Hot Topics Volume 1, Issue 6: October 2002

Welcome to the October issue of Hot Topics, the newsletter from www.smartsextalk.com.

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In This Issue:

Current Events: Prostate Cancer Awareness Week
Featured Topic: A Matter of Priorities
Humour
Quote of the Month

Current Events: Prostate Cancer Awareness Week

September 16-22 was Prostate Cancer Awareness Week. Until recently, this disease was shrouded in silence because of embarrassment. With our population aging, and with recent advancements in medical intervention, prostate cancer has come out of its own closet, and information is more readily available. An annual PSA (a simple blood test), and a digital exam (an uncomfortable but life-saving procedure) can save many men from developing advanced cancers that can impact sexual functioning, or even result in death. Hopefully, Prostate Cancer Awareness Week will remind men to book an appointment with their family doctors. This is a treatable disease if caught early. Make that call today!

For more on this topic, click to read Dr. Ren's article, "Prostate Cancer".

Featured Topic: A Matter of Priorities

The following quote is taken from a newspaper article of Thursday September 12, 2002, copyrighted by Health Media Ltd.:

"Researchers may soon be able to engineer the production of whole penises outside the body, offering a solution for men who have suffered penile injuries or children born with genital defects. Experiments involving rabbits have shown that replacing the corpora cavernosa - a tube of spongy tissue in the penis that swells during an erection - with cells grown from the host results in the production of tissue capable of generating a satisfactory erection, according to the New Scientist."


My first thought was of the case of John Wayne Bobbit, the wife-beater turned porn star turned minister who was dismembered at the hands of his desperate wife. Before this event, did anyone consider the need for penis replacement? Penectomies are rare, most are performed by their owners, and no deaths have been reported. Statistically, this is an uncommon medical predicament, and I was surprised to learn of such aggressive research on this issue.

The anatomy of the penis is complicated and would require generously-funded research to learn to build one artificially. Apparently, this money was available. Regardless of my political interest in this issue, I am delighted to learn of the accomplishment. It will certainly make easier the rocky path of those born with ambiguous genitals, female to male transsexuals, and those suffering genital accidents. Though cancer of the penis is rare, transplants would afford patients another viable choice in their treatment. Perhaps in time, science can advance the process to help men with erectile dysfunction caused by vascular diseases such as diabetes and arteriosclerosis.

I cannot help but wonder, though, how it is that we’ve figured out how to reproduce the complex structures of the penis, requiring even hydraulics, before we discovered a way to replace women’s breasts, made up mostly of fat cells. Breast cancer is a major killer of women. Even survivors tell stories of the distress surrounding treatment and the anguish of living (and dying) with a painful and debilitating disease affecting so private (and sexual) a body part. Why have we not become more expert in breast reconstruction? Why are we not hearing about breast tissue being generated in labs? What does this have to say about our priorities? Does the fog of misogyny still envelope us?

Please don’t get me wrong. I applaud any advances that enable people to live happy, healthy lives. I think it is wonderful that organ regeneration is becoming a reality. And of course I rejoice that we are aggressively pursuing research into factors affecting our sexuality. Still, I wish the playing field were a bit more level, affording equal access and importance to all of us, regardless of age, gender, race, orientation, and/or status. I do not pen this article to pit any one ‘side’ against another, but to encourage us to keep in mind the importance of including everyone in our march toward better health. Here’s to ALL of us!

- Pega Ren

Humour

Supposedly True News item:

Police arrested Ward Branham, a 22-year-old white male, resident of Lethbridge, Alberta, in a pumpkin patch at 11:38 pm on Friday. Ward will be charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, public indecency and public intoxication at the Calgary courthouse on Monday. The suspect explained that as he was passing a pumpkin patch he decided to stop. "You know, a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one around here for miles. At least I thought there wasn't," he stated in a phone interview.

Ward went on to say that he pulled over to the side of the road, picked out a pumpkin that he felt was appropriate to his purposes, cut a hole in it, and proceeded to satisfy his alleged "need." "I guess I was just really into it, you know?" he commented with evident embarrassment. In the process, Ward apparently failed to notice a police car approaching and was unaware of his audience until Officer Brin Taylor approached him. "It was an unusual situation, that's for sure," said Officer Taylor. "I walked up to (Ward) and he's just working away at this pumpkin."

Taylor went on to describe what happened when she approached Ward. "I just went up and said, "Excuse me sir, but do you realize that you are screwing a pumpkin?" He froze and was clearly very surprised that I was there, and then looked me straight in the face and said, "A pumpkin? Damn...is it midnight already?"

Editor's note: I happen to know for a fact that this incident did not take place "on Friday" as the story suggests, because I, too, was told this delightful yarn more than a year and a half ago. However, this does not mean it isn't true, and we invite our readers to share their information on this story. Urban legend or not?

Quote of the Month

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."

~ Max Planck

Copyright 2002. Dr. Pega Ren. All Rights Reserved.