symptoms in women, as well as helping them improve their sex lives, Italian researchers wrote in the Climacteric, the peer-reviewed journal of the International Menopause Society. DHEA stands for Dehydroepiandrosterone, a steroid hormone secreted mainly by the adrenal glands - it is the most abundant circulating steroid in humans.

Professor Andrea Genazzani and team from the University of Pisa, Italy, say that theirs is the first controlled evidence showing that low-dose DHEA can help menopausal symptoms as well as sexual function in females. They added that further human trials are required to confirm DHEA's benefits in females after the menopause.

Forty-eight postmenopausal females were monitored for twelve months. They all had troubling menopausal symptoms. Twelve of them were unwilling to take any kind of HRT (hormone replacement therapy) - they received a combination of vitamin D and calcium supplementation to help protect from osteoporosis. The other 36 participants were randomly selected into three groups:

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Simi Lampert - Why I Published That Sex Column

Simi Lampert is editor-in-chief of the Yeshiva University Beacon, and a frequent contributor to New Voices, which broke the story about the controversy sparked by the anonymous essay about a student's first sexual experience.

Lampert will be an exclusive guest this Tuesday on Harvey Wasserman's Green Power Show  - Tune in Tuesday, December 12, 2011, at 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific

http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/147735/

When one of my editors at the YU Beacon sent me an essay she had received from a friend, I responded to the submission with two words: “Love ittt.” The nonfiction piece, submitted anonymously to the Beacon’s creative writing section, was written by a Stern College student about her first sexual experience, in a hotel room with a Yeshiva College student — an experience that ended with the writer feeling confused and ashamed.

Since that essay, titled “How Do I Even Begin to Explain This,” was published on December 5, it has caused quite a stir. The upshot: The Beacon and Yeshiva University parted ways, and we will no longer be receiving funding from the school.

I founded the Beacon 11 months ago with two other Stern students. The Beacon’s mission: to foster a platform for students at Yeshiva University to talk about what’s on their minds. We felt, at the time, that there was no place for writing on topics that are considered “taboo” — sex, drinking and drugs, among them — and we believed having a forum to discuss these types of issues was important. And so the Beacon was born. The first issue went online in January 2011.

From the start, even before we launched, our work proved polarizing at YU. Some students accused us of starting the Beacon simply to raise controversy. A great debate erupted on the wall of our Facebook group; there were heated arguments between our supporters and our critics. And this was before we even had a single article up.

Since then, however, we’ve had lots of support. A couple months in we became an official YU club, under the Stern College for Women Student Council, and began receiving university funding. Some of our readers worried that being an official paper would mean being censored, but we assured them that we wouldn’t let that happen. If censorship were threatened, we promised we’d simply walk away from being an official club. Little did we know just how public that walking away would prove to be.

I love the Beacon. I live the Beacon. I definitely put more time into my paper than all my classes combined. (Don’t tell my professors that.) In my mind, my name and the Beacon are synonymous. When people compliment the Beacon, I am proud. When they insult it, or misunderstand it, I am hurt. I believe in the motto of the Beacon: “Our Voice.”

The Beacon became a way to speak the truth. Some of my favorite pieces have been the anonymous ones: by closet lesbians, by those suffering from mental illness and, yes, by the woman writing about her first sexual encounter. The writers of these pieces were people so deeply hurting that they needed a place to speak. The Beacon was that place.

So when “How Do I Even Begin to Explain This” landed in my inbox, innocent and unassuming, I was thinking only of the conversation — not the controversy — that it might spark. I know many undergrads at YU who have had premarital sex. Most likely those who have premarital sex wouldn’t feel comfortable approaching a rabbi or other adults about the topic, and not everyone is lucky enough to have someone nonjudgmental and understanding in their lives with whom they can discuss their experience. The Beacon, I thought, would be an excellent place to start this elusive conversation.

Publishing this essay does not mean that I condone premarital sex — and I definitely don’t condone having sex with someone who was clearly a jerk.

I believe in freedom of speech, but more than that, I believe in the need to speak. If we can’t speak about issues like premarital sex, how will anyone make safe and smart decisions? How will we prevent huge, life-changing mistakes? Since the whole brouhaha, I’ve been getting messages almost exclusively of support, from people I know and people I’ve never heard of. People who read about us have sent in donations; family and friends have sent their encouragement. These are the things that keep me going. They remind me why I started the Beacon, and why I intend to keep it running — even without university funding. Everyone needs a voice, and for some the Beacon can help them raise it.

David Schnarch - "Mind-Mapping" -- How We Manipulate the People We Love

By David Schnarch, Psychotherapy Networker

Posted on December 7, 2011, Printed on December 8, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153358/%22mind-mapping%22%3A_how_we_manipulate_the_people_we_love

Conventional therapeutic wisdom aside, people typically don’t hurt each other because they’re out of touch, unable to communicate, or can’t help themselves. All too frequently, they do hurtful things with impunity and entitlement simply to gratify their own needs. It’s an article of faith among many couples therapists that bad behavior in troubled relationships stems primarily from good intentions gone wrong. They see their clients as frightened children, who may hurt each other, but mean no harm. Followers of attachment theory feel that an underlying “fear of abandonment” drives couples’ conflicts, and the ultimate therapeutic goal is to create a warm, empathic experience, at least partly to make up for what the client missed the first time around.

Thirty years of working with couples and observing the limitations of this attitude has led me to develop an approach not focused on clients’ fears, insecurities, or wounded “inner child,” or on the deficiencies of their early attachments. Instead, it reflects the idea that people typically don’t hurt each other because they’re out of touch, unable to communicate, or can’t help themselves because of their early experiences: they usually know the harm they’re doing, and often it is quite deliberate. Rather than triggered by fear, shame, or insecurity, people do hurtful things with impunity and entitlement to gratify their own needs and wishes. It’s not that they’re “unconsciously recreating their past,” it’s that they’re engaging in the form of relationship with which they’re most familiar, one that, in fact, they prefer.

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Peter Michaelson - The Problem with Positive Psychology

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Problem-with-Positive-by-Peter-Michaelson-111123-122.html

November 24, 2011 By Peter Michaelson Superficial psychology is an enemy of progress. We have to see deeper into human nature, and overcome our own emotional weaknesses, if we are going to prevail in the political struggle to save and enhance our democracy. Most everyone is looking for happiness. The shopping malls of the self-help industry feature thousands of different methods, beliefs, and practices for finding it. Many of these approaches are of limited value, and we do ourselves a big favor by avoiding them. According to Martin E.P. Seligman, founder of positive psychology, people who apply his method "are the people with the highest well-being I have ever known." Seligman's approach encourages us to apply determination and grit in order to increase our positive emotions and relationships. We flourish, he claims, when we focus on engagement, accomplishment, and a sense of meaning. His latest book is titled, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being (Free Press, New York, 2011).

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Frank Schaeffer - The Shady World of Right-Wing 'Discipline' Guides

By Frank Schaeffer, AlterNet

Posted on November 8, 2011, Printed on November 9, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153006/beating_babies_in_the_name_of_jesus_the_shady_world_of_right-wing_%27discipline%27_guides

There is a brutal movement in America that legitimizes child abuse in the name of God. Two stories recently converged to make us pay attention. Last week, a video went viral of a Texas judge brutally whipping his disabled daughter. And on Monday, the New York Times published a story about child deaths in homes that have embraced the teachings of To Train Up a Child, a book by Christian preacher Michael Pearl that advocates using a switch on children as young as six months old. 

What many people may not realize is that in the evangelical alternative universe of the home school movement, tightly knit church communities and the following of a number of big-time leaders and authors, physical punishment of children has been glorified for years.

As the Times illustrates -- "Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate" -- the books of Michael Pearl and his wife Debi have been found in the homes where several children were killed. 

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"Terra Daily" - Study: Human ancestors early seafarers

Terra Daily
Raleigh, N.C. (UPI) Aug 18, 2011

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Study_Human_ancestors_early_seafarers_999.html

Evidence suggests our early ancestors went to sea 130,000 years ago, more than 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers including a North Carolina State University geologist base that assertion on stone tools discovered on the Mediterranean island of Crete, The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer reported Wednesday.

Since Crete has been an island for eons, any prehistoric people who left tools behind would have had to cross open water to get there, scientists said.

The tools are so old they predate the human species, they said, and instead of being made by Homo sapiens they were made by our ancestors, Homo erectus.

NCSU geologist Karl Wegmann helped in dating the tools by identifying rock formations in which some of the tools were found embedded.

Crete is slowly rising out of the sea 35 times more slowly than fingernails grow, so knowing the elevation above sea level of the rocks where the tools were found embedded gives researchers the figure of 130,000 years ago.

"The thing to me that really makes this unique and exciting is ... these other sister species maybe weren't entirely stupid like we portray them," Wegmann said. "They were capable of really complex things."



"Max Planck Institute" - Boys Reach Sexual Maturity Younger and Younger: Phase Between Being Physically but Not Socially Adult Is Getting Longer

http://www.mpg.de/4397713/sexual_maturity_in_boys

Max Planck Institute, Germany   (Aug. 18, 2011) — Boys are maturing physically earlier than ever before. The age of sexual maturity has been decreasing by about 2.5 months each decade at least since the middle of the 18th century. Joshua Goldstein, director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock (MPIDR), has used mortality data to demonstrate this trend, which until now was difficult to decipher. What had already been established for girls now seems to also be true for boys: the time period during which young people are sexually mature but socially not yet considered adults is expanding.

"The reason for earlier maturity for boys, as with girls, is probably because nutrition and disease environments are getting more favourable for it," says demographer Joshua Goldstein. It has long been documented by medical records that girls are experiencing their first menstruation earlier and earlier. But comparable data analysis for boys did not exist. Goldstein resolved this gap by studying demographic data related to mortality. When male hormone production during puberty reaches a maximum level the probability of dying jumps up. This phenomenon, called the "accident hump," exists in almost all societies and is statistically well documented.

Goldstein discovered that the maximum mortality value of the accident hump shifted to earlier age by 2.5 months for each decade since the mid-1700s, or just over two years per century. Accordingly, the age of boys' sexual maturity decreased at the same rate. Essentially, the data showed that the age of sexual maturity is getting younger and younger since the accident hump is occurring earlier and earlier. (Research included data for Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain and Italy. Since 1950 the data is no longer clear but indicates stagnation.) The maximum of the accident hump occurs in the late phase of puberty, after males reach reproductive capability and their voice changes.

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“Drew Grant” - Tackling the humor of gay stereotyping online

Two Web shows take a stab at our culture's portrayal of homosexual men and their invariably sassy character traits

Drew Grant

March 17, 2011

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/story/index.html?story=/ent/tv/feature/2011/03/17/sassy_gay_friend_web_disappointing

Do you have a gay best friend who gives you fashion advice and tells you when you're being a stupid bitch? Well, why not? Gay men have been the hottest accessories for straight women ever since "Will and Grace" made neutered homosexuals safe for prime time, and according to a Web series by Chicago's comedy troupe Second City, some of the most famous women in literature would have been better off with their own Sassy Gay Friend.

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“Josh Dorner” - Newt Gingrich Secretly Funneled $350,000 To Anti-Gay Hate Groups Last Year

Josh Dorner

Mar 16th, 2011

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/16/newt-gingrich-anti-gay-hate/

Last year, former Speaker Newt Gingrich offered his vocal support for the ultimately successful campaign to oust three of the nine Iowa Supreme Court justices who had unanimously ruled in favor of marriage equality. As Gingrich courts social conservatives while exploring a possible presidential bid, new disclosures from his camp indicate that he and his associates bankrolled more than one-third of the $850,000 campaign to remove the Iowa justices.  

ThinkProgress previously reported on $200,000 that Gingrich funneled from an anonymous donor to the anti-marriage equality group Iowa for Freedom, which was also being funded by AFA Action, the political arm of the virulently anti-gay American Family Association. The Associated Press revealed yesterday that one of the cogs in Gingrich’s vast network of business enterprises and front groups, ReAL Action, provided $125,000 to AFA Action. The Des Moines Register reported this morning that ReAL Action also contributed $25,000 to yet another Iowa anti-LGBT group, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.

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“Paul Breer” - With Support From Anti-Gay Foundation, West Virginians Can Sexually Discriminate For Another Year

Paul Breer

Mar 14th, 2011

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/14/wv-discrimination/

In February, coal miner Sam Hall recounted that, because of his sexual orientation, he received threats, vandalism, and a litany of verbal mistreatment while working at Massey Energy Co. — all of which is okay in West Virginia because sexual discrimination is not outlined in its anti-discrimination law. West Virginia’s existing civil rights law protects against race, religion and disability discrimination, but a sexual discrimination provision has never been able to pass the House.

This legislative year, two bills meant to protect against sexual discrimination were proposed in West Virginia, but ultimately failed to be taken up in their relevant committees in time for the legislation to pass. So the legal harassment of the LGBT community will continue for at least another year. The bill’s failure comes as a major blow to Fairness West Virginia President Stephen Skinner, who has an online petition to push West Virginia lawmakers to protect the LGBT community. But it is a win for the West Virginia Family Foundation (WVFF), which publicly stated that the bills promote “deviant behavior.”

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“Page McBee” - I want to be more than just a man or a woman

I had my breasts removed to fit how I feel inside -- like someone beyond genders

By Page McBee

March 14, 2011

http://www.salon.com/life/gender/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/03/14/neither_man_nor_woman

In June of 2008 I woke up in a surgery recovery room in San Francisco with a man's chest. I couldn't see it yet, of course. My torso was bruised and bandaged after the three-hour procedure and drains dangled wildly at my sides. My breasts sat idly, waiting for pickup in the biohazard bin in the cold operating room. A nice nurse gently held me down as I tried to stumble out of bed, slurry but clear in my ambition to get out and on with my new life: created, like my unicorn body, with a big-hearted hope that I could be both of this world and fully myself. 

I'd bought a whole new wardrobe of tight men's T-shirts I knew I'd be proud to wear in the days ahead and that's pretty much all I'd planned. Living in the Bay Area, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by transgender and queer people, but many of them assumed I'd be transitioning genders. I hadn't decided if I wanted to begin hormone therapy and become a man. I also hadn't anticipated how complicated it would be not to.

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“PA” - Gay couple end hotel payout claim

PA

Friday, 11 March 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gay-couple-end-hotel-payout-claim-2239179.html

A homosexual couple who successfully sued the Christian owners of a hotel who refused them a bed are withdrawing a claim for more compensation, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said today.

Peter and Hazelmary Bull were ordered to pay £3,600 for denying Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy a double room at their B&B in Cornwall in September 2008.

In the landmark ruling in January at Bristol County Court, Judge Andrew Rutherford awarded Mr Preddy, 38, and Mr Hall, 46, who were represented by the taxpayer-funded Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), £1,800 each.

He said he took into account the fact the couple were acting on their "genuine" Christian beliefs about marriage when deciding the level of damages.

Lawyers for the gay couple then submitted documents to the Court of Appeal claiming the religious beliefs of Mr and Mrs Bull should have been disregarded, calling for the damages to be increased.

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“Alex Seitz-Wald” - Front-Group Mailer Attacks Female Candidate For Being ‘Unmarried’

By Alex Seitz-Wald

March 11, 2011

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/11/mailer-unmarried-women/

Less than two weeks ahead of Election Day in Tampa, FL, a nasty mail advertisement surfaced yesterday attacking candidate Rose Ferlita. Funded by Less Government Now, a 527 group, the mailer urges voters to vote against Ferlita because she is “Unmarried. Unsure. Unelectable.”

The mailer suggests that because Ferlita is not married, she is incapable of valuing family or holding public office. “Rose Ferlita has put her political ambition first and foremost, while her opponent is a dedicated family man with two children — Ferlita is an unmarried woman with a suspect commitment to family values,” it reads. Moreover, as Florida blog Saint Petersblog notes, “unmarried” is a “codeword” — “if you read between the lines is a subtle way of casting doubt on Ferlita’s sexual orientation.” Other mailers sent by Less Government Now going after men have focused on the candidates’ record or policy positions, not their personal lives, marital status, or sexual orientation.

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“Anna Sussman” - The squirmy ethics of breast milk ice cream

As the blogs fume and Lady Gaga threatens to sue, we look at why a little scoop is causing such a big roar

By Anna Sussman

March 10, 2011

http://www.salon.com/food/food_psychology/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/03/10/twisted_ethics_of_breast_milk_ice_cream

When London-based ice cream maker Matt O'Connor launched "Baby Gaga," a flavor made with human breast milk, he was hoping to start a conversation.

"I come from a family of Irish dairy farmers," he said. "We used to milk the cows every morning at 5 a.m., and keep impregnating them every five months so they would keep producing milk. That was floating around in my head -- why are human breasts sexualized, rather than being seen as biological feeding instruments?"

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“The Daily Beast” - And, We're Up and Running! Welcome to the 2011 Women in the World Live Blog

Dispatches from our second annual Women in the World Summit.

The Daily Beast

March 10, 2011

http://www.thedailybeast.com/women-in-the-world/connect/2011/3/8/women-in-the-world-live-blog-dispatches-from-day-o?cid=hp:mainpromo2

Today begins our second annual Women in the World Summit, a three-day gathering of inspirational female leaders from all over the world. Over the course of the week, we'll meet female trailblazers from Africa and the Middle East, Asia and the United States, CEOs and politicians, grassroots activists, women reporting from the frontlines of war zones, former and current secretaries of state, and innumerable others who are doing everything in their power to create change for women around the world.

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“Rebecca Johnson” - "The rising of the women means the rising of us all"

Rebecca Johnson

9 March 2011

http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rebecca-johnson/rising-of-women-means-rising-of-us-all

In the 1970s, the women’s liberation movement had a badge that proclaimed: women who seek equality with men lack ambition. We don’t want to participate as equals in the violence, oppression and greed of patriarchal power, says Rebecca Johnson.

About the author

Rebecca Johnson is Director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy and a former senior advisor to the International WMD Blix Commission (2004-06)

Yesterday, women crossed bridges all over the world to celebrate International Women’s Day.  I joined them too, but to demonstrate more than celebrate. Despite significant gains in the hundred years since Clara Zetkin proposed International Working Women’s Day to focus on our rights and needs, we still have a long way to go.

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"Sandya Sagar" - The arranged marriage my parents won't give up on

I'm a 32-year-old, single Indian American woman. My parents think I'm too old. I think their traditions are

By Sandya Sagar

Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/03/09/dodging_an_arranged_marriage_open2011

My mother, roti roller in one hand and cordless phone in the other, barged into my room and ordered me to talk to her sister in South India. I already knew what this was about: My aunt had enlisted a professional matchmaker to find me a groom.

Ever since my last relationship ended a year ago, my folks have been trying to marry me off. In their minds, I'm running out of time. Since I live at home at 32 (not uncommon for unmarried Indian women, especially in this shaky economy), they try to introduce me to a different guy every other week. Had I gotten married to either man I dated seriously in the past five years, I would have ended up separated by now. But, according to my folks, I would have been happily married with children already if I'd listened to them. Somehow, they never mention the rise in divorces among Indian Americans.

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"Jamil Zeki" - Beauty and its neural reward are in the eye of the crowd

Let's be honest, most of us do it, at least some of the time. We modify our own opinions in line with what other people think, especially our friends and peers.

A problem for psychologists investigating the effect of peer influence is that it can be tricky to tell whether people are simply acquiescing in public, for show, or if their attitudes really have changed. A new study by a team of psychologists at Harvard University has used an innovative mix of behavioural and brain-scan methods to show that peer influence really can change how people value something, in this case the attractiveness of a face.

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"Tracy Clark-Flory - Does promiscuity cause depression?

http://www.salon.com/life/sex/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/03/08/happy_monogamy

An expert explains why the link between happiness and monogamy is more complicated than it seems

By Tracy Clark-Flory

Ross Douthat's pro-monogamy argument in yesterday's New York Times came as no surprise. But the conservative columnist's claim that monogamy "increases the odds that [women's] adult sexual lives will be a source of joy rather than sorrow" did make me wonder: What do we really know about the connection between promiscuity and happiness?

Not much, it turns out. Douthat based his assertion on recent research by sociologists Jeremy Uecker and Mark Regnerus -- who I interviewed earlier this year. As he summarized, the study found that "the happiest women were those with a current sexual partner and only one or two partners in their lifetime." He also noted that a "young woman’s likelihood of depression rose steadily as her number of partners climbed and the present stability of her sex life diminished." But we all know that correlation is not causation, right? These findings don’t tell us whether it's sleeping around that triggers depression. All we know is that there is an association between the two that could be explained any number of ways.

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"Times Of India" - Sperm quality deteriorating gradually

Times of India, Mar 5, 2011

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Sperm-quality-deteriorating-gradually/articleshow/7634301.cms

A new study has blamed falling sperm quality and rise in testicular cancer cases over the recent years on environmental reasons, particularlychemical exposure. 

Researchers from the University of Turku examined three groups of men born between 1979 and 1987, and found that those who were born in the late 1980s had a lower sperm count than those born at the beginning of the decade, reports the BBC. 

The study subjects were Finnish men because they have previously been shown to have some of the highest sperm counts in the world. 

But the scientists were never sure if this was because of their genetics or because they were exposed to fewer harmful chemicals. 

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