Objective: To study genital response and sexual arousal in women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and assess associations with sex steroid levels.
Design: This observational prospective case-control study was conducted from March 2017 until March 2020.
Setting: University Hospital.
Study Question: Does offering the Pleasure&Pregnancy (P&P) programme rather than expectant management improve naturally conceived ongoing pregnancy rates in couples diagnosed with unexplained infertility?
Summary Answer: The P&P programme had no effect on the ongoing pregnancy rates of couples with unexplained infertility.
What Is Known Already: Underpowered studies suggested that face-to-face interventions targeting sexual health may increase pregnancy rates. The impact of an eHealth sexual health programme had yet to be evaluated by a large randomized controlled trial.
Reservoirs play an important role in relation to water security, flood risk, hydropower and natural flow regime. This study derives a novel dataset with a long-term daily water-balance (reservoir volume, inflow, outflow, evaporation and precipitation) of headwater reservoirs and storage dynamics across the globe. The data is generated using cloud computing infrastructure and a high resolution distributed hydrological model wflow_sbm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Sexual pleasure is central to current understandings of sexual function, health, and wellbeing. In this article, we suggest that we lack a sufficiently specific, yet encompassing, definition of sexual pleasure and that we therefore lack comprehensive assessments of sexual pleasure. We introduce a definition of sexual pleasure and position it centrally in an adapted framework of the sexual response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Question: What is the relationship of sex steroid levels with sexual function in women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)?
Summary Answer: Women with PCOS reported more sexual dysfunction and more sexual distress compared to those without PCOS, but only few and weak associations between androgen levels and sexual function were observed.
What Is Known Already: The literature shows that women with PCOS report lower levels of sexual function and sexual satisfactionand more sexual distress. Contributing factors seem to be obesity, alopecia, hirsutism, acne, infertility, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
Purpose: Patients with advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma have a poor prognosis (21% 2-year overall survival [OS] from diagnosis). We assessed the activity of atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1) in patients with advanced penile cancer, with or without radiotherapy (RT).
Patients And Methods: A single-center, nonrandomized phase II study with two treatment arms was conducted in 32 patients with histologically confirmed advanced penile cancer.
In Mediterranean catchments, such as the Sorraia catchment in Portugal, it is expected that climate change will increase drought stress and the deterioration of water quality in reservoirs. Sustainable land management (SLM) practices are seen as an adaption measure for those problems, but the effectiveness on improving climate change impacted water availability and quality on catchment scale is still poorly understood. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of SLM practices in adapting the impacts of climate change on water availability and quality of the Montargil and Maranhão reservoirs in the Sorraia catchment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSexual abuse is a risk factor for developing various abdominal and pelvic complaints. In this clinical lesson we present one case, highlighting this connection and how it can be missed by different medical professionals. Early identification of the underlying connection with sexual abuse can prevent re-traumatization by medical treatments, reduce the risk of the patient being abused again and raises the opportunity for a more appropriate treatment, such as addition or trauma therapy and/or pelvic physiotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSexual motivation (desire) requires the simultaneous presence of an active central motive state and a stimulus with sexual significance. Once activated, sexual motivation leads to visceral responses and approach behaviors directed toward the emitter of the sexual stimulus. In humans, such behaviors follow cognitive evaluation of the context, including predictions of the approached individual's response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Similar to other young people with a chronic health condition, perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) adolescents may have an impacted sexual development.
Objectives: This paper aims to compare sexual milestones of PHIV to HIV uninfected peers, through a systematic review (SR) and explorative study.
Methods: We performed a systematic search in 4 electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus), according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.
Study Question: What are the experiences and the support and sexual advice needs of subfertile couples continuing to attempt natural conception after the diagnostic fertility work-up?
Summary Answer: Exploration of the experiences of couples showed that couples would have appreciated fertility clinic staff embedding expectant management into the fertility clinic trajectory, supportive staff with female and male patient interactions and advice on common experiences of peers and on managing their lifestyle, distress and subfertility-related sexual challenges.
What Is Known Already: Dutch and British professional guidelines advise newly diagnosed subfertile couples with a 'good prognosis' to continue to attempt natural conception and do not require fertility clinic staff to interact with patients. Fertility clinic staff and subfertile couples struggle to follow these guidelines as they feel an urgent need for action.
Purpose: This study aimed to establish the functional impact of displacement of urogenital organs after abdominoperineal resection (APR) using validated questionnaires.
Methods: Patients who underwent APR for primary or recurrent rectal cancer (2001-2018) with evaluable pre- and postoperative radiological imaging and completed urinary (UDI-6, IIQ-7) and sexual questionnaires (male, IIEF; female, FSFI, FSDS-R) were included from 16 centers. Absolute displacement of the internal urethral orifice, posterior bladder wall, distal end of the prostatic urethra, and cervix were correlated to urogenital function by calculating Spearman's Rho (ρ).
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
April 2022
Sexual incentive stimuli activate sexual motivation and heighten the level of general arousal. The sexual motive may induce the individual to approach the incentive, and eventually to initiate sexual acts. Both approach and the ensuing copulatory interaction further enhance general arousal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile the importance of sexual pleasure for physical and mental health becomes increasingly evident, research on sexual pleasure in transgender persons is lacking. Recently, the first version of the Amsterdam Sexual Pleasure Index (ASPI Vol. 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Question: Do mental health and sexual function differ between women with or without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with comparable BMI and fertility characteristics?
Summary Answer: Women with PCOS have a poorer mental quality of life than women without PCOS, but there were no differences in symptoms of depression, anxiety, physical quality of life or sexual function.
What Is Known Already: Various studies suggest that women with PCOS have poorer mental health, such as higher symptoms of anxiety and depression with a lower quality of life, and have an impaired sexual function compared to women without PCOS. However, in most studies, BMI and infertility status differ between women with and without PCOS, which may hamper comparability.
Purpose: Young adult cancer patients and survivors have age-specific care needs, but care needs related to sexual health are poorly understood. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine sexual health-related care needs among patients/survivors diagnosed with cancer during young adulthood (age: 18-39 years). The prevalence and types needs were assessed along with associated patient factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVarious sources of evidence suggest that men and women differ in their experience of sexual pleasure. Such gender differences have been attributed to men's higher innate sex drive, supported by evolutionary psychology perspectives and gender differences in reproductive strategies. This paper presents biopsychosocial evidence for gender similarities in the capacity to experience pleasure, and for substantial gender differences in opportunities for sexual pleasure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOral Oncol
October 2021
Objectives: To investigate associations between testosterone and patient reported sexual problems and need for sexual care in head and neck cancer patients at time of diagnosis and 6 months after treatment.
Patients And Methods: Data and samples were used of 40 patients (20 men, 20 women) before and 6 months after treatment. Outcome measures were total testosterone level (TT) and free testosterone index (FTI), testosterone insufficiency (TI), the EORTC QLQ-HN35 Sexuality subscale, the subscales of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), and the Sexuality subscale of the Short-Form Supportive Care Needs Survey (SCNS-SF34).
Objective: Many healthcare professionals experience difficulties in discussing sexual health with their patients. The aim of this review was to synthesize results of studies on communication practices in interactions about sexual health in medical settings, to offer healthcare professionals suggestions on how to communicate about this topic.
Methods: We searched for studies using five databases.
Introduction: Hypertonicity of the pelvic floor (PFH) is a disabling condition with urological, gynecological and gastrointestinal symptoms, sexual problems and chronic pelvic pain, impacting quality of life. Pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT) is a first-line intervention, yet no systematic review on the efficacy of PFPT for the treatment of PFH has been conducted.
Objectives: To systematically appraise the current literature on efficacy of PFPT modalities related to PFH.
Purpose: The aim of this pretest-posttest study was to investigate the reach and effects of My Changed Body (MyCB), an expressive writing activity based on self-compassion, among head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors.
Methods: This pilot study had a pretest-posttest design. HNC survivors received an invitation to complete a baseline survey on body image-related distress.
Objective: To determine long-term outcomes of a randomized trial (BIOPEX) comparing biological mesh and primary perineal closure in rectal cancer patients after extralevator abdominoperineal resection and preoperative radiotherapy, with a primary focus on symptomatic perineal hernia.
Summary Background Data: BIOPEX is the only randomized trial in this field, which was negative on its primary endpoint (30-day wound healing).
Methods: This was a posthoc secondary analysis of patients randomized in the BIOPEX trial to either biological mesh closure (n = 50; 2 dropouts) or primary perineal closure (n = 54; 1 dropout).
Women undergo important changes in sex hormones throughout their lifetime that can impact cardiovascular disease risk. Whereas the traditional cardiovascular risk factors dominate in older age, there are several female-specific risk factors and inflammatory risk variables that influence a woman's risk at younger and middle age. Hypertensive pregnancy disorders and gestational diabetes are associated with a higher risk in younger women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) with psychological distress showed that a stepped care (SC) program targeting psychological distress compared with care as usual (CAU), is (cost)effective in reducing psychological distress.
Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether SC can coalleviate problems with sexual interest and enjoyment. A secondary aim was to investigate whether the presence of an unmet sexual health need and having a psychiatric disorder (depression or anxiety) at baseline moderated any effect of SC on these sexual variables until 1-year follow-up.