Sexual Health

Sex Ed Mandated In New York

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:29:00 +0000

New York has decided to mandate sex education.

Let's hope this program works and they can reduce teen pregnancies and STIs.

This is great news! Read more about the program here.

Male Contraceptive Soon Within Reach

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:26:00 +0000

Contraception has been women's responsibility as far back as we can remember, but it looks like finally men will be able to take their turn.

The complications have come because men are continually producing sperm, compared to women who only ovulate once a month. But it looks like science is finally catching up and it may soon be within our grasp!

One man came up with a good point: “women were just totally excited,” he said. “If I were single, I probably would have been able to use that as a dating thing.”

Read more about the new developments here.

Anti-HIV Drugs Prevent Infection For HIV-Negative People

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:21:00 +0000

Good news! UNAIDS and WHO have released results from HIV transmission studies today:

"Results announced today from two studies reveal that a daily antiretroviral tablet taken by people who do not have HIV infection can reduce their risk of acquiring HIV by up to 73%. Both daily tenofovir and daily tenofovir/emtricitabine taken as preventive medicine (PrEP - pre-exposure prophylaxis) can prevent heterosexual transmission of HIV from men to women and from women to men."

This is great news for injecting-drug users, sex workers, and people who are in high risk groups.

New Guidelines For Missed Contraceptive Pills Released

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:23:00 +0000

Have the guidelines for missed contraceptive pills ever confused you?

They have confused me and I'm a professional! Finally someone has taken notice of this and new guidelines have been released.

They are much easier to understand and hopefully will help a lot of women avoid the confusion and know better what to do.

Read them here on the fpa website.

Allison In Suburban Woman

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:47:00 +0000

The Suburban Woman is an online and printed magazine in the Tri-County area of America. When they were looking for a sexpert to comment on some sexual health statistics I got the job!

Check out this article in which I talk about the ins and outs of some sex stats: Sex by the Numbers Continued.

Two Interviews With Allison

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:33:00 +0000

I thought I would no longer be posting on this blog, but two very exciting things have happened in the last couple of days to make me change my mind.

Although my daily contributions to Morning Quickie will take priority, this blog will certainly not be forgotten and will be a place where I publish items that are not appropriate for Morning Quickie.

So what has insprired me this week? I was quoted in two sexual health articles!

1. Raising Kids Magazine - Launch Issue 2010

We're Growing Up - By Jane Riley

2. Suite 101 - Men's Sexual Health

Should a Boy be Circumcised? When Parents Cannot Compromise - By Elizabeth Batt

This has been an exciting week for me and you can look forward to more sexual health news from me as it happens!

Quoted In April Issue Of Cosmo Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:05:00 +0000

I know it has been a long time since I posted on this blog and I apologise. I have been busy with my work as Editor of Morning Quickie.

I just wanted to share the happy news that I have been quoted in the April issue of Cosmo Australia! Check out the article entitled "The Porn Identity" about how pornography can affect a couple's sex life.

Thanks!

Book Review: The Noughtie Girl's Guide To Feminism

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:41:00 +0000

Feminists have become one of the most misunderstood groups around today. At least 100 years ago, everybody knew it was about getting the vote, and in the 1960s it was about sexual equality.

So what does feminism hope to achieve today? Ellie Levenson re-explores the movement with her recently published book, The Noughtie Girl's Guide To Feminism, which tries to interpret feminist views on a wide variety of subjects – sex, work, household chores, marriage and children – in today's terms.

To read a review of the book click here.
To buy a copy of the book:

HIV Language Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:36:00 +0000

This post is about both educating people on the nature of HIV and AIDS and addressing the issue of the way the media uses language around these health issues.

HIV and AIDS have changed a lot in the last 25 years and people are no longer condemned to death but can live lives as long as anyone else and have sexual relationships.

1. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus. AIDS is the accquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS is what they say a person has when they acquire illnesses that result when HIV has worn down a person's body to the point that they cannot defend themselves from normal illness such as flu.

2. AIDS is not a specific disease like HIV. AIDS is just what we say people have when they are no longer able to defend themselves and they get an "AIDS-defining illness". In that sense, someone might have AIDS and if their sickness (e.g. pneumonia) is cured, they will no longer have AIDS. These people could then live for years without contracting any more AIDS-defining illnesses depending on how their HIV progresses.

3. Because AIDS is not a specific illness, the recent standard for the media to publish all articles about it with it written as "Aids", is incorrect. Writing it this way leads to further misconceptions that AIDS is a specific disease and is misleading about what it is and how it affects people. I don't know how or who came up with this convention, but it is wrong and misleading and should be avoided if at all possible.

4. There is not an AIDS vaccine and never will be. AIDS is not a virus but what a person has at a certain point of their HIV progression, which can be treated and sometimes cured. They are working on an HIV vaccine because HIV is a virus. There has been some great progress with this lately, but it will still be years before anything is finalised.

5. HIV is contracted through contact into the blood stream with a sufficient amount of infected semen, vaginal fluids, rectal secretions, blood, breast milk, or during labour of an infected mother to the child. You cannot get it from kissing, shaking hands, or touching things that people with HIV have touched. Plenty of people with HIV have sexual relationships and do not pass it on to their partners.

These are all issues that a lot of people seem to be ignorant about. I hope reading this has clarified things. If you need more information the Terrence Higgins Trust is a great place to get more details. Or you can respond with a comment on this blog to ask me.

New HIV Vaccine Can Reduce Risk Of Infection

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:29:00 +0000

A study recently completed in Thailand has shown a reduced risk of contracting HIV among those who were vaccinated.

16,000 HIV-negative Thais took part in this drug trail and after 3 years 31.2% less of those vaccinated contracted HIV than those who were given the placebo. These numbers were 0.9% non-vaccinated contracting HIV and 0.6% of vaccinated people contracting HIV.

Results of this study have been hailed as "The first positive news in the Aids vaccine field for a decade".

But like all HIV studies, it is the first of many and we are advised not to get too excited.

I think it is always best to be cautious when cures and vaccinations come out, for HIV or any other disease. The best prevention is always foresight and forethought and health education. Teaching people to use condoms, what behaviours might lead to HIV, and how to look after themselves through sex education is always a better prevention than hoping that a vaccination will stop someone from getting a disease. Even if a vaccination is created, it will never be 100% and people will always have to take responsibility for their behaviours and their exposure to risks.

Book Review: Kinsey by Jonathan Gathorne-Harding

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:42:00 +0000

Alfred C. Kinsey is known as the grandfather of sex research in the twentieth century.

He was an amazing man who carried out the largest studies ever done on sexual behaviour of men and women in America in the 1950s.

These studies were seen as extremely controversial, most especially his findings about the high numbers of men and women having pre-marital sex and those who had homosexual experiences.

This man is a legend among sex researchers and having now read this book I feel like I have a much better knowledge of what went into these famous studies and the man behind them. Although this book was quite long (454 pages) it was an easy read and kept me interested throughout. There were interesting stories about Kinsey's childhood and his sexual development, his relationships and loves throughout his life, his family, his own sexual experimentation, and his obsessive dedication to his research.

Gathorne-Harding also delved into a critique of earlier biographers, claiming that they misunderstood Kinsey and portrayed him in a bad light. Where previous books criticised Kinsey's own sexual behaviour and portrayed him negatively as a sado-masochist, this book tried to paint the full picture from Kinsey's point of view. Kinsey never considered himself to be a sado-masochist (in spite of encorporating pain into his sexual practices), and his sexual experiments were happily participated in by all consenting adults involved.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in sex research because it will shed a whole new light on the history of sex research and the man behind it.

This book was also the basis for the movie Kinsey (2004) starring Liam Neeson and winner of several movie awards.

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:58:00 +0000

Book Review: Half The Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Morning Quickie reviews Half the Sky, a powerful book about how women are still mistreated in many parts of the world. It examines rape, femicide, and a so-called gender apartheid.

Many women in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and many in Africa have to put up daily struggles to survive, and this book examines some of those experiences and what it says about women's rights today.

Age Of First Sex Is Genetic

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:45:00 +0000

According to results of a study done by the University of Oregon and published on the BBC, nature rules over nurture when it comes to age of first sex.

The study looked at cousins and their family situations such as presence or absence of a father-figure, poverty, education, and religion. It was concluded that "the more genes the children shared, the more similar their ages of first intercourse regardless of whether they had an absent father or not".

Read the rest of this article here on Morning Quickie.

Unlikely Results Regarding Vaginal Orgasm Study

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Results from a study done by the University of the West of Scotland have been criticised by Australian ABC News. This study looked at 1,000 Czech women and asked them about orgasm to determine how their sex education affects their ability to have vaginal orgasms.

According to results ability of a woman to have a vaginal orgasm depends on length of penis, duration of intercourse, and mental focus.

The author of the study says: "The importance of being able to focus really shows that the brain is the most important sex organ. If women can be trained to focus on their vaginal sensations, they may improve their orgasmic consistency."

Australian experts have criticised this as medicalising human sexuality and reducing orgasm to a particular act, rather than involving the whole body.

I definitely agree with these experts. By saying that women need to be "trained to focus on their vaginal sensations...[to] improve their orgasmic consistency" negates all of the most recent research done on human sexual function. It has been proven that women need clitoral stimulation to orgasm and it is difficult to achieve orgasm without this for most women. As well, it is often difficult to separate vaginal and clitoral orgasm because many parts of the body interact during sex to work together to acheive orgasm. In fact, it has been shown that the infamous, and often times elusive, G-Spot orgasm actually happens through a combination of clitoral and vaginal stimulation; these two organs work together and once a certain level of arousal is acheived (often via the clitoris) the G-Spot becomes more prominent and accessible.

In addition, the study authors claim that women who have vaginal orgasm "have a greater satisfaction with their sex life, mental health, relationships with both partners and friends, and life in general."

I am sorry, but that is an absurd statement. I could understand that women who are sexually satisfied are happier, healthier, and haver better relationships. It has often been shown to be true in studies. But to say that only those who have vaginal orgasm are satisfied is beyond belief. Not to mention the sticky issue of how to define satisfaction. Surely these researchers aren't naive enough to think it rests in frequency of orgasm alone.

This study will be published in the next edition of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, and I look forward to reading it. I think this study either needs to be replicated or tossed aside because I cannot possibly believe these results to be true.

Morning Quickie

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:55:00 +0000

Sorry for my absence, dear readers, but I have been in the process of creating a new website.

Please check it out at http://www.morningquickie.com

Thanks so much!

Sign the Petition for the IAAF to Stay Out of Caster's Pants

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:39:00 +0000

Sign the petition to the International Association of Athletics Federation in support of Caster Semenya.

Excerpt: She’s got the world’s attention, but it’s not about her athletic ability – it’s about who she is, and who gets to decide her gender.

XX – why?! Why does Caster have to endure invasive tests just because she looks different? Why does the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) get to decide who she is?

Sign the linked petition for the IAAF to leave her in peace...

Another article about AMI

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Another article about evil AMI here.

So-Called 'Sex Clinic' Finally Gets what it Deserves

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Finally someone is trying to make AMI Australia accountable for their "pernicious, nasty, coercive and deplorable" practices! See article here.

I have been waiting for this so-called "sexual health clinic" to be caught with their pants down and am happy something is finally happening. I have always believed them to be a money-grubbing commercial endeavor without any concern for their patients, only the money they can make off poor ignorant people who would be better off seeing a legitimate sexual health professional but don't know how or where to get good help.

I hope AMI suffers from this and I hope its branches in the rest of the world do as well. Hopefully the media attention this draws will show people AMI is not a good place to get help and can educate people about where they can find legitimate sex therapy.

Midwest Teen Sex Show gets TV Spot

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:15:00 +0000

The Midwest Teen Sex Show, a brilliantly entertaining and funny online webcast series aimed at teens for sex education, is having a pilot show developed to go on Comedy Central for the 2009-2010 tv programme. Click here for story.

Finally, sex education for the masses covering comprehensive topics from a funny and entertaining standpoint. Let's hope the show is received well by the American programmers; it would be such a great benefit for their country (and the rest of us with satellite tv)!

Barbaric Laws in Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:23:00 +0000

The Guardian reports on barbaric laws being passed in Afghanistan restricting rights of mothers and supporting rape and abuse in marriage.

"Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work."

Click above for full report.

Teenage Mothers are Everywhere I Turn

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:29:00 +0000

I just found out I live in the area of London with the fourth highest teenage pregnancy rate with 1/14 girls getting pregnant by the age of 16. This rate has also increased by 15% since 1998. See news article here.

The Haringey council is planning on setting up a Teenage Pregnancy Executive Board in September. Let's hope it is successful because that rate of teen mothers is way too high and they need to do something drastic to stop it.

Fertility Classes in School?

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:33:00 +0000

The Guardian recently published an article addressing issues of fertility in our modern society.

With couples delaying having children longer and longer, some until their mid-late 30s or early 40s, there are quite a few that come to realise they will not be able to reproduce naturally, if at all. Some critics have argued that we need fertility classes alongside sex education classes in school to prepare people so they can make their life choices around their biological clocks rather than relying on (an imperfect) science to keep them fertile until they are old.

This is a complicated issue, because, as I have observed through my own life, it is the Western cultural system that often forces women to delay childbearing. Many of my friends (myself included) have been in university close to 10 years. We want to graduate university, establish some kind of career so that we may have something to go back to after time off for kids, and have time to meet, marry, and mate, but the way our system is set up it is difficult to achieve this until at least the late 20s or early 30s.

I hope the governments look into this and that maternal and paternal benefits become the norm. On the other hand, the world is over populated and there are many issues that are helped by delaying childbearing, but our society needs to find a way to reconcile these issues so that people are not left grieving for the children they are unable to bear. Can the government benefits help us find this middle ground?

New Sex Ed Website in Western Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:41:00 +0000

The WA government has recently opened a new website aimed at 14 - 17-year-olds to teach them about sex. It is being run by the Health Department and advertised in schools with sections about what is sex, being ready for sex and decision-making, how to talk to your partner about sex, and how to prevent STIs and pregnancy.

Although there has been some negative backlash from Catholic parents (click here) I think the majority of parents will applaud its creation; so many parents are at a loss at how to talk to their kids about sex, and this will be a great tool for them to use both on their own and with their children. Hopefully this will help parents talk with their kids about sex more easily and will get some of the vital information out to young people to help them make healthy decisions.

Don't Marry an Aussie Man

noreply@blogger.com (Allison Macbeth) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:53:00 +0000

A British study has revealed that Australian men make the worst husbands.

Having lived in Australia for three years I can say the stereotype of the macho beer-swilling, sports-loving, sexist man does exist. However, society is changing and none of my male friends were like this.

Men in their 20s and 30s seem to have grown up with mothers who were part of the 60s and 70s feminist movements, so they often know how to look after themselves without the need of a woman. However, as can be seen from this study, Australia still has a ways to go in terms of gender equality. Let's teach our boys how to cook and clean and take care of themselves and try to get rid of the bad reputations that Australian men have around the world.