Articular cartilage is an example of a highly efficacious water-based, natural lubrication system that is optimized to provide low friction and wear protection at both low and high loads and sliding velocities. One of the secrets of cartilage's superior tribology comes from a unique, multimodal lubrication strategy consisting of both a fluid pressurization mediated lubrication mechanism and a b...

BACKGROUND Woman's orgasm plays a vital role in sexual compatibility and marital satisfaction. Orgasm in women is a learnable phenomenon that is influenced by several factors. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is exploring obstacles to orgasm in Iranian married women. MATERIALS AND METHODS This qualitative study with directed content analysis approach was conducted in 2015-2016, on 20 Iranian...

This study used qualitative methods to assess why women engage in heterosexual anal (receptive) intercourse (AI) with a male partner. Four focus groups which comprised women from diverse ethnicities were conducted. All groups were digitally recorded for transcription; transcripts were analyzed using the methods of grounded theory to determine themes. Women's reasons for engaging in anal interco...

OBJECTIVE Nonlubricated plastic specula can adhere to the vaginal introitus and cause discomfort with pelvic examination. We wanted to see if application of water-soluble gel lubricant to the plastic vaginal speculum would change the unsatisfactory cervical cytology diagnosis rate. METHODS Five public health family planning clinic sites were randomized to either water-soluble gel or water onl...

The lubrication regime of articulating surfaces plays an important role for the understanding of the tribological conditions and the resulting wear performance of total disc replacement (TDR) of the spine. In the present study the lubrication regime for lumbar TDRs with ball and socket design have been assessed by applying the Hamrock-Dawson elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication theory. The effect of...

Lubrication plays an important role in the clinical performance of the ceramic-on-ceramic (CoC) hip implant in terms of reducing wear and avoiding squeaking. All the previous lubrication analyses of CoC hip implants assumed that synovial fluid was sufficiently supplied to the contact area. The aim of this study was to investigate the lubrication performance of the CoC hip implant under starved ...

INTRODUCTION Vaginal sling procedures may have a negative effect on sexual function due to damage to vascular and/or neural genital structures. Even though autonomic innervation of the clitoris plays an important role in female sexual function, most studies on the neuroanatomy of the clitoris focus on the sensory function of the dorsal nerve of the clitoris (DNC). The autonomic and somatic path...

We wished to obtain potential users' perspectives on vaginal microbicides from a population of women at high risk for HIV. We conducted a face-to-face survey of convenience samples (total n = 743) of drug-using women and female sexual partners of male injection drug users in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Providence, Rhode Island, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ninety percent of respondents said that the...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to compare quality of life (QoL) and sexual functioning between sexually active cervical cancer survivors and healthy women. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this cross-sectional study, propensity-score-matched cervical cancer survivors (n=104) and healthy women (n=104) were compared. All women had engaged in sexual activity within the previous 3 months, and cervi...

T he clinical presentation of dyspareunia is often perplexing; patients may be difficult to assess, and positive clinical findings are not always observed on standard gynecologic examination. Adding to the confusion, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual defines dyspareunia as a sexual condition rather than a pain disorder, implying a psychogenic origin.1,2 Pa...