American Medical Association Family Medical Guide - American Medical Association [256]
Because pubic lice can survive without a human host for up to 2 days, you must also wash your clothes and bedding in very hot water and dry them on a high-heat setting to kill both the lice and their nits. Because pubic lice are spread by sexual contact, the affected person’s sex partner or partners also must be treated, to avoid reinfestation. The affected person should avoid intimate contact with others until he or she is sure that the lice have been eliminated. The nits can survive for up to 6 days without a human host, so it is important to complete the entire course of treatment, according to package instructions, to kill all of them.
Not having sex and limiting the number of sex partners you have can help keep you from becoming infested (or reinfested) with pubic lice. Latex condoms are not an effective barrier against lice.
Sexual Problems
Sexual problems can prevent you from having a satisfying and fulfilling sexual relationship. These problems can be caused by or made worse by such factors as a lack of sexual knowledge and experience, inhibition, fatigue, interpersonal conflict, boredom, dissatisfaction with the appearance of your body, performance anxiety, guilt, or previous sexual abuse or assault. Sexual problems also can signal the presence of an underlying medical condition, such as diabetes. Sometimes physical problems such as an infection or inflammation can produce symptoms that prevent you from enjoying sex. Once diagnosed and treated by a doctor, these problems often disappear.
The symptoms of most sexual problems can be reversed with increased knowledge about sex and your own sexuality or simple techniques you can learn in sex therapy. The most common sexual problems in men include erection problems and premature ejaculation. In women, the most common sexual problems are the inability to achieve orgasm, lack of arousal or desire (which can also affect men), painful sex (medically known as dyspareunia), and vaginismus (involuntary spasms of the vagina). Differences in the level of sexual desire is a problem that can affect both men and women in a relationship when one partner wants to have sex more often than the other.
Erection Problems
An erection problem (which doctors call erectile dysfunction) refers to the inability to achieve and maintain an erection adequate for sexual intercourse. Erection problems are the most common sexual problem seen by doctors. Most men experience erection problems at some time in their life, but for 30 million American men (about 10 percent of the entire male population and 35 percent of men over age 60), erection problems are a chronic, recurring condition. Most erection problems are treatable and, with increased awareness of the problem, more men are seeking and responding to treatment.
Most erection problems are caused by physical factors. The ability to achieve and maintain an adequate erection depends on a combination of healthy nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and fibrous tissues, as well as on adequate levels of hormones such as testosterone. Damage, injury, or malfunction in any of these areas can interfere with the ability to achieve or maintain an erection.
Inflammation or infection of the prostate gland or bladder can make urination, erection, or ejaculation painful and difficult. In uncircumcised men, neglecting to clean under the foreskin increases the risk of an infection. The foreskin can become so tight over the swollen tip of the inflamed penis that it cannot be drawn back (phimosis; see page 839). Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs; see page 477) such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, or herpes also can affect a man