Lesbian sexuality/female sexuality: Rethinking 'lesbian bed death' Beginning in the early 1980s, sex researchers and sex therapists became interested in studying same-sex sexuality and romantic relationships. In part, this grew out of efforts to address the special needs of lesbians and gay men in psychotherapy and sexual counselling. But in addition, some sexologists were motivated by the belief that comparing the behaviour of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and heterosexuals could increase our understanding of the subtle interplay between sexuality and gender.Health professionals with a special interest in female sexuality have focused on studying lesbians and bisexual women, suspecting that more sexual differences exist between males and females than between women of different sexual orientations (Peplau, 2003). To the extent that this is true, the behaviour of women with other women presents an opportunity to study how women function sexually when there is no male influence. This research has mostly concentrated on two issues: the frequency of sex in lesbian relationships; and the plasticity of sexual orientation among women. The interest in lesbian sexuality: sexual frequency and 'lesbian bed death'Blumstein and Schwartz (1983) published a highly-regarded study comparing lesbian, gay male, heterosexual married and heterosexual unmarried couples. A major finding was that lesbian couples experienced less frequent sexual activity than others. Blumstein and Schwartz's work was followed by a spate of articles from a more clinical perspective (Hall, 1984;Loulan, 1984;Nichols, 1987). These papers noted the existence of lesbian couples whose genital sexual contact had, over time, become non-existent. Lesbians began to be seen as prototypes of sensual-rather-than-sexual women. Loulan's large survey (1984) that found that 78% of her 1,500 lesbian respondents were currently celibate. Faderman (1981) documented the historical precedent for romantic non-genital female relationships, called 'romantic friendships' in the 1800s, and later, the book Boston Marriages (Rothblum & Brehony, 1993) chronicled contemporary lesbian relationships of this sort. By the beginning of the 1990s the term 'lesbian bed death' had become well known in the gay community as a source of jokes, consternation, and intense debate.

A powerful cold auto anti-I has been found that is strongly inhibited by hydatid cyst fluid and inhibited to a varying extent by all of the 181 human saliva samples tested. The investigation showed that the inhibition effect was specific for I and that water soluble I blood group substance must be responsible. No correlation could be found between the concentration of I substance in the saliva and the presence of ABH, Lewis or Sda substances. The amount of salivary I substance secreted appears to be a constant feature of the individual. Infants at birth and i adults have high concentrations of I substance in their saliva and the amount of I substance present does not reflect the I status of the red cells.

People whose sexual repertoire includes BDSM, fetish, or other "kinky" practices have become increasingly visible, on the Internet, in the real world, and in psychotherapists' offices. Unfortunately, the prevailing psychiatric view of BDSM remains a negative one: These sexual practices are usually considered paraphilias, i.e., de facto evidence of pathology. A different, affirming view of BDSM is taken in this paper. After defining BDSM and reviewing common misconceptions, a variety of issues the practitioner will face are described. These include problems of countertransference, of working with people with newly emerging sexual identities, working with spouses and partners, and discriminating between abuse and sexual "play."

Sexual dysfunction is a recognized side effect of hypertension and antihypertensive medications in men, but is not established as a side effect in women, due to the lack of established methodology. An ambulatory medical record-based, case ± control study was designed to study sexual function in treated and untreated hypertensive women and healthy controls.The research was performed in a teaching hospital with satellite clinics in upstate New York. There were 3312 medical records reviewed, 640 premenopausal Caucasian women in heterosexual relationships subjects were eligible for participatic diagnosis of mild hypertension (BP140a90 mmHg and`160a100 mmHg) for cases; no other signi®cant medical history. A total of 241 women agreed to participate, 224 (35%) completed both a self-administered questionnaire and a telephone interview (112 healthy, 112 hypertensive). There was an initial 74% response rate among those eligible to participate, with 35% completing the entire study. Age and average blood pressure were not signi®cant between 224 participants and 416 nonparticipants by 2-tailed t-test analysis. Seven composite variables were formed from a 47-item sexual response questionnaire. Initial unadjusted w 2 results reported women with hypertension had more dif®culty than did healthy controls achieving lubrication and orgasm. Seven questions, each with the highest correlation to its respective composite variable (by Spearman's correlation), formed an abbreviated questionnaire. Quality of female sexual function was quanti®ed in an ambulatory outpatient setting. A method was described to address hypertension, pharmacotherapy, and sexual functioning by employing self-administered questionnaires and telephone interviews. Initial analysis suggested that hypertensive women may have an impaired physiological sexual response. The abbreviated questionnaire generated from questions with the highest correlation to their respective composite variables may be useful in further evaluating this issue.

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