Coital Contacts Research Articles

Candida Prostatitis: A Review and Update

Candidiasis is a terminology that is used for a fungal infection that is caused by a yeast which is a fungus that called candida species. Some species of candida can cause infection in human beings and the commonest candida species that can infect human beings is candida Albicans. Candida normally lives upon the skin as well as inside the human body, such as the mouth, the throat, the gut, and the vagina, without causing problems. Candida can cause infections if it grows out of control or if it enters deep into the body. For example, it could cause infections in the bloodstream or internal organs like the kidney, the heart, or the brain. Candida infection can be localized to one body organ or it could be a disseminated candida infection affecting various organs. Candida infection does tend to afflict immune-supressed individuals more often in comparison with immune competent individuals. Candida prostatitis an uncommon condition which clinicians should have a high index of suspicion for because it does manifest with non-specific symptoms that tend to be associated with more common conditions of the prostate and the urinary tract. Candida infection of the prostate gland may be an isolated de novo infection or it may be associated disseminated candida infection, or it may also be associated with prostate cancer or various immune-suppression conditions. Candida infection of the prostate gland could manifest as an acute infection/inflammation of the prostate gland or a chronic inflammation of the prostate gland or it could manifest as prostatic abscess. Some of the potential manifestations of candida prostatitis and or prostatic abscess include: (a) incidental finding upon biopsy of the prostate gland or following trans-urethral resection of prostate gland or prostatectomy. ( b) patient may manifest with lower urinary tract symptoms, (c) a patient may manifest with urinary retention that may be acute or chronic, (d) a patient may manifest with raised levels of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA), € at times when digital rectal examination is undertaken on a patient who has Candida prostatitis, the prostate gland may feel benign and in the case of a candida prostatic abscess rectal examination may demonstrate bogginess in the area of the prostate with soft fluctuant feeling. (f) Eosinophil count in some cases of Candida prostatitis would tend to be normal but in some cases of candida infection of the prostate gland, there could be Eosinophilia but this would not be diagnostic of Candida infection, (g) a history of having had coital contact with an individual who has been treated for candida infection or a history of past treatment of the individual should alert all clinicians to exclude the possibility of candida prostatitis. (h) on rare occasions urine culture or culture of expressed prostatic secretions would yield a growth of Candida. Diagnosis of Candida infection or abscess of the prostate gland may be confirmed by positive culture of Candida in prostate biopsy specimen or resected or excised prostate specimen. Treatment of Candida Prostatitis / prostatic abscess does tend to entail: (a) Treatment with appropriate antifungal medicament, plus (b) Complete radiology image-guided aspiration / drainage of any abscess seen plus / minus or endoscopic deroofing trans-urethral resection of the prostate to ensure the abscess drains out completely. Because recurrence of Candida prostatitis or prostatic abscess or Candida infection elsewhere can occur, it is important for patients to have regular follow-up assessments to ensure recurrence disease does not develop and if it develops, it is diagnosed quickly in order to initiate prompt treatment. It is also important to assess all coital contacts of the patient to ascertain if they have Candida infection to enable prompt treatment of their infection. If an individual who has candida prostatitis or prostatic abscess is also found to have contemporaneous adenocarcinoma of the prostate, the carcinoma of the prostate gland should be treated appropriately based upon the Gleason Grade and the Stage of the carcinoma, the performance status and age of the individual patient based upon the national and international guidelines pertaining to prostate cancer as a separate multi-disciplinary team discussion of the patient management.

Prenatal blockade of androgen receptors reduces the number of intromissions needed to induce conditioned place preference after paced mating in female rats

Estrous female rats pace their coital contacts to control the rate of cervical/vaginal stimulation. Females that receive at least 10 paced intromissions develop a reward state, evaluated by conditioned place preference (CPP), whereas females that do not pace their coital contacts do not develop CPP. We asked if the blockade of androgen receptors could modify the number of intromissions needed during paced mating to develop CPP. Pregnant females received daily injections of the androgen receptor antagonist flutamide from day 12 of pregnancy until pups were born. When adults, females exposed prenatally to flutamide or vehicle were ovariectomized and hormonally primed to evaluate if paced and non-paced mating induced CPP. The prenatal flutamide treatment did not affect the capacity of females to develop CPP to a systemic morphine injection. Flutamide-treated females that paced their sexual contacts developed CPP with fewer intromissions than control females. No effect on conditioning was observed when females were not allowed to pace their sexual contacts. The results suggest the existence of a threshold of cervical/vaginal stimulation that correlates with the induction of a reward state and that this threshold can be reduced by prenatal blockade of androgen receptors.

Only Self-Paced Mating Is Rewarding in Rats of Both Sexes

When rats are mated in a traditional mating chamber (with one male and one female) in which the male dictates the pace of the copulatory sequence, males develop a reward state as evaluated by conditioned place preference (CPP). In this mating situation no reward state is induced in females. However, when female rats are able to control (pace) the rate of sexual stimulation, thereby reducing the aversive consequences associated with mating, a clear CPP is observed. In the present study the CPP paradigm was used to determine whether if the reinforced state induced by coital interactions in male rats can be maintained when females pace the sexual interaction. Adult male and female rats were mated in one of two different conditions: (1) where subjects were able to pace their coital interactions or (2) where subjects were not able to pace their sexual contacts. The results showed that when males had control over the sexual interaction they developed a clear place preference while males that mated with females that paced their coital contacts did not develop CPP. Similarly, only females that were able to pace their sexual contacts developed place preference. These results suggest that coital interactions in males, as well as in females, can induce a reward state only when they are able to control the sexual interaction. Under seminatural conditions sexual behavior in rats is highly promiscuous, they mate in groups and repeatedly change partners in the middle of copulation. This behavioral sequence allows both, male and female to control the rate of sexual interaction, assuring the induction of a reward state outlasting the actual performance of coital responses.

Sexual behavior regulated (paced) by the female induces conditioned place preference.

The possibility that female-paced coital behavior induces a reward state of sufficient intensity and duration to induce conditioning was evaluated by the conditioned-place-preference paradigm. Ovariectomized female rats, treated with estradiol benzoate and progesterone, regulated (paced) their coital interactions with a stud male through a 2-compartment chamber in which only the female could freely move from one compartment to the other. The females that paced their coital interactions showed a clear place preference. In contrast, no change in preference was observed in the females that could not pace their coital contacts. The change in preference in the females that paced their coital interactions was similar to that produced by an injection of morphine (1 mg/kg). These results suggest that coital interactions in females can induce a reward state when the females can control the pace of the sexual interaction.

Sexual behavior regulated (paced) by the female induces conditioned place preference.

The possibility that female-paced coital behavior induces a reward state of sufficient intensity and duration to induce conditioning was evaluated by the conditioned-place-preference paradigm. Ovariectomized female rats, treated with estradiol benzoate and progesterone, regulated (paced) their coital interactions with a stud male through a 2-compartment chamber in which only the female could freely move from one compartment to the other. The females that paced their coital interactions showed a clear place preference. In contrast, no change in preference was observed in the females that could not pace their coital contacts. The change in preference in the females that paced their coital interactions was similar to that produced by an injection of morphine (1 mg/kg). These results suggest that coital interactions in females can induce a reward state when the females can control the pace of the sexual interaction.

Sex and the elderly male

Abstract Despite a decline in sexual activity with age many couples continue coital contact until their nineties. The reasons for male dysfunction are discussed along with the nature and biology of ageing. Many problems are the result of a combination of factors both social and physical, so that effective treatment needs to use. all methods available. Many elderly men are taking drugs which impair their function and for which effective alternatives are available. The treatment of male dysfunction in old age is both challenging and satisfying.

The Sartrean Viscous: Swamp and Source

As Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Age de Raison (The Age of Reason) opens, Mathieu learns that he has inadvertently impregnated his long-time lover, Marcelle. The primordial given of individual freedom, thrown into crisis by vagaries of human reproduction, constitutes guiding theme in this 1945 novel. The next several hundred pages are like a dissection table upon which Sartre lays bare workings of Mathieu's mind, where repulsion at female anatomy intermingles with horror at embryogeny. By end of ontological meanderings in L'Etre et le ndant (Being and Nothingness), published two years earlier, Sartre had managed to navigate beyond descriptions of for-itself's bodily life in everyday experience: he had readied his readers for a long-awaited landing in harbor of ethics. Yet Sartre is never far from carnal desire and puzzlement at how our body connects with world. The treatise's last chapter, entitled On Quality as a Revelation of Being (EN 661-78), proves to be an increasingly lurid account of means by which an unmistakably feminine slime may afford (masculine) for-itself that euphoric experience of total being. In a last stab at synthetically embodying ideal ontological totality, Sartre's famous surrogate in this odyssey of for-itself, Pierre, corporeally enters a netherworld where he knows that le visqueux (slime, or the viscous) will imperil his monolithic, existentialist freedom. Yet, risking his life, Pierre cuts deeply into this voracious quality of being, final metaphor for Other in L'Etre et le niant, managing to emerge unscathed by coital contact with dark side of being. But rather than recapture his stolen being by figuratively killing or ingesting Other in manner usual to Sartrean for-itself, Pierre will leave the viscous as an ever-thriving threat.

Serum 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol increases in response to paced coital stimulation in cycling female rats.

The cycling female rat spontaneously regulates (paces) the amount and timing of cervical-vaginal stimulation received during mating. Female pacing of coital contacts increases the ability of vaginal intromissions to induce luteal function and to abbreviate the period of behavioral estrus. In the experiments reported here, we examined whether paced mating results in alterations in serum steroid concentrations, which might contribute to these processes. In Experiment 1, estradiol (E2), progesterone (P), testosterone (T), 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol (3 alpha-androstanediol, 3 alpha-diol) were measured in sera obtained from independent groups of animals between 0 min and 12 h after mating onset. Levels of 3 alpha-diol were significantly higher at 30 min in females pacing coital stimulation (Paced) than in females receiving mounts-without-intromission (Mounts-Only) or solitary exposure to the test chamber. Serum T, E2, P, and DHT did not differ between these groups at any time. P and 3 alpha-diol levels declined significantly for all groups across the 12-h post-treatment period. In Experiment 2, serum 3 alpha-diol measured over 3h after mating was compared in females receiving Paced stimulation with females receiving temporally unregulated coital stimulation (Non-Paced), or Mounts-Only. At 20 min, serum 3 alpha-diol concentrations were significantly higher in Paced than in Non-Paced and Mounts-Only females. In Experiment 3, Paced and Non-Paced stimulation did not differentially effect the proportion of females becoming pseudopregnant/pregnant. The selective increase in serum 3 alpha-diol in females that pace matings is discussed with regard to the known inhibitory effects of 5 alpha-reduced androgens on sexual receptivity.

Sociosexual behaviors of female rats during and after chronic treatment with the sympatholytic agent guanethidine

Ovariectomized female rats were chronically administered saline or guanethidine sulfate, a drug that blocks adrenergic neurons and, when chronically administered, results in peripheral sympathectomy. The female were periodically injected with estradiol benzoate and progesterone and tested for sexual behaviors before, during and after the six-week period of daily guanethidine or saline injections. Tests for copulatory behavior included tests for lordotic responsiveness to manual stimulation and tests of sociosexual behaviors displayed by the females in a complex testing environment. The complex environment permitted the test females to control their coital contacts with sexually active males and their interactions with sexually inactive males and ovariectomized female rats. Guanethidine treatment did not alter lordotic responsiveness to manual stimulation but did reduce the frequency of copulatory acts engaged in by the females in the complex environment. During the first test in the complex environment following the start of drug injections, the guanethidine-treated females, in comparison to saline-treated females, displayed a lower frequency of lordotic behavior during coital contacts. The changes in behavior produced by the sympathetic drug, guanethidine, implicate the autonomic nervous system in the regulation of copulatory pacing in the female rat.

Effects of vagino-cervical stimulation upon sociosexual behaviors in female rats

The role of vagino-cervical stimulation in the control of feminine copulatory behavior in the behaviorally estrous rat was examined in a complex environment that allowed the test female to pace her contacts with sexually active males, sexually passive males and ovariectomized females. Manipulations of vagino-cervical stimulation by administration of a topical anesthetic or by probing with a glass rod, immediately before testing in the complex environment, did not significantly alter any aspect of behavior in behaviorally estrous females. Transection of the pelvic nerve increased the number of intromissions and ejaculations that the females received and increased the amount of time that the females spent with the sexually active males. The present results implicate the pelvic nerve in the modulation of motivation for coital contacts in the female rat.

Lesions confined to the ventromedial hypothalamus decrease the frequency of coital contacts in female rats

Ovariectomized female rats received either bilateral radiofrequency lesions of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) or control treatments and were tested for copulatory activity following either estrogen (E) alone, or E plus progesterone (P) administration. In separate experiments the females were tested in two testing apparatuses both of which allowed the test females to control their contacts with sexually active males. One of the testing apparatuses also allowed the females to control their contacts with sexually inactive males and ovariectomized females. Females receiving VMH lesions engaged in fewer coital contacts with sexually active males than sham-operated females in the E plus P condition. Lesioned females also tended to spend less time with sexually active males than did sham operates in both the E and E plus P hormonal conditions. The VMH-lesioned females did not differ from the sham-operated females in the ability to display lordosis during the coital contacts or the frequency and duration of visits to the inactive males or ovariectomized females. The sham-operated females did have some transitory alterations in copulatory behavior in comparison to unoperated control females.

P-Chlorophenylalanine alters pacing of copulation in female rats

When tested in apparatus that allowed them to determine their contacts with conspecifics, including sexually active male rats, estrogen- and progesterone-treated female rats systematically treated with para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA), a tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor, showed reduced frequency of coital contacts and reduced duration of interactions with sexually active males. PCPA administration did not alter contacts with noncopulating males or other females nor did treated females differ from controls in ability to display lordosis or posing, both stereotyped behaviors characteristic of female rats in behavioral estrus. It is suggested that the alteration of temporal pacing of copulation in the PCPA-treated females is a result of drug-induced changes in the processing of exteroceptive stimuli.

Effects of committed or casual erotic guided imagery on females' subjective sexual arousal and emotional response

Abstract Following deep relaxation, 100 college females listened to erotic guided imagery consisting of (1) sexual invitation, (2) coital contact, and (3) reflection sequences, and responded after each sequence to three measures of subjective sexual arousal and one measure of 10 discrete emotions. The sexual invitation and coital contact sequences contained 24 interspersed cues that portrayed either a casual or a committed interpersonal context. Subjects were partitioned at their respective medians on measures of sex guilt and sex history with loved and with unloved partners. Three mixed 2 (casual, committed) × 2 (median split) × 3 (sequences) MANOVAs analyzed the 13 dependent variables. The hypothesized importance of a committed context on females' subjective sexual arousal and emotional reactions received almost no support. Imagining casual sex may, however, produce more guilty emotion than imagining committed sex. As hypothesized, higher sex guilt was associated with attenuated sexual arousal and reduc...

Follicular function in the domestic cat as determined by estradiol-17 beta concentrations in plasma: relation to estrous behavior and cornification of exfoliated vaginal epithelium.

Follicular function was estimated by radioimmunoassay of estradiol-17β in jugular vein plasma of female cats. The mean base level of estradiol-17β in plasma was 11.7 pg/ml (SD = 4.8; n = 106). The follicular phase, defined as the time interval when estradiol-17β levels were >20 pg/ml plasma, was 7.4 days (SD = 2.3; n = 108), range 3–16 days. The duration of follicular function was not affected by the occurrence of coitus or ovulation. Estradiol-17β fell from peak levels to <20 pg/ml plasma within a mean of 2.6 days (SD = 1.1; n = 105). The interval between follicular phases was 8.1 days (SD = 3.1; n = 41), ranging from 3–15 days. Proestrus was not observed with regularity and was seen in only 27/168 cycles, averaging 1.2 days (SD = 0.8). Duration of estrous behavior without regard for coitus was 7.4 days (SD = 3.7; n = 168; range 2–19 days). Duration of estrus in cats that experienced coitus and ovulation was 8.6 days (SD = 4.1; n = 32), in those that had coital contact but failed to ovulate, it was 8.3 days (SD = 4.3; n = 43), but in those without coital contact, it was 6.2 days (SD = 2.9; n = 93) (coitus vs no coitus, P<0.01). Estrous behavior was seen in 8, 36, 52, 80 and 85% of cats on follicular phase Days 1–5, respectively. All cats were in estrus by follicular phase Day 6. The interval between estrous periods was 9.0 days (SD 7.6; n = 162; range 4–22 days) if ovulation did not occur. Ovulation and the subsequent pseudopregnancy prolonged return to estrus for 45.0 days (SD = 10.3; n = 32). No conspicuous changes in size and appearance of external genitalia were observed. Clearing of the vaginal smear (absence of noncellular debris) was the earliest sign of follicular activity. Vaginal epithelial changes were characterized as follows: Anuclear cells (fully cornified) increased from∼ 5% to ∼40% of total cell population and intermediate cells (partially cornified with intact nucleus) decreased from ∼45% to 6% progressively from the first to the fourth day of the follicular phase; parabasal cells (noncornified), generally low throughout a cycle (1–6%), were absent on follicular phase Days 4–7 and the following day; superficial cells (partially cornified with signs of degeneration of the nucleus) did not change much during the cycle (range, 40–50%) except for a slight increase during the follicular phase (range, 50–60%).

Prevention of Unwanted Pregnancy Among Teenagers

A psychosocial constellation that appears to predispose many teenage girls to risk unwanted pregnancy includes hostility in the parents' marriage, alienation from the mother, and a seductive father-daughter relationship. The dynamics which lead into sexual acting out include attempts to (1) compensate for low self-esteem by seeking male approval and (2) reduce anxiety over sexual fantasies or behavior with the father by counterphobic coital contacts with other men. Provision of a contraceptive method alone is sometimes insufficient to protect a woman with these dynamics from unwanted pregnancy because her conflicts over dependency needs and sexuality may interfere with taking responsibility for reliable use of contraceptives. Supplementary intervention, either by the primary care physician, a psychiatrist, or other mental health professional, is recommended where the high risk family history is evident.

A partial replication of Kinsey's graffiti study

In the early 1950s, Kinsey collected wall inscriptions from a number of public bathrooms, hypothesizing that sexual graffiti provided a great source of information on the extent and nature of the suppressed sexual desires of men and women. Data were analyzed in terms of gender, heterosexuality, homosexuality, types of erotic contact, and types of non-erotic references to love. The present study is a partial replication of Kinsey's studyt investigating and comparing changes in American human sexuality as manifested by wall inscriptions in public bathrooms. The results show an increase in the percentage of erotic graffiti made by women and a decrease in the percentage of homosexaul graffiti made by both sexes. A discussion of these results is preserlted at the end of this paper. In 1953 Kinsey collected wall inscriptions from a number of public bathrooms, hypothesizing that sexual graffiti provide a great source of information on the extent and nature of the suppressed sexual desires of men and women. He found that a higher proportion (86%) of inscriptions in men's bathrooms were erotic (erotic defined as specifically referring to genitalia, genital, oral, or coital contacts, and erotic vernacular vocabulary) whereas only 25% of the inscriptions in women's toilets were erotic Most of the women's graffiti referred to love in non-erotic terms. Kinsey interpreted his data to mean that:

Diversity in patterns of coital contact of mosquitoes: A scanning electron microscopic study.

Specimens, representative of each of the major taxa of mosquitoes, were fixed in copula and the external genitalia examined by scanning electron microscopy. The periphery of the basin-like everted aedeagus of Aedus aegypti precisely matches that of the everted atrial membrane of the female. These structures are appressed during coitus and sealed by pressure of the paraprocts, aedeagal pouch and proctiger. When everted, the aedeagus of male Culex pipiens reveals a ridged dome that surrounds the genital opening. This dome seals itself laterally into a gutter formed by pad-like extensions of the female's genital lips and is sealed dorsally by pressure of the aedeagal apodeme. The aedeagus of another culicine species, Wyeomyia smithii, bears the gonopore at the apex of a spined tube. This tube is inserted between the female's genital lips and is sealed within the genital atrium. The aedeagus of the toxorhynchitine species Toxorhynchitis brevipalpus is immobile and is inserted deep within the genital atrium of the female where it is sealed by pressure of the atrial walls. Males of each of these mosquitoes deliver a mixture of semen and sperm to the copulatory bursa of the female. After withdrawal of the aedeagus, sperm is transferred to the spermathecae. In contrast, sperm of Anopheles quadrimaculatus are delivered directly to the spermathecal duct. The tube-like aedeagus is positioned by its leaflets during sperm transfer and is driven deep into the atrium, where a mixture of semen and sperm is ejaculated. The significance of mechanical barriers to mating between species is discussed.