The practice of wiping, douching or inserting substances into the vagina is reportedly common in sub-Saharan Africa. Intercourse following such vaginal treatment is referred to as ‘dry sex’. The most common reasons offered by women for these practices include the enhancement of sexual experience through sensations of vaginal dryness, tightness or warming; cleansing of the vagina before or after...

OBJECTIVES To measure prevalence and risk factors for cervical infections among a large sample of women consulting for vaginal discharge in west Africa and to evaluate its syndromic management through a two visit algorithm. METHODS In 11 health centres in Bénin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinée, and Mali 726 women who presented with a vaginal discharge without abdominal pain and who denied being a...

BACKGROUND The optimal mode of delivery in twin pregnancies remains controversial. A recent randomized trial did not find any benefit of planned cesarean vs. vaginal delivery at 32-38 weeks gestation, but the trial was not powered to detect a moderate effect. We aimed to evaluate the impact of cesarean delivery on perinatal mortality and severe neonatal morbidity in twin pregnancies at ≥32 week...

OBJECTIVE Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality in South Africa. However, little is known about oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroprevalence settings. METHOD Thirty-four adult heterosexual couples attending an HIV testing center in Soweto, South Africa were enrolled. Each participant provided an oral rinse sample and geni...

We read with interest the article by Hickey et al. (1), which enrolled 31 healthy, asymptomatic premenarcheal girls (primarily Tanner stages 2 or 3) aged 10 to 12 years (of whom 67% were African American) with no history of sexual contact whose vulvar and vaginal microbiota were monitored quarterly for up to 3 years. Lactobacillus species were dominant in the vaginal microbiota of most girls be...

NSW has a diverse sex industry that is limited in its size by modest demand. There is no evidence that decriminalisation in 1995 increased the frequency of commercial sex in NSW. Though the largest sector, female brothels, is now mainly staffed by Asian women, condom use for vaginal and anal sex exceeds 99% and sexually transmissible infection rates are at historic lows. These gains are attribu...

This paper provides a narrative review of recent studies (2005–2020) into the content contemporary, mainstream pornography. Sex acts, such as vaginal sex, fellatio, and external ejaculation are ubiquitous within Cunnilingus, solo masturbation, or masturbation partner all also relatively common. Condom use is infrequently depicted. While extreme sexual violence (e.g., rape) rare, acts which some...

INTRODUCTION Reducing high-risk behaviours (i.e. multiple partnership, condomless anal/vaginal sex, alcohol use before sex, illicit drug use) after HIV diagnosis is critical for curtailing HIV transmission. We designed an intervention to explore peer- counselling in reducing high-risk behaviours among newly diagnosed HIV-positive Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM). METHODS We randomized ...

OBJECTIVE To complete a systematic review of the published literature comparing complications, postoperative recovery time, and costs following laparoscopy-assisted vaginal hysterectomy, total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), and vaginal hysterectomy. DATA SOURCES We searched MEDLINE and several bibliographies, identifying all reports using the term "laparoscopy-assisted hysterectomy" published ...