Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer - Sex For Dummies

Sometimes a minor injury to the groin area may cause some swelling. This swelling can mask the presence of an undetected cancerous growth. This is why a monthly checkup is necessary — so you know what’s normal for you from month to month, and what’s not.

I know that many of you are squeamish about medical things, particularly when it comes to something in your genital area. But this testing is important, so please don’t be lax about it. Early detection and immediate medical attention are the keys for successful treatment.

If you really don’t like the idea of examining yourself, and if you have a partner, maybe you can ask him or her to complete this exercise. I don’t know if they’ll like doing it any better than you would, but you both may profit from the side effects.

I never tire of giving out this information because one time I was at a restaurant when the waiter pulled me aside. He told me that because he’d heard me talk about checking one’s testicles, he did, and he found a lump that turned out to be cancer. My advice had saved his life.

Many men refer to keep certain matters private (especially when the matter pertains to anything hanging between their legs), but feeling a twinge of pain from time to time in the scrotum is quite common. If a man experiences this sort of pain and it disappears after a minute or two, he doesn’t have to worry. The testicles are very sensitive, and in all probability, one got bumped or twisted a bit, which caused this momentary pain. On the other hand, if he has any continuous pain, then he should go to see a doctor immediately. One of the more severe conditions that may be causing the pain is testicular torsion , where the testicle gets twisted around inside the scrotum and blood no longer flows into it. This is an emergency condition that needs to be treated very quickly. A more common cause of pain is epididymitis , which is an infection of the epididymis gland. The infection is easily diagnosed by a doctor and treated with antibiotics.

In addition to their testicles, another problem area that men should have checked — and all too often don’t — is the prostate. The prostate gland , located below the man’s bladder, produces some of the fluids that are contained in the semen, giving semen its whitish color. The urethra , which carries semen and urine out of the body, runs through the prostate, and any disease affecting the prostate can affect the urethra.

As a man ages, his prostate gland commonly becomes enlarged and causes him to urinate more frequently. This problem, called benign prostatic hypertrophy , is bothersome but not dangerous. However, the prostate also has a nasty habit of becoming cancerous, which can be quite dangerous, though it is easily treated if discovered in time.

A doctor checks the prostate for changes that can signify a cancerous growth simply by palpating, or touching, it. In order for his doctor to get to the prostate, a man has to bend over and allow the doctor to stick his or her finger in the man’s rectum. This way, the doctor can actually feel the prostate gland.

Although I don’t necessarily blame any man for not wanting to rush off to the doctor to be examined in this manner, a prostate examination is no worse than the gynecological visits we women have to go through regularly, so I won’t accept any excuses for not doing it. Now, if you’re really concerned, you can speak to your doctor about a blood test that may reduce the odds of your having to undergo the actual physical exam. If a certain hormone, called PSA, is elevated, then that’s a bad sign. But because regular prostate exams can save your life, I absolutely recommend that you not put them off, especially if you’ve reached that 50-year milestone.

Doctors have various treatments for prostate conditions, some of which have side effects that impair sexual functioning. Some medications used to treat either an enlarged or a cancerous prostate can reduce sexual desire. Surgical removal of part or all of the prostate is another measure that can be taken, which also has potential side effects.

The most common form of surgery for an enlarged prostate is called a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). Approximately 5 to 10 percent of men who are operated on experience erectile dysfunction after the surgery, and 80 to 100 percent experience something called retrograde ejaculation . This means that, during ejaculation, the semen flows backwards into the bladder instead of out of the penis. This condition doesn’t affect a man’s ability to have an orgasm, so some men find that retrograde ejaculation doesn’t bother them; others report sex to be less pleasant because of the lack of fluid. Retrograde ejaculation definitely poses a problem if the man is trying to impregnate a woman; in that case, artificial insemination may be necessary.

Because the various treatments for prostate problems, particularly surgery, can leave a man with erectile dysfunction (inability to have an erection), many men avoid going to the doctor when they first sense that something may be wrong. Of course, the condition will only worsen, and by the time they do go for treatment, it may be too late. Luckily, thanks to erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs, such as Viagra, men who have prostate problems may be able to regain their ability to have erections even after surgery. I discuss drugs that treat ED in Chapter 22. While I certainly applaud this breakthrough in terms of sexual functioning, it would please me even more if it meant that more men would go to the doctor earlier so they could undergo successful treatment.

In fact, going to see your doctor at the first sign of any erectile difficulties could be important because common reasons for ED include high blood pressure and diabetes, medical conditions that need to be treated as soon as any symptoms appear.

Chapter 3

IN THIS CHAPTER

Touring the female anatomy

Understanding the “men” words

Promoting good breast health

On the subject of our genitals, we women face a conundrum (no, that’s not a new sexual term; it just means a puzzle). On the one hand, because our reproductive organs are for the most part hidden away, women in general don’t have the same type of familiar relationship that a man has with his apparatus. Some women even try their best to ignore their genitals. They touch themselves as little as possible and never really look between their legs.

On the other hand, these hidden organs have a way of making themselves known with a certain regularity so, try as we may, they are impossible to totally ignore. And women have good reasons not to ignore these organs:

A woman’s reproductive system can suddenly turn her life upside down if she becomes pregnant. The fact that almost half of the nearly four million pregnancies that occur in the United States each year are unintended pregnancies is proof that too many women still don’t know everything they should about how their bodies work.