Nonsexual Research Articles

Ace and Poly: The Motivations and Experiences of People on the Ace Spectrum in Polyamorous Relationships

Ace and Poly: The Motivations and Experiences of People on the Ace Spectrum in Polyamorous Relationships

Belonging to the Ace Spectrum: Correlates of Cognitions, Feelings, and Desires of Ace Individuals

Abstract Introduction Asexuality is typically defined as a lack of sexual attraction, and yet this definition fails to include the multitude of experiences within the ace community. We explored the correlates of different cognitions, feelings, and desires reported by ace individuals. Methods Data for a cross-sectional study with 456 individuals from online ace communities (61.8% women; Mage = 24.62, SD = 6.98) were collected in 2019. Results Higher scores on the Asexuality Identification Scale (AIS) were associated with fewer experiences with romantic partners, more experiences with intimate affective relationships, and higher avoidant attachment. In contrast, sexual and romantic attractions were associated with more experiences with romantic partners. However, sexual attraction was associated with fewer experiences with non-sexual romantic relationships and lower AIS scores, whereas romantic attraction was associated with lower avoidant attachment and higher anxious attachment. The desire to have physically intimate romantic relationships was associated with more experiences with romantic partners, lower avoidant attachment, higher anxious attachment, and lower AIS scores. Lastly, the desire to have intimate affective relationships was associated with more experiences with solely affective relationships and higher anxiety attachment. Conclusions These findings show the importance of past experiences and individual differences in shaping the way ace individuals construe their identity, and experience feelings and desires. Policy Implications By highlighting the need to acknowledge diversity within the ace community, this study offers insights into how to increase awareness and develop more inclusive social policies.

Deepening Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies Research in the ACE Spectrum: Comparing the Experiences of Asexual, Demisexual, Gray-Asexual, and Questioning People

Over the past 30 years, an increasing number of people have identified within the asexual (ACE) spectrum recognizing an absence/low/situational sexual attraction to individuals of any gender. The current study aims to deepen the knowledge of sexual desire, erotic fantasies, and related emotions within the ACE spectrum. A total of 1072 Italian volunteers were recruited to take part to the present study via social media. Data were collected from October 2021 to January 2022 using the Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies questionnaire and the Sexual Desire Inventory-2. Participants were divided into four groups: asexual, demisexual, gray-asexual, and questioning. Focusing on sexual desire, asexual people reported significantly lower scores than the other groups in all the dimensions except for “negative feelings to sexual desire,” while demisexual participants showed the higher scores in all the domains except for “negative feelings to sexual desire.” The questioning group reported the highest scores in the “negative feelings toward sexual desire” compared to the asexual and demisexual ones. The asexual group reported significantly lower scores than the other groups in fantasies frequency, fantasies importance, negative emotions, and sharing and experiencing. The demisexual group showed higher frequency of romantic fantasies than the asexual and gray-asexual ones. The results showed some specific patterns of desire and fantasies among the asexual, gray-asexual, demisexual, and questioning groups. These data may provide relevant material to clinicians working with asexual patients who need greater awareness about the diversity and heterogeneity of the sexual experience within the ACE spectrum.

Asexuality, Graysexuality, and Demisexuality: Distinctions in Desire, Behavior, and Identity

ABSTRACT As identities within the ace spectrum gain greater visibility in describing those who experience limited or no sexual attraction, it is vital to understand points of commonality and distinction among individuals who identify as asexual, graysexual, and demisexual. Among respondents to the Ace Community Survey, a large international sample of individuals who identify on the ace spectrum, we found that those who identified as asexual (n = 9,476, Mage = 22.3, 61.0% female, 12.5% male), graysexual (n = 1,698, Mage = 24.2, 58.8% female, 16.5% male), or demisexual (n = 1,442, Mage = 24.2, 62.8% female, 12.6% male) varied in indicators related to sexual desire, behavior, and identity. Asexual individuals were the least likely to be in a relationship, experience romantic attraction, or identify with orientation labels signifying genders of attraction such as straight, bisexual, heteroromantic, and biromantic. Asexual individuals were the most likely to identify as aromantic, graysexual individuals the most likely to identify as grayromantic, and demisexual individuals the most likely to identify as demiromantic. Asexual individuals also scored the lowest on measures of sex drive, personal disposition toward engaging in sex, and masturbation frequency, with graysexual individuals scoring lower than demisexual individuals on the first two.

Asexuality and Erotic Biopolitics

Asexuality and Erotic Biopolitics

“Sex” and the Ace Spectrum: Definitions of Sex, Behavioral Histories, and Future Interest for Individuals Who Identify as Asexual, Graysexual, or Demisexual

ABSTRACT This paper explores how people (n = 1,093) who identify as asexual or on the ace spectrum (i.e., graysexual, demisexual) define sex behaviorally using a list of 22 specific behaviors and assesses their lifetime behavioral histories and interest in future engagement in these activities. Lifetime behavioral history was also compared to each individual’s personal definition of sex. Asexual, demisexual, and graysexual groups defined sex similarly. Although there were significant group differences in behavioral histories, almost all had engaged in behaviors included in their personal definition of sex. There was little interest in engaging in “sex” in the future (~4% asexual and graysexual groups, ~12% demisexuals, p < .004). Reasons for or against engaging in these behaviors in the future were explored qualitatively. The most common reasons were classified as “Emotional connection,” “Partner interest,” and “Disinterest-Disgust,” with significant group differences noted. Disinterest-Disgust was the most frequently cited reason for the asexual group (43%). Emotional Connection was the most frequent reason for the graysexual (40%) and demisexual (69.3%) groups. Findings highlight the heterogeneity of the ace community with regard to history of and interest in sexual behaviors and the importance of distinguishing between wanting and being willing to engage in sexual behaviors across the ace spectrum.

Clinical evaluation of pelvic floor rehabilitation training for patients with pelvic floor dysfunction after delivery via vagina

Objective To observe the clinical effect of pelvic floor rehabilitation training on patients with pelvic floor dysfunction after delivery through vagina. Methods From January 2017 to December 2017, 96 patients with pelvic floor dysfunction treated in the Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Lishui were randomly selected for clinical study.The patients were divided into observation group and control group by random number method, with 48 cases in each group.The control group was given pelvic floor dysfunction knowledge education, psychological counseling and general treatment methods such as guiding patients to perform functional exercises.The observation group received pelvic floor rehabilitation training on the basis of the treatment plan of the control group.The symptoms related to pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic floor contraction ability before and after treatment, pelvic floor function and sexual quality of life were compared between the two groups. Results The incidence rates of clinical symptoms such as organ prolapse, urinary incontinence, asexuality and sexual intercourse pain in the observation group were 8.33%, 6.25%, 8.33% and 10.42%, respectively, which were significantly lower than those in the control group (25.00%, 27.08%, 22.92% and 27.08%) (χ2=4.800, P=0.028; χ2=7.500, P=0.006; χ2=3.872, P=0.049; χ2=4.376, P=0.036). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in grade I-V before treatment(P>0.05). After treatment, there were 2 cases, 4 cases, 8 cases, 18 cases and 17 cases in the observation group with grade I-V, which were significantly better than those in the control group (8 cases, 7 cases, 10 cases, 16 cases and 7 cases), and there was statistically significant difference (χ2=8.102, P=0.044). After treatment, the pelvic floor muscle tension of the observation group was higher than that of the control group[(4.16±0.33)grades vs.(3.84±0.27)grades], the difference was statistically significant(t=5.200, P=0.000). The sexual life quality score of the observation group was (87.33±10.24)points, which was significantly higher than (78.62±8.29)points in the control group(t=4.580, P=0.000). The total effective rate of the observation group was 95.83%, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (83.33%, χ2=4.019, P=0.048). Conclusion Pelvic floor rehabilitation training has good clinical effect on pelvic floor dysfunction after vaginal delivery.It can significantly improve pelvic floor function and sexual life ability, improve pelvic floor muscle tension and reduce visceral prolapse.It has important clinical application value. Key words: Pelvic floor; Hospitals, convalescent; Natural childbirth; Postpartum period

Why animals (and fish in particular) abandon sex? On the interconnection between asexuality, hybridization, polyploidy and speciation

Event Abstract Back to Event Why animals (and fish in particular) abandon sex? On the interconnection between asexuality, hybridization, polyploidy and speciation Karel Janko1* 1 Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics (ASCR), Czechia Although genetic machinery controlling production of recombined gametes is conserved, it has been repeatedly disrupted in all plant and animal phyla, including fish, leading to emergences of organisms, which possess a wide array of gametogenetic aberrations more or less alleviating the classical sexual reproduction. Despite intensive investigation, little is known about the proximate mechanisms which made these so-called asexual lineages switching from sex to asexuality. In this talk, I summarize up-to-date progress in knowledge and how our research contributed to understanding molecular and cytogenetic mechanisms triggering the emergence of asexual reproduction. In particular, I will focus on a question why the distortion of reproductive modes towards asexuality is often bound to interspecific hybridization. As a model organism we use loach fishes (Cobitidae) with several species pairs forming independent hybrid zones and producing wide array of hybrid forms ranging from sexual, through (hemi)clonal to sterile ones. Comparative analysis of hybrids and parental species employing phylogenomics, gene expression profiling and experimental crossings along with functional analyses of the gametogenetic pathways, provided some general clues explaining the link between hybridization and asexuality. First, clonal gametogenesis is not restricted to only some ‘pre-adapted’ parental genomes, but evolves gradually as a side-effect of accumulation of reproductive incompatibilities between species. Hybrid’s asexuality may thus be viewed as a special type of Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibility. Second, successful establishment of hybrid clones requires certain level of cis-regulatory divergence between parental genomes, which ensures partially independent execution of co-inherited developmental programs in hybrids. We further revealed that the efficiency of trans regulatory pathways in a hybrid were systematically affected by polyploidization, which explain why polyploidy is so common among asexuals. Finally, asexuality typically emerges in one hybrid sex but evolves hand-in-hand with sterility of the other hybrid’s sex. Although various types of epistatic incompatibilities are likely involved in independent cases of sterility and clonality, they are developmentally canalized into only several types of gametogenetic aberrations. Our study points at tight association between asexuality and other postzygotic reproductive barriers. Acknowledgements We are grateful for financial support from the Czech Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic grant no. RVO67985904, Czech Science Foundation grant nos. 13-12580S, 17-09807S,19-21552S Keywords: speciation, Parthenogenesis, Polyploidy, Cobitis, hybridization Conference: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Sep - 6 Sep, 2019. Presentation Type: Oral Topic: EVOLUTION AND ECOLOGY OF FISH WITH ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION, HYBRID COMPLEXES AND POLYPLOIDY, WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON LOACHES (COBITOIDEI) Citation: Janko K (2019). Why animals (and fish in particular) abandon sex? On the interconnection between asexuality, hybridization, polyploidy and speciation. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.07.00030 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 06 Jun 2019; Published Online: 14 Aug 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Karel Janko, Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics (ASCR), Prague, Czechia, janko@iapg.cas.cz Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Karel Janko Google Karel Janko Google Scholar Karel Janko PubMed Karel Janko Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

"Getting to zero" HIV/AIDS requires effective addressing of HIV issues in LGBT community.

This communication is regarding the necessity to address the HIV-related needs of LGBTQIA+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/transsexual, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexuality, and others) for attaining the 'GETTING TO ZERO' theme for zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination. Most of the times, prevention of HIV/AIDS is talked about in terms of faithfulness to one's partner, use of protective devices such as condoms, pre and post exposure prophylaxis, using anti-retroviral therapies and use of microbicides, behavior change etc. HIV-related issues are however, one of the pertinent issues that needs to be effectively addressed in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Contradictions in the Representation of Asexuality: Fiction and Reality

Contradictions in the Representation of Asexuality: Fiction and Reality

Asexuality and Its Discontents: Making the ‘Invisible Orientation’ Visible in Comics

Asexuality and Its Discontents: Making the ‘Invisible Orientation’ Visible in Comics

VERRUGAS ANOGENITAIS NA CRIANÇA – UM DESAFIO DIAGNÓSTICO

As verrugas anogenitais são tumores epiteliais benignos da pele e mucosas resultantes da infeção pelo papiloma vírus humano. Observa-se uma prevalência crescente na população pediátrica, na qual ocorrem por transmissão vertical, auto ou hetero-inoculação. O diagnóstico é clínico e a biopsia reserva-se para casos duvidosos. Na maioria há uma regressão espontânea mas a taxa de recidiva é elevada, mesmo sob terapêutica, pelo que a vigilância clínica é uma opção válida. A possível associação entre verrugas anogenitais e abuso sexual na criança constitui um desafio na prática clínica. A maioria dos autores considera que o diagnóstico de abuso depende fundamentalmente da qualidade da anamnese, da experiência dos profissionais envolvidos na avaliação e do exame objetivo da criança. É consensual que a probabilidade de abuso aumenta com a idade da criança, principalmente após os 5 anos. Abaixo dos dois anos a transmissão não sexual do papiloma vírus humano deve ser fortemente considerada na ausência de sinais traumáticos, de outra doença sexualmente transmissível ou de história consistente de abuso. Contudo, em nenhuma idade a hipótese de abuso sexual poderá ser excluída, requerendo um seguimento clínico com ponderação de todos os fatores mencionados.

The enigma of asexuality.

The enigma of asexuality.

Hyposexual Desire Disorder, Depression, and Antidepressant Use

Hyposexual desire disorder (HSDD) affects approximately 27% of premenopausal women (Arch Intern Med 2008168:1441). It is diagnosed by deficient desire for sexual activity plus sexually related personal distress, which are not better accounted for by a nonsexual Axis I disorder or by direct physiological effects of a substance or medical condition. Using HSDD Registry for Women data …

Manifestation study on depression in comprehensive hospitals

Objective To study and analyze clinical manifestation of depression in comprehensive hospitals in China.Methods Retrospective study was performed.3322 objects included in this research were measured by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory(MMPI).Results In Chinese comprehensive hospitals,the most common accompanying symptoms of depression were anxiety,fatigue,suicide inclination,apprehension,somatic discomfort,impotence or asexuality,hypochondriasis,somato-complaints,insomnia,self-accusmion and self-reproach,sense of dependence and so on.Depression was positively correlated with suicide risks,self-accusation,delusion of self-accusation,somatic discomfort,somato-complaints,impotence and asexuality,insomnia,headache,fatigue,apprehension,and family problems.Depression had negative correlations with self-strength,social status and economic status.The results had statistical significance.Conclusion Decreased self-strength,increased sense of dependence,low social status and economic status and family problems were the most common pathogenesis basis for depression.Depression can be manifested as various somatic disorders,especially insomnia. Key words: Depression; Insomnia; Somatization

Asexuality, contemporary phenomenon?

Les asexuels sont des hommes et des femmes qui disent n’avoir jamais eprouve de desir sexuel envers quiconque. Ce ne sont pas pour autant des asexues, ils ne sont pas sans sexe. Ils expriment clairement l’idee de n’avoir aucun probleme avec le sexe. Ils ont toujours existe, mais depuis les annees 2000, via internet, ils souhaitent etre reconnus comme tels. C’est a ce titre qu’ils nous interrogent. Comment dans le monde post-moderne s’articulent le corps et l’identite ? Les asexuels constituent-ils une nouvelle entite psychique ?

Asexuality, contemporary phenomenon?

Asexuality, contemporary phenomenon?

An Evidence-Based Approach to Preventing PTSD

Acute stress disorder (ASD) after a life-threatening trauma increases the risk for post-traumatic stress disorder. Investigators in Australia randomized 90 patients who had experienced a nonsexual assault or a motor vehicle accident in the previous month and who met DSM-IV criteria for ASD to manual-based prolonged exposure, cognitive restructuring, or wait list. Assessments occurred at 6 weeks and 6 months; the wait-list group …

ACE spectrum of LDPC codes

Construction of short-length LDPC codes with good, both waterfall and error-floor, behavior is still an attractive research problem. Recently proposed construction algorithms in this field are based on remarkably simple ideas, but yet, their effectiveness can still be questioned. In this paper we investigate a novel measure of goodness of a given LDPC code namely its ACE spectrum, based on a previously introduced ACE metrics associated with each cycle in LDPC code graph.

Inbreeding Depression Under Joint Selfing, Outcrossing, and Asexuality

Inbreeding Depression Under Joint Selfing, Outcrossing, and Asexuality