Sexual conditions

FDA Approves Drug for Older Women Experiencing Painful Sex

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to treat postmenopausal women who experience pain during sex, the agency announced Tuesday.

The drug Osphena (ospemifene) mimics the effects of estrogen on vaginal tissue, which can become thinner, drier and more fragile from menopause. The pill, taken with food once a day, makes vaginal tissue thicker and less fragile to reduce pain during sex (called dyspareunia).

“Dyspareunia is among the problems most frequently reported by postmenopausal women,” said Dr. Victoria Kusiak, deputy director of the Office of Drug Evaluation III in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in an FDA news release. “Osphena provides an additional treatment option for women seeking relief.”

The safety and effectiveness of Osphena was established in three clinical studies involving nearly 1,900 postmenopausal women with signs of vulvar and vaginal atrophy, or thinning and fragile vaginal tissue.

Women were randomly assigned take either Osphena or a placebo. In the first two studies, those who took the drug for 12 weeks experienced significantly less pain during sex than the women in the placebo group.

Although a third study on Osphena found the drug is safe for long-term use, the FDA noted that the drug should be prescribed for the shortest duration needed.

Osphena can cause the lining of the uterus to thicken, which is abnormal for postmenopausal women, the FDA cautioned. Women should seek medical attention right away if they experience unusual bleeding since it could be a warning sign of uterine cancer.

The new drug can also increase women’s risk for stroke and deep vein thrombosis, but not as much as estrogen-alone therapy, the FDA advised. Other possible Osphena side effects include hot flashes, vaginal discharge, muscle spasms, genital discharge and excessive sweating.

Source: health

 

Revealed – How sex makes you more intelligent

sex-makes-you-intelligent

Sex not only helps decrease stress levels and burn away calories, but boosts your intelligence too!

Love-making proved to greatly increase the creation of new neurons located within the hippocampus – an area of the brain that is responsible for the formation of long-term memory, say researchers.

‘We discovered that even though there had been the production of new neurons, the cognitive abilities acquired during the experiment decreased once the mice were subjected to long periods without sexual activity,’ psychologists from the University of Maryland in the US were quoted as saying.

Increased sexual activity floods an individual’s brain cells with oxygen, they noted. Another study by Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, provided further substantial evidence. According to the Korean study, sex increases intellectual functions. Sexual activity buffers the creation of neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain, which acts against detrimental functions caused by extreme stress. Older couples that are more sexually active have less odds of getting dementia which is due to a variation of complicated reasons, said a report in Glamour magazine.

Other health benefits of sex

Besides making you intelligent, sex has some other health benefits too that you probably didn’t know about.

1. Makes you look younger

Yes! Believe it or not, sex can make you look younger. According to a study conducted by Dr David Weeks of Royal Edinburgh Hospital, people who had sex more than 4 times a week, felt as much as 10 years younger.

2. Boosts your immunity

While eating fruits and vegetables are known to boost your immunity, having sex can have a similar effect. A research conducted at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania, revealed that people who had more sex had 30% higher levels of the antigen immunoglobin A, as compared to people who didn’t. The higher levels of antigen improves our body’s defence against cold and flu.

Source: the Health site

10 ways to boost your odds of getting pregnant

If you’re like most couples who are trying to conceive, you want to get pregnant sooner rather than later.

Having intercourse as close as possible to ovulation definitely helps. But fertility experts say there are other ways couples can boost their fertility. A few simple measures may make the next month the month you’ll squeal: “We’re pregnant!”

1. Her Fertility Booster: Weight Control

Being underweight or overweight can delay the time it takes a woman to conceive.

William Gibbons, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Baylor College of Medicine, says weight before getting pregnant is often an overlooked factor in fertility. Keeping a healthy weight can help with conception.

2. His Fertility Booster: Protect Those Sperm

According to Dale McClure, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the idea that changing to boxers instead of briefs will boost fertility by keeping genital temperatures down is basically an old wives’ tale. Earlier studies seemed to point to boxers as the better choice, McClure says. But more recent studies haven’t shown a major difference.

What about exposing the testicles to other sources of heat? The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says controlling temperature doesn’t play much of role in boosting fertility. Some doctors, though, recommend staying away from certain sources. For instance, sitting in a hot tub day after day should be avoided, McClure says, even if a man has no known fertility problems. In at least one study, repeated exposure to high water temperatures through hot tubs or hot baths was shown to affect men’s fertility.

Still, no research has clearly shown a link between exposure to other sources of heat and a man’s fertility. One study did show that scrotal temperatures went up in laptop users who held the computer on their laps and warned that long-term exposures to high temperatures could harm sperm. Another study found that exposure to radiation from cell phones could adversely affect sperm that had been collected from participants. Researchers in that study speculated that keeping a cell phone in a pants pocket could affect the health of a man’s sperm.

While neither study was sufficient to prove that exposure to sources of heat could harm sperm enough to affect fertility, McClure still says a man who wants to be a father probably shouldn’t keep his laptop on his lap for extended periods of time. But even considering the above findings, McClure says he is “more concerned about hot tubbing.”

Source: webmd

Big belly raises death risk in heart attack survivors

http://topnews.in/files/big-belly101.jpgHigh waist circumference, severe obesity has been linked with the greatest risk of death in heart attack survivors, according to a research.

Professor Tabassome Simon said that the impact of obesity on long term mortality and cardiovascular complications in the general population has been the object of recent debate and much emphasis has also been given to the deleterious role of abdominal obesity.

Simon said that at the time of a heart attack, early mortality tends to be lower in obese patients, a phenomenon well known in critical care situations and described as the `obesity paradox`.

At 5 years, absolute mortality was highest in the leanest patients (BMI less than 22 kg /m2) and lowest in patients with BMI between 25 and 35 kg /m2 (i.e. overweight and mild obesity). Patients with severe obesity (BMI = 35 kg/m2) had a markedly increased mortality after 3 years. Severe abdominal obesity (waist circumference more than 100 cm in women and more than 115 cm in men) was also associated with increased long-term mortality.

Simon said that as waist circumference is strongly linked to BMI, the researchers determined the upper quartile of waist circumference within each BMI category and used both variables together to determine their respective role in association with long-term mortality.

She added that they found that both lean patients (BMI less than 22 kg/m2) and very obese patients (BMI =35 kg/m2) had an increased risk of death at 5 years: + 41 percent and + 65 percent, respectively. Being in the upper quartile of waist circumference was also an indicator of increased mortality at 5 years (+ 44 percent).