Will Baum, LCSW

NYT Business article about the efforts to make and market a female sex pill.

Regulators and doctors tend to be less tolerant of side effects in quality-of-life drugs than they are in medicines intended to mitigate life-and-death diseases. Some industry critics, meanwhile, contend that in the quest to find new and treatable quality-of-life problems, drug makers are not so much identifying unmet needs as they are stoking existing social anxieties to weld to their medicines.

PsychCentral:  Views on Sex and Drugs Usually Related.

While people who are more religious and those who are more politically conservative do tend to oppose recreational drugs, in both study samples the predictive power of these religious and ideological items was reduced nearly to zero by controlling for items tracking attitudes toward sexual promiscuity.

Less birth control, more unwanted pregnancies–so says a study of obesity and sex.

Unplanned pregnancies were four times higher among single obese women…Obese women were 70% less likely to use birth control pills and eight times more likely to use less effective methods, such as withdrawal….

NYT:  Push to Market Pill Stirs Debate on Sexual Desire

[M]any experts say that unlike sexual dysfunction in men — which has an obvious physical component — sexual problems in women are much harder to diagnose. And among doctors and researchers, there is serious medical debate over whether female sexual problems are treatable with drugs. Some doctors advocate psychotherapy or counseling, while others have prescribed hormonal drugs approved for other uses.

NYT:  No Sex, Please: You’re Sleeping

Some people sleepwalk; others talk in their sleep. Now a study finds that 1 in 12 patients with sleep disorders reported having had sex while they were asleep.

Yes, there’s a website on the subject: sleepsex.org.

Another reason to move around–not a shock: Exercise May Boost Men’s Sexual Prowess.

[M]en who were moderately active – walking briskly just 30 minutes a day, four days a week, or the equivalent — were about two-thirds less likely to have sexual dysfunction than their sedentary counterparts.

Dating, Sex, and Herpes, a Q&A at the NYT with Dr. Peter Leone.  Starts this way:

Can you have herpes but never even know it? Can the herpes simplex virus spread even if you don’t have symptoms? And how do you navigate the maze of sex and dating when you know you are infected with herpes?

A series about herpes is underway at the NYT Consults blog.  First posts:

5 Things to Know About Herpes

Do Stress or Diet Cause Herpes Outbreaks?

Can Oral Sex Cause Herpes?

Couples’ lit spotlight: Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships, by sex/relationship therapist, David Schnarch. The book samples actual sex therapy sessions to make its case.

Don’t care to read 400 pages about how differentiation?  Try the six-point plan linked from Schnarch’s website, posted here minus the explanations:

1. Operate from the Best in Yourself.
2. Sustain eye contact with each other out of bed.
3. Try Hugging ’till Relaxed.
4. Make eye contact in bed.
5. Change your style of sexual interactions.
6. Pay attention to depth of involvement with your partner during sex.

Also via PassionateMarriage.com, here’s a Sex in Relationships Survey, which pretty much communicates what Schnarch is aiming at while rating your sex life on a 11 – 55 scale.

An especially alluring set of news headlines at PsychCentral today:

• Scientists Closer to Finding Cure for Alcoholism
• Your Dementia Risk Rises if Spouse Has Dementia
• Electromagnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for Depression
• Some Mood Disorders Stay with Us As We Age
• Social Media Doesn’t Help in the Classroom
• Older Men Benefit From Talking About Sex
• Exploring Causes for Postpartum Depression
• Insight on Late-Life Depression