Earlier today I wrote a blog post for the Kinsey Confidential web site (which I hope you will check out!) that I wanted to share with you, too, as it is about an important sexual health web site I recently came across. Here it is:

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) frequently creates new educational tools for people to learn about their health. One of the major areas of work is in the area of sexually transmissible infections (STI).

Today I came across a recently posted section called "Making sense of your Pap and HPV test results" that I wanted to share with you. The human papillomavirus (HPV) has been getting increasing press and media attention in the US since Gardasil (a vaccine that prevents four HPV strains) came onto the market - however, most women (and men) who are sexually active have already been exposed to HPV, and Pap tests are still recommended for women regardless of whether they have ever had sex or had the vaccine (women should ask their healthcare provider how often they should be having Pap tests). 

Many women and their partners have questions about the Pap test, or about the newer HPV test which can tell a woman whether she has HPV and, if so, which strains (e.g., those that are most linked to genital warts or those that are more often linked to, but do not necessarily cause, cervical cancer). To learn more about HPV, the HPV test and Pap tests, check out the CDC’s special web site on these topics.

[Image via this web site.]

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Thanks to reader Anne for sending me a link to this article about why (and how and where) people have sex in (potentially) public spaces. You know - like sex in parks, dressing rooms, bathrooms, stores, churches, cars on the side of the road or parked behind abandoned buildings or closed shops, etc.

What is it about having sex in public? What’s the appeal? This article gets at little bits of it, particularly for those who choose to have sex in public because they want the thrill of maybe being caught or of being a bit exhibitionist. But I contend that there is another type of public sex that has little to nothing to do with that. Sometimes two people have such strong desires for each other - and maybe it only happens once in your life (one particular relationship) - that they literally cannot seem to not have sex immediately. Maybe it happens two or three times, ever, if you’re particularly fortunate or experienced.

This is what I am talking about: that, if the two were home, they would have sex privately. But if they are out in public, and it feels uncontrollable (even though, of course it likely is controllable), then that may explain at least a portion of the broom closet or bathroom sex events.

A 50-ish woman once told me about a relationship of hers that had just ended. She had had several very long-term monogamous relationships in her life, and a few flings and short relationships too. But not until her 50s did she come across a partner that she had such an unbelievable chemistry for - another woman who she had such strong chemistry with that they found themselves having sex in very risky, potentially public situations. Fortunately they had not got caught, and that wasn’t what she said they were after; it was just the immediacy factor. They simply had to be sexual with each other right then and there, when the feelings came on. Their desires were almost unquenchable The relationship was passionate and fiery in many ways but it was also short-lived (less than a year).

I know other women and men who have had similarly strong (and, again, relatively short-lived) sexual relationships. What is it about them? And how they drive ordinarily well-controlled, rational and patient women and men to act in ways that they perhaps would otherwise not? Is there a biological urge with some people that is particularly stronger than with others? One might argue that perhaps those are the best biological matches from an evolutionary perspective to mate with but then again (a) it seems many of those relationships are short-lived and not compatible in emotional ways and (b) how to account for the same-sex attractions that are just as strong as the other-sex attractions?

So what is it? And what do you think? Do you jump head first into these? Have you ever had such strong attractions? Did you have sex in potentially public spaces? And what is related to the thrill of getting caught or just because you felt like you absolutely had to have sex right that minute?

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Prof. Stuart Brody has worked on a variety of research studies related to vaginal intercourse and whether or not it is associated with specific physiological effects in ways that are different than oral sex, masturbation or other sexual behaviors. In the past, his research has suggested that penile-vaginal intercourse is associated with greater release of oxytocin and prolactin, hormones associated with feelings of closeness or bonding (oxytocin) or feeling satiated (prolactin). He has also shown that penile-vaginal intercourse is associated with a lowering of blood pressure in ways that other sexual behaviors are not (granted, he has not studied all sexual behaviors, but a few common ones as a comparison).

I find Dr. Brody’s work to be quite interesting and you can imagine, too, that it is fairly controversial among sex researchers, therapists and educators who have sometimes struggled to help couples expand their ideas of what it means to "have sex". A recent BBC news article describes some of his recent research related to penile-vaginal intercourse and stress. You can read the news report here.

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This just in, a press release from Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago:

For Immediate Release

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For various reasons detailed in their open letter that can be found online here, the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) has decided to dissolve, with some of its leadership involved in supporting a new organization called Accord Alliance that will advocate for improved care of intersex individuals and recognition of important related issues related to rights, health care and more - though using the somewhat newer, somewhat more clinical (but perhaps more encompassing) term "disorders of sex development". The ISNA has long served as an important resource for education related to intersex issues. In teaching Human Sexuality classes at Indiana University, I turned several times to ISNA for updated information and resources related to intersex. They were also a place that many individuals dealing with personal intersex issues (e.g., those who were themselves intersex or whose friends, family members or partners were intersex) found comfort and reassurance and learned quite a lot. Their archives will be housed at The Kinsey Institute, which houses the collections of many prominent sex researchers, educators, therapists, authors and organizations. To learn more about these disorders of sex development, visit the Accord Alliance web site.

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