What role, authors Paul Abramson and Steven Pinkerton ask, does sexual pleasure play in our lives? Is the pursuit of sexual enjoyment in our blood? Our brains? Our very nature? Regardless of the source, it can be agreed that the joys of sex are widely appreciated. Why, then, is pleasure so often overlooked in discussions of sexual behavior, and why do cultural, historical, and religious treatis...

Background: Gender identity disorder and its treatment with sex reassignment surgery is a profound experience, which can affect the mental, interpersonal, social and religious aspects of one’s life.   Methods: This was a qualitative content analysis study focusing on the various dimensions of the experiences of seven patients suffering from gender identity disorder in a female-to-...

ements of comprehensive sex education. And, on that score, they have come in for some criticism: “I understand the importance of meeting schools where they are now,” says Debra Haffner, director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, and former president and CEO of SIECUS. “Having said that...these standards will not fulfill young people’s needs for information and...

What role, authors Paul Abramson and Steven Pinkerton ask, does sexual pleasure play in our lives? Is the pursuit of sexual enjoyment in our blood? Our brains? Our very nature? Regardless of the source, it can be agreed that the joys of sex are widely appreciated. Why, then, is pleasure so often overlooked in discussions of sexual behavior, and why do cultural, historical, and religious treatis...

This study examined beliefs about the causes and determinants of health, illness, and recovery in an opportunistic sample from Malaysia. In all, 371 women and 350 men completed the Health and Illness Scale, a 124-item scale that examined beliefs about current and future health, and beliefs about the causes of illness and recovery. Each of the four subscales of the Health Illness Scale were fact...

Building upon the legacy of the previous two National Institutes of Health (NIH) women's health research agenda-setting reports,(1) (,) (2) the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) released the third NIH scientific agenda for women's health and sex differences research in September 2010, entitled Moving Into The Future With New Dimensions and Strategies: A Vision for 2020 For Women's Hea...

Injection drug use (IDU) is a known risk factor for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, but the strength of other parenteral and sexual risk factors is unclear. In 1997, we performed a case-control study of 2,316 HCV-seropositive blood donors and 2,316 seronegative donors matched on age, sex, race/ethnicity, blood center, and first-time versus repeat-donor status. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confid...

More than one fourth of the total population in Iran are young people aged 10-24 (1). On the one hand, strong cultural and religious values surround sexuality before marriage and on the other hand, shifts towards greater interaction between young men and women are occurring in response to the spread of education among females, the postponement of marriage, and outside influences (2-4). Although...