Our sample contains only 25 peepers who ever married; they constitute about 45 per cent of the sample, a low figure for a group whose average (median) individual was age 26.5. The average individual who did marry did so at age 23.2. Owing to their youthfulness—they are the second youngest of our comparative groups—they had [...]

In addition to the drug regimens used to treat HIV infection itself, there are medications that can be used to protect a person from what are called opportunistic infections: those to which a person with HIV becomes vulnerable once the T-helper-cell count begins to fall. Some of these infections are described in the following sections. [...]

Most of those infected with hepatitis B have few or no symptoms associated with infection. Those who do have symptoms can usually improve with rest and treatment of the symptoms. Most people do not need to be hospitalized, and in fact unnecessary hospitalization may do more harm than good, because it puts others at risk [...]

A man with chlamydia in the genital area can have infection in the urethra (urethritis), the epididymis (epididymitis), the prostate (prostatitis), or a combination of these. If he is going to develop symptoms, they will usually appear one to three weeks after infection, but they may take longer. The symptoms include the following: — discharge [...]

In a bone scan, doctors inject into the bloodstream a radioactive tracer, a chemical that’s attracted, like a magnet, specifically to bone. (This substance is harmless and soon passes out of the body.) Then, using a device called a gamma camera, doctors take pictures of the bones. Normal bone absorbs the radioactive tracer at a [...]

To understand everything else in this book, you need a map. That’s why we’ve started with anatomy. The prostate is a key component in two major body systems: the urinary tract and the reproductive system. So here is a quick guide to the urinary tract: We begin with the kidneys—the big, intricate filters that cleanse [...]

Every society controls sexual behavior to maintain social order. For example, every society has laws or rules about who can marry, and most have laws about how people can arrange an orderly divorce. Often, however, laws about sexual behavior are unfair to certain people and do not always treat everyone equally. Laws have traditionally favored [...]

Sexual assault is among the most underreported crimes, and most rapists are not convicted. Sexual assault is committed by women and men in same-gender and opposite-gender relationships. Most rapists are straight men in their late adolescence or early twenties. Most victims are women. Sexual assault includes: • acquaintance rape—when someone the assailant knows is forced [...]

A comprehensive psychoendocrine theory of sexual behavior in early adolescence would specify the hormones involved, their behaviorally effective blood levels or dose-response curves, hormone-receptor interactions, sensitive periods of development, differential effects of hormones on the various components of sexual behavior, and the interactions of hormones, physical appearance, and social factors. Although the recent advances in [...]

An infant will not form intimate relationships with anyone if no one forms intimate relationships with him or her. In the first eighteen months of life, autoerotic activity, in the form of genital play, has been shown to be an indicator of whether or not the infant is having adequate affectional encounters with others. If [...]