About 70 percent of people who contract hepatitis C do not develop symptoms, so they would not know they had been infected unless they were tested. If symptoms do develop, they are usually mild and occur one to two months after infection. They include jaundice (yellowing of the skin) in about half of those who [...]

First, a word about the woeful lack of routine testing for chlamydia. Unless a person is being seen in a clinic that specializes in STDs, chlamydia testing is usually not offered unless the health care provider notices an obvious symptom, such as discharge or irritation of the cervix, during a routine gynecological exam. Since women [...]

MRI is painless and noninvasive; it gives a three-dimensional scan of the body, producing images that are like slices of anatomy. It creates better pictures than CT scans (see below), but it’s expensive and time-consuming (an average scan lasts about 45 minutes). Also, being inside an MRI machine, according to one patient, is “like being [...]

Age is also a major factor. Most—more than 80 percent of the men diagnosed with prostate cancer are older, over age 65; 90 percent of the deaths are in this same group. Traditionally, less than i percent of prostate cancer cases have been detected in men younger than age 50, and only 16 percent have [...]

All states have statutes governing the age of consent—the age at which a person is considered to be old enough to agree to have sex. A person who has sex with someone below the age of consent can be charged with rape even if the younger person was willing because, according to the statute, the [...]

Safer sex is for all women and men who may be at risk for sexually transmitted infection. In today’s world, practicing safer sex is one of the best things we can do for our sexual health. Safer sex is anything we do to lower our risk of getting sexually transmitted infections—infections that are spread through [...]

Thus far we have seen that there has been an increase in sexual activity among adolescent women in the United States. This increase has occurred at all ages for both races and is not restricted to those who are engaged. We now shall examine the relationship between some social factors and premarital intercourse. “Of all [...]

Masturbation is common during childhood, but not all children between the ages of three and seven masturbate. We have no accurate count as to the number who do, nor the frequency for those who do. Based on data from pre-1955 interviews conducted with boys (upper-white-collar class) with an average age of 7.2 years (age range [...]

Closeness and similarity to siblings. Special consideration has been given to the extent to which siblings may serve as companions and role models, affecting not only a boy’s core gender identity but also his subsequent relationships with his peers. It is posited, for example, that regardless of the extent to which a boy’s father is [...]

When men start blessing their doctors and bringing them flowers, you know they are feeling grateful. Every now and then, gastro-enterologists find themselves the recipients of such gratitude. Their patients – all long-time sufferers of reflux – have found relief. After years of discomfort, they can finally eat a meal without worrying that heartburn, bloating, [...]