Volume 32, Number 4

Sailaja Pisipati MBBS MRCS Specialty Trainee in Urology, South West Peninsula Deanery, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro; Ian Pearce BMedSci BMBS FRCS(Urol) Consultant Urological Surgeon, Department of Urology, Manchester Royal Infirmary

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the inability to attain and/or maintain an erection sufficient for a sexual performance mutually satisfying for both partners. Although not life-threatening, ED is closely associated with many important physical conditions and, therefore, may affect psychosocial health. It has a significant impact on the quality of life of patients and their partners. The Massachusetts Male Aging Study showed its prevalence to be over 50% in non-institutionalised men aged 40–70 years, the incidence and severity increasing with each decade.

Victoria K Welsh MBChB(Hons) Academic Clinical Fellow in General Practice ST3, North Staffordshire; Professor PM Shaughn O’Brien DSc MD FRCOG Head of Academic Department and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, University Hospital of North Staffordshire

Mild physiological premenstrual symptoms occur in 95% of women of reproductive age. Around 5% of symptomatic women have severe, debilitating symptoms that disrupt normal functioning. Primary care is well placed to recognise and manage premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It is important that primary care physicians diagnose and treat PMS appropriately, to improve patients’ quality of life.

The Hicks files

‘One of the winners reached inside the top of her dress and whipped out her hot-pink bra that doubles as a face mask’, reported the British Medical Journal in its 10 October 2009 issue. It’s that time of the year again – the 19th Ig Nobel prizes were awarded last October at Harvard University.

Paul Woolley Editor

I recently had a male patient who presented with a urethral discharge and dysuria of several days’ duration. Microscopy revealed Gram-negative diplococci and cultures confirmed gonococcal infection. He admitted that he had had genital to genital contact with a woman he had met in a bar the previous week, but said that vaginal penetration or oro-genital contact had not taken place. When he asked me whether this was the likely source of his infection, I had to admit that, although unusual, it was certainly possible.

Susan Quilliam BA(Hons) Sex and Relationship Psychologist, Cambridge

Walk into any clinic waiting room and flick through the women’s magazines, and you will find page after page of sexually explicit text and letter after letter from readers with sexual difficulties. Walk a few paces more into the consulting room, however, and it is a different world. In the healthcare setting, many women are embarrassed to even mention sexual issues, while many professionals can equally be found squirming. And perhaps nowhere are these difficulties more apparent than when confronting hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD).

Bevis Man Press and Communications Officer, British Skin Foundation

Since 1996, the British Skin Foundation (BSF) has been raising money to fund research into better treatments – and possibly even to find cures – for many of the skin diseases that affect people in the UK. With just six people in the whole organisation, the charity works hard to raise funds through national and community events as well as donations from the public. All the money collected is directed back into funding research.

Paul Woolley drcog fRCP Consultant Physician, GUM Department, University Hospital of South Manchester

Infection with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause of most cervical cancers. The example of the relationship between HPV and cervical cancer indicates that high-risk sexual behaviour with exposure to, and infection with, HPV will increase the risk of other cancers caused by the virus.