Sex Aware

   
Gel protects against AIDS & herpes

From News.com.au see full article

Tests on lab animals have shown that the microbicide gel, called Viva Gel, inactivates the HIV virus and another responsible for genital herpes.

Lead researcher Dr Jeremy Paull from Melbourne-based pharmaceutical company Starpharma told the International AIDS Society conference in Sydney the gel would be used by heterosexual men who apply it directly to themselves before sex.

The active ingredient in the microbicide is dendrimer, a molecule which binds itself to the viruses and prevents them from infecting healthy cells, Dr Paull said. Recent trials on animals have shown it is between 85 and 100% effective at blocking both viruses.

Safety trials of the gel are now underway in humans. The first results, presented at the congress, show it is safe and well tolerated in healthy men, uncircumcised or not.

The gel is currently being trialled on women as a contraceptive.

   
Resurgent syphilis

From Pink News see full article

Over the past few years health officials have detected a serious strain of the sexually transmitted bacterial disease syphilis in gay and bisexual US men infected with the AIDS virus.

The strain had been all but wiped out decades ago, but the US Centre for Disease Control is indicating that gay and bisexual men are the primary cause of the rebirth of syphilis in the past few years.

Symptomatic early neurosyphilis is a rare manifestation of syphilis that usually occurs within the first 12 months of infection. Although syphilis is treatable with antibiotics, this form can be deadly leading to blindness, and possible stroke.

Over the last decade the rate of syphilis has been on a steady increase in the United States. While gay and bisexual men only accounted for 7% of all the syphilis cases in 2000, that percentage increased in an alarming rate to more than 60% in 2005.

Researchers say that lack of safe sex is the principle cause of the new outbreaks.

Health officials encourages everyone, but especially men who have sex with men, to get tested every 6 months for HIV and other STD's to help stop the spread.

   
For gogo girls who want to reveal more without revealing more

Thanks to John
C-String available from Love Honey See further details

In Bangkok there are policies/orders in place such that the girls need to wear bikinis. However in some places they have little stars on as bras. Don't you think it would be possible to use C-Strings instead of bikini bottoms?

I believe it would make a night out in Bangkok more fun if the attire was less.

C-Strings were conceived as the ultimate in invisible underwear but perhaps they have a secondary use in nudity challenged Bangkok.

The C-String has a flexible internal frame that hugs and holds it to the body both securely and comfortably. At the front it looks like sexy underwear, to the rear it has a thong-style strip, and to the sides it has nothing at all!

   
Increasing staying power

The girls aren't going to like this much

From Belfast Telegraph See further details

The Ulster doctor who helped introduce Viagra to the world has developed a revolutionary new spray-on treatment that gives men "five times the staying power."

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph consultant physician Professor Wallace Dinsmore revealed how the simple 'Tempe' spray had the potential to become as popular as the phenomenon of the tiny blue wonder pill which had its origins in Belfast.

Dubbed Spray and Stay, the treatment, which contains two anaesthetics - lidocaine and prilocaine - has already been a major success in a Europe/UK trial which included Northern Ireland.

The spray could be made widely available within a year.

   
Enjoy your first night in Pattaya

From Ananova See further details

Viagra could be used to help people flying eastwards recover from jetlag, according to new research.

A team of Argentine scientists found the drug helped hamsters recover up to 50% faster from forward shifts in their daily time cycles.

However, the drug only worked in conjunction with light therapy, and only in one time direction - the equivalent to flying eastbound.

The study features in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers from the National University of Quilmes shifted the light-dark cycle of hamsters six hours forwards, by switching on lights six hours earlier than usual.

Injection before the time shift meant the hamsters adjusted to the new time cycle faster, even when low doses of the drug, which did not cause penile erections, were used.

Professor Robert Lucas said: We will have to wait for more research to know whether this will work in humans.

Pfizer, the makers, said the drug should only be used in accordance with the approved labelling.

   
A new sex toy for women

From LoveHoney See further details

There's a brand new sex toy on the market for women - and it's powered by a vacuum cleaner!

Called Vortex Vibrations, it comes with two attachments which promise to make the clitoris 'vibrate and flutter like a reed in a saxophone'!

It's a clitoral stimulator that uses a flow of air to vibrate the clitoris.

   
Oral sex linked to throat cancer

From the Daily Mail see full article

Oral sex raises your risk of throat cancer scientists have warned.

A new study found the sex act can pass on the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can trigger a specific type of throat cancer in both men and women.

And they claim oral sex is an even bigger killer than smoking or drinking.

The researchers found those who had more than six oral sex partners in their lifetime and an HPV infection were 8.6 times more likely to develop the cancer than those who had never engaged in oral sex. Whereas smoking raised the risk of throat cancer three times, and drinking by 2.5.

Researcher Dr Gypsyamber D'Souza, from the Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, US, said: It is important to know that people without the traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use can nevertheless be at risk of oropharyngeal cancer.

There are around 7,600 cases of oesophageal cancer diagnosed in the UK each year and 7,400 deaths related to the disease.

But co-author Dr Maura Gillison said: People should be reassured that oropharyngeal cancer is relatively uncommon, and the overwhelming majority of people with an oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer.

The findings are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

   
No problems enjoying BDSM

From Brisbane Times

Bondage and discipline may actually make men happier, according to the first national survey of Australian fetish habits.

The new sex study has revealed that 2% of Australian men and 1.4% of women admit to enjoying dominance, submission and sadomasochism-type sex in the past year.

But researchers involved in the phone survey of 20,000 people say they expect many more Australians to be engaging in the practice but unwilling to label it BDSM.

The survey results, to be presented at the World Association of Sexual Health congress in Sydney this week, give the first snapshot of Australians involved in bondage behaviour.

These fetishes were most common among gay, lesbian and bisexual people and heterosexuals who are "bi-interested", said Dr Richters, the lead researcher.

In women, BDSM was most popular among under 20-year-olds and those who had a partner they didn't live with. There were no age or relationship trends in men, she said.

People who engaged in the habit were more likely to be sexually adventurous in other ways, like trying anal sex and phone sex, looking at internet pornography or using sex toys.

They were no more likely to have suffered sexual difficulties, sexual abuse or coercion or anxiety than other Australians. In fact, says Dr Richters, men into BDSM scored significantly better on a scale of psychological wellbeing than other men.

At the other end of the spectrum - least happy - were men who reported being attracted to men but had never acted on their desire and didn't regard themselves as gay.

Researchers said the study helps break down the reigning stereotype that people into bondage and discipline were damaged as children and were therefore "dysfunctional".

We really found that BDSM is simply a sexual interest or subculture attractive to a minority, not a pathological symptom of past abuse or difficulty with 'normal' sex, Dr Richters said. They've just got a broader and more unusual sexual repertoire than most.

   
Love Labs Stud Strap Delay Control for Men

From LoveHoney See further details

A new product said to be zooming off the shelves.

Called the Stud Strap, this nifty device is designed to delay ejaculation until both partners are ready. The simple-but-effective sex toy has been described as a "remote control for men".

No batteries required - just a gentle tug - and it's re-useable too.

How does the Stud Strap delay strap work?

As orgasm approaches, the testicles naturally rise. Wearing the Stud Strap around the scrotum stops the testicles rising.

As orgasm approaches, you or your partner gently pull the Stud Strap handle and the testicles are moved down - and you go on and on!

   
Gonorrhea goes drug resistant

From topix

The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea is now among the 'superbugs' resistant to common antibiotics, leading U.S. health officials to recommend wider use of a different class of drugs to avert a public health crisis.

The resistant form accounts for more than one in every four gonorrhea cases among heterosexual men in Philadelphia and nearly that many in San Francisco.

Gonorrhea, which is believed to infect more than 700,000 people in the United States each year, can leave both men and women infertile and puts people at higher risk of getting the AIDS virus.

Since the early 1990s, a class of drugs known as fluoroquinolones has provided a relatively easy cure. These antibiotics, taken as tablets, include the drug Cipro.

But a growing number of gonorrhea cases is resistant to those drugs, and officials at the CDC for the first time are urging doctors to stop using fluoroquinolones and switch to cephalosporins, a different class of antibiotics, to treat everyone.

Those drugs, which include the generic ceftriaxone or brand name Rocephin, must be given as a shot and aren't as readily stocked as Cipro on most doctor's shelves.

Gonorrhea has now joined the list of other superbugs for which treatment options have become dangerously few, said Dr. Henry Masur, president of the Infectious Disease Society of America. To make a bad problem even worse, we're also seeing a decline in the development of new antibiotics to treat these infections.

Described by Douglas as a 'very wily' disease, gonorrhea has worked its way through decades of other treatment regimens, from sulfa drugs used in the 1930s and 1940s, to penicillin, which was used from the 1940s until the mid-1980s.

Gonorrhea's spread is preventable through consistent and proper use of condoms, experts said.

   
Get you hands on this realistic toy

From SexToysInsider.com see full article
Breasts available from QueenBreast

These are really quite incredible breasts - round, soft, squeezeable and with a freakishly realistic nipple at $129 a pair.

From the makers: Our artists started with a laborious wax live-casting of the voluptuous DDD breasts of the legendary Swedish blond bombshell Alexandra Nicholas, who believes herself to be the reincarnation of the domineering wife of Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia…

Live-cast, DDD Size, each weighs 3 pounds, Silicone-fleshed, Gel-filled

   
A discussion about breath play

From Village Voice see full article

Choking as an erotic act seems to be more popular than ever. It has made it onto the pleasure-menu of everyday couples who indulge in what they call "regular sex," which is surprising since cutting off your loved one's air supply is not just risqué—it's risky.

What's the turn on? During suffocation, the body is deprived of oxygen; it floods with endorphins, making the person feel high, and those endorphins can intensify sexual sensations and orgasms. People who practice BDSM (who know a thing or two about endorphins) use the term 'breath play' to describe the different ways one can control breath or deprive someone of oxygen (choking is only one). Some practitioners combine it with bondage or sensory deprivation; use a hood or a gas image: mask, or simply a hand over a partner's mouth and nose. Breath play scenes also have a significant psychological component; they can be a way to eroticize dominance and submission, fear, danger, or control. Among kinky players, these scenes are universally considered edge play (risky or fringe activities).

Ms. Cynthia, a 20-year community veteran, former professional dominatrix, and current BDSM educator teaches a class on breath play, which she says, can be "sexy as hell.": As a Dominant, I literally have someone's life in my hands and I control when or whether their next breath will come. It is terror play. For a submissive, it is the ultimate surrender. You turn your very life over to the care of another. Her preferred method of breath control—and the one she considers the safest—is two-person re-breathing, where two people cover each other's mouths with their own and exchange the air between them repeatedly. She says she has never seen anyone take this too far to the point where someone passes out. In her class, she teaches that everyone should take specific precautions when they do breath play and emphasizes that those with heart conditions or sleep apnea should never do it.

Within BDSM communities—where people do lots of things non-kinky people think are weird and dangerous—breath play is controversial. Jay Wiseman (jaywiseman.com), author of several books on BDSM, has written many articles on the topic and is adamant about the dangers involved: As a person with years of medical education and experience, I know of no way whatsoever that either suffocation or strangulation can be done in a way that does not intrinsically put the recipient at risk of cardiac arrest. Wiseman believes it's always unsafe because there is no way to tell when someone may go into cardiac arrest.

All these educators agree that one should never engage in breath play alone. Autoerotic asphyxiation has been the stuff of legend and accidental-death news stories, but it's about to have a coming-out party in porn. TightFit will release a provocative new title on March 2: So Low, (solowxxx.com) a video of women practicing autoerotic asphyxiation.

The video includes a disclaimer which begins: Contains scenes of extremely dangerous acts with possible permanent side-effects, up to, and including death, and ends with Do NOT attempt any of these acts under any circumstances at any time!

Sex is risky in many ways, and many of us like to challenge the limits of our bodies. Everyone I spoke to acknowledged the inherent risk involved in breath play; the BDSM educators say that's the reason they teach people about it. But what about all the non-pervy people who don't have access to such a class? What about an inspired but naive viewer of So Low? There is enough information online—more anti than pro (see autoerotic-asphyxiation.com)—to make a person with common sense stop and think. Perhaps this video will spur more discussion among people in different circles.

   
Dominican prostitutes participate in trial

Based on an article from Pioneer Times Journal

175 Dominican prostitutes are lending their bodies to a trial of what New Jersey-based Merck & Co. hopes will prove to be a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS .

AIDS is the leading killer of people aged 15 to 44 in the Caribbean, claiming 24,000 lives in 2005, a rate second only to that of sub-Saharan Africa. And according to the United Nations , nearly three-quarters of those infected live on the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti.

At least 70,000 of the Dominican Republic's 9 million people are HIV positive, and discrimination discourages many from seeking testing or treatment. Among prostitutes, about 3.6% are infected, although researchers report rates as high as 12% in some areas.

Any long-term risks will take years to discover, but once doctors explained there was no way to contract the disease from the vaccine, they found plenty of volunteers at Adams' brothel in Las Guaranas, a town of dirt streets and low-slung houses surrounded by rice fields about 75 miles north of Santo Domingo.

Participants don't know whether they are getting the drug or a placebo. Even if the results are promising, a vaccine would be several years away from reaching the market.

Participants get three injections over their first seven months in the study, and then must keep reporting back for four years of close monitoring.

The Merck trial, currently in the second of three testing phases, each of which is to last several years, is one of 17 sponsored by the HIV Vaccine Trial Network, a Seattle-based group supported by the U.S. government.

Even a vaccine that reduces the level of HIV in future infections would be a victory.

   
14% of condoms available in Thailand are declared substandard

From The Nation

14% of condoms available in Thailand are substandard, Department of Medical Sciences director-general Phaijit Warachit said recently.

Makers of faulty condoms need to improve their product before reapplying for an operating licence and standard-guaranteeing certification, said Dr Phaijit.

There are now four local condom makers passing the department's approval. The 14% who failed the basic standard tests are both foreign and local makers.

Dr Phaijit said condoms should be kept in a dry and cool place, away from direct sunlight and fluorescent light, and without heavy pressure on them.

Last year, 17% of condoms were found to be substandard.

   
Rabbit vibrator cum mp3 player

Perhaps a good idea for sponsors leaving their girls in Pattaya without them having the chance of sex. They could record their girl some dirty talk to help them on their many lonely nights.

From AVN
Available at My Little Secret

Adult sex-toy manufacturer, My Little Secret, has announced the launch of its new Web-enabled Talking Head MP3 Rabbit Vibrator. My Little Secret founder and owner, Cheryl Berry, invented the new device, which generated a massive buzz in the adult toy arena at the recent AVN Show in Las Vegas.

Berry had the idea in her shower with a rabbit vibrator. Since then, it has been a Herculean quest and labor of love for nearly 18 months to bring the finished product to the adult novelty market.

The Talking Head MP3 has 64 megabytes of RAM (for about 1 hour's worth of material), plus USB capability for downloading audio fantasies, songs, or music from the Web.

The Talking Head has a realistic yet elegant silicone shaft and rabbit extension, both of which are multi-speed and multifunctional. It comes with a built-in voice recorder, two pre-recorded audio fantasies ("Will" and "Juan"), a CD-quality speaker in the base, and headphones for private listening.

In addition, My Little Secret also is offering a number of free audio fantasies that users can download from the toy's website, TalkingHeadVibrators.com.

   
How often do Brits have sex?

From The Times
see full article
Statistics from Sex & The Psyche by Brett Karh

What are the secrets of the British bedroom? Psychotherapist Brett Kahr has teamed up with the polling organisation YouGov to conduct the biggest ever survey of our sex lives. Here, in an extract from his new book, he reveals how often people have sex and who they have it with.

The British Sexual Fantasy Research Project can claim to be more highly statistically representative of the British population at large; and, to the best of my knowledge, at the time of writing, this study constitutes the largest published survey on the psychology of adult male and adult female sexual fantasies. There were 13,553 respondents to a questionnaire administered by YouGov, the polling organisation.

Just over 90% of the country defines itself as heterosexual, and 3% defines itself as homosexual, less than a third of the figure usually reported for homosexuality. Of course, if one includes the self-defined “bisexual” individuals, as well as that small but still marked percentage of people who would regard themselves as “undecided”, then we have a somewhat higher percentage for whom homosexuality may be a serious option: 8% rather than 3%.

Many people will be quite keen to know the answer to some critical questions: “How often do other people do it? And am I getting enough by comparison? Just what is the national average?”

Contrary to what one might imagine, a very large percentage of British adults admitted having no sex at all at the present time. As many as 18% of contemporary Britons do not currently engage in sexual behaviour with a partner, which translates to approximately 8.1 million people. This figure combines the 2% of celibate Britons who have never had sexual relations with a partner with the 16% who have had sexual experience or experiences in the past but now live without regular sex. This cluster of 18% of behaviourally sexless Britons may well have fantasies and desires, may well masturbate or use pornography; but these individuals do not engage in genital sex with another human being. In fact, British women have much less sex than British men: some 21% of women, as compared with 15% of men, have no sex, an amalgamation of those who have never had sex and those who have had sexual relations in the past but do not do so at present.

For the rest of the population who do have sex, frequency of sexual contact ranges from less than once each year to two or more times a day, seven days of the week.

As many as 32% of British adults could be classified as low sexual frequency (less than once a month) practitioners, 44% as medium sexual frequency (between once monthly and twice weekly) practitioners and only 19% as high sexual frequency (three times a week or more) practitioners.

Most Britons have sex once or twice weekly, and most would be characterised as moderate indulgers in sexual activity with another person.

In terms of heterosexual behaviour, the British Sexual Fantasy Research Project data reveals that the average British heterosexual male will have had actual sexual contact, defined as “oral sex”, “vaginal sex”, “anal sex” or any combination thereof, with an average of 15.64 women during his lifetime. The typical British heterosexual female will have will have had comparable sexual contact with an average of 14.56 men during her lifetime.

In fact, approximately 1.8 million British adults will have had sexual contact with more than 100 partners during their lifetime. Although nearly two million adults will have had intimate genital contact with over 100 other people, the vast majority of Britons have only one sexual partner in any given calendar year, with men averaging 1.18 partners per year, and women somewhat more loyal at an average of 0.7 partners per year.