Sexuality (category)

Teenage boys and young men may talk a lot about sex, but often the only ones listening are their peers.

A groundbreaking study of couples led by Professor Eduardo Franco, Director of McGill University's Cancer Epidemiology Unit, in collaboration with a team of colleagues from McGill and Université de Montréal/Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), found more than half (56 per cent) of young adults in a new sexual relationship were infected with human papillomavirus (HPV). Of those, nearly half (44 per cent) were infected with an HPV type that causes cancer.

Although research is scarce, investigators see links between young people who access Web porn and unhealthy attitudes toward sex.

Although men may joke and tease each other about their solo sexual activity, women are typically less forthcoming about their own self-pleasuring. With a very close friend, some may compare notes discretely about the best vibrators or the stress relief going solo can provide.

But women's masturbation is not generally a common topic of conversation among girlfriends. Maybe it should be, say sex therapists. They point out that women's masturbation can have benefits both for health and relationships.

Experts say that just about every man who can masturbate does -- and why not? You don't need an expert to tell you that solo sex feels good, relieves stress, and is a terrific sleep aid.

Psychology professor Jeffrey Lohr and two psychology graduates, Aimee King and Deena Austin-Oden, analyzed several leading dating Web sites and found that promotional claims were more self-serving opinion than legitimate psychological science.

I’VE been checking out Internet dating sites recently. No, I’m not in the market (although my husband is a little suspicious of all this “research”). But since many of my friends use them, I was curious. And because everyone is looking to save money these days, I wanted to know if some sites were more effective — and therefore a better investment — than others.

Consumers can find more of what they want on the Web, but that may not always be such a good thing. New research about online dating sites shows that users presented with too many choices experience "cognitive overload" and make poorer decisions as a result. The findings could have implications for other kinds of websites, although new technologies and approaches could help address the problem, researchers suggest.

The researchers found that people who are more “sociable are more likely to use Internet dating services than are those who are less sociable. This finding challenges the stereotypical profiling of
Internet daters as being just lonely and socially anxious people.”

We spoke with Dr. Sophia Yen, MD, lead researcher of the study and adolescent medicine specialist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., to get the facts behind these top sexual health misconceptions.