Are men getting MORE INFERTILE?

Male fertility in downward spiral

Medical Observer, 5 Dec 2012

Drawing on a huge database of partners of infertile women undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures, researchers in France examined semen concentration in more than 26,000 men who were generally representative of the French population.

They found a continuous decrease in semen concentration of about 1.9% per year, indicating a drop of 32% over a period of 17 years.

Focus on Ageing: what has sex got to do with it?

Focus on ageing: what has sex got to do with it?

In the latest issue of The Healthy Male newsletter we discuss how reproductive health changes as a man ages, and how keeping a healthy lifestyle into old age and getting treatment for medical problems can help to prevent some of the changes linked with ageing.

Download The Healthy Male or sign-up to have it delivered to your mail box.

Men's Health Art Project

Have a look at some of the art works that Mike Tye has been working on with men from the Men's Shed and The Men's Get Together. Still lots of work to do as you can see.

Southern Fleurieu Community Guide

If you are looking for information about almost ANYTHING on the Southern Fleurieu its worth getting a copy of this Community Guide. Its got:
Community and Service Groups
Council Infomation
Maps
Business Directory

80 pages of quick and easy to find information.

If you would like a copy contact me on 85528600

Lud

Movember is over

Time to mow the mo.
Thanks to everyone who donated money to the worthy cause of men's health. partcularly prostate cancer and men's depression.
http://au.movember.com/mospace/2967489

Thanks from ALL MEN

Checking for Testicular Cancer

Why self-examine?

Guess what;

Things can go wrong with your testicles slowly, quickly or very fast indeed.
A few conditions that affect the testicles are serious, but most are not. So being obsessed or frightened for no good reason is undesirable.
Knowing what your testicles normally feel and look like makes good sense so that changes can be spotted and advice sought quickly if needed. Getting the balance right is the name of the ball game!

Signs to watch out for:

• a lump in one testicle
• pain and tenderness in either testicle
• discharge or pus from the penis
• blood in the sperm at ejaculation
• a build-up of fluid inside the scrotum
• a heavy or dragging feeling in the groin or scrotum
• an enlargement of the breasts with or without tenderness
• an increase in size of a testicle (one testicle is normally larger then the other but the size and shape should remain more or less the same).

How to check your testicles

Check your testicles monthly in the following manner:

• do the self-examination lying in a warm bath or while having a long shower, as this softens the skin of the scrotum (skin sac that holds the testicles), which makes it easier to feel the testicles inside
• examine the scrotum, looking for any lumps on the skin or swellings inside
• cradle the whole scrotum and testicles in the palm of your hand and feel the difference between the testicles. One is almost always larger and lying lower. This is completely normal
• examine each testicle in turn, and then compare them with each other. Use both hands and gently roll each testicle between thumb and forefinger.

• Check for any lumps or swellings as both testicles should be smooth except where the duct that carries sperm to the penis, the epididymis, runs. This lies along the top and back of the testicle and normally feels bumpy.

REMEMBER IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT ANYTHING - GO TO YOUR GP

A story of porn addiction

Thanks to Robert Weiss for this excerpt from his blog

Sex Addiction, Paraphilias, and Offending… Oh My!

Max grew up in a conservative, upper-middle class household in which sex was never discussed. As this was before the advent of the Internet, his “knowledge” of sex was limited to the locker room braggadocio of his friends and a few pictures glimpsed in random magazines. When Max was in his mid-twenties, the Internet arrived, and with it came easy access to pornography. Intrigued, he bought a home computer and signed up for Internet access – provided by a screechy dial-up modem. He set up his personal email account, even though none of his friends or family as yet had email, and then he went looking for porn, which was not hard to find.
As the first image slowly downloaded, revealing itself one digital line at a time, Max felt as if he’d injected himself with a large dose of adrenaline. Before he realized it, he was hooked, spending hours each night downloading image after image, and with each new image he got a fresh jolt of adrenaline (though none of those jolts were as big as the first one). And then it happened. On one of Max’s favorite websites a clothed but still sexy image of a minor popped up. That image, even with clothes, provided a rush that was bigger than any he’d previously experienced, and even though he’d never really thought about or fantasized about sex with a minor, he suddenly wanted more. He sent an email to the site’s webmaster, asking if there were other pictures of the model. The webmaster politely replied that he didn’t have any on the website since the model was “probably underage,” but if Max was looking for that sort of thing he could find it by following X, Y, and Z instructions.
Suddenly, Max was hooked on images of teenagers – with each new image reinforcing his constant adrenaline high. His non-paraphilic, non-offending sex addiction had progressed to paraphilia and offending. As this happened, he withdrew socially, ignoring friends and social engagements in favor Internet porn. He also began to drink heavily as a way to cope with the guilt he felt about his sexual behavior. Within a year he was locked in a downwardly spiraling cycle of illegal porn and alcohol – miserable, but unable to stop. And eventually the images weren’t enough. Max started fantasizing about “seducing” a minor, and then he started “cruising” a notorious boulevard, looking for prostitutes and picking up any that appeared to be underage. Inevitably, he was arrested and the full extent of his behavior was discovered.