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Deep Learning Technology: Sebastian Arnold, Betty van Aken, Paul Grundmann, Felix A. Gers and Alexander Löser. Learning Contextualized Document Representations for Healthcare Answer Retrieval. The Web Conference 2020 (WWW'20)
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People who are orgasmic in some situations may not be in others. A person may have an orgasm from one type of stimulation but not from another, achieve orgasm with one partner but not another, or have an orgasm only under certain conditions or only with a certain type or amount of foreplay. These common variations are within the range of normal sexual expression and should not be considered problematic.
A person who is troubled by experiencing situational anorgasmia should be encouraged to explore alone and with his or her partner those factors that may affect whether or not he or she is orgasmic, such as fatigue, emotional concerns, feeling pressured to have sex when he or she is not interested, or a partner's sexual dysfunction. In the relatively common case of female situational anorgasmia during penile-vaginal intercourse, some sex therapists recommend that couples incorporate manual or vibrator stimulation during intercourse, or using the female-above position as it may allow for greater stimulation of the clitoris by the penis or pubic symphysis or both, and it allows the woman better control of movement.
Primary anorgasmia is a condition where one has never experienced an orgasm. This is significantly more common in women, although it can occur in men who lack the gladipudendal (bulbocavernosus) reflex. Women with this condition can sometimes achieve a relatively low level of sexual excitement. Frustration, restlessness, and pelvic pain or a heavy pelvic sensation may occur because of vascular engorgement. On occasion, there may be no obvious reason why orgasm is unobtainable. In such cases, women report that they are unable to orgasm even if they have a caring, skilled partner, adequate time and privacy, and an absence of medical issues which would affect sexual satisfaction.
Some social theorists believe that inability to orgasm may be related to residual psychosocial perceptions that female sexual desire is somehow 'wrong,' and that this stems from the age of Victorian repression. It is thought that this view may impede some women – perhaps those raised in a more repressed environment – from being able to experience natural and healthy sexual feeling.
Delayed ejaculation can be "mild" (men who still experience orgasm during intercourse, but only under certain conditions), "moderate" (cannot ejaculate during intercourse, but can during fellatio or manual stimulation), "severe" (can ejaculate only when alone), or "most severe" (cannot ejaculate at all). All forms may result in a sense of sexual frustration.
Delayed ejaculation, also called "retarded ejaculation" or "inhibited ejaculation," is a man's inability for or persistent difficulty in achieving orgasm, despite typical sexual desire and sexual stimulation. Generally, a man can reach orgasm within a few minutes of active thrusting during sexual intercourse, whereas a man with delayed ejaculation either does not have orgasms at all or cannot have an orgasm until after prolonged intercourse which might last for 30–45 minutes or more. In most cases, delayed ejaculation presents the condition in which the man can climax and ejaculate only during masturbation, but not during sexual intercourse. It is the least common of the male sexual dysfunctions, and can result as a side effect of some medications. In one survey, 8% of men reported being unable to achieve orgasm over a 2-month period or longer in the previous year.
Post-orgasmic diseases cause symptoms shortly after orgasm or ejaculation. Post-coital tristesse (PCT) is a feeling of melancholy and anxiety after sexual intercourse that lasts for up to two hours. Sexual headaches occur in the skull and neck during sexual activity, including masturbation, arousal or orgasm.
In men, postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS) causes severe muscle pain throughout the body and other symptoms immediately following ejaculation. The symptoms last for up to a week. Some doctors speculate that the frequency of POIS "in the population may be greater than has been reported in the academic literature", and that many POIS sufferers are undiagnosed.
Symptomology of POIS may present as adrenergic-type presentation; Rapid breathing, paraesthesia, palpitations, headaches, aphasia, nausea, itchy eyes, fever, muscle pain/weakness and fatigue.
From the onset of orgasm, symptoms can persist for up to a week in patients.
The aetiology of this condition is unknown, however it is believed to be a pathology of either the immune system or autonomic nervous systems. It is defined as a rare disease by the NIH but the prevalence is unknown. It is not thought to be psychiatric in nature, but it may present as anxiety relating to coital activities and thus may be incorrectly diagnosed as such. There is no known cure or treatment.
Dhat Syndrome is another condition which occurs in men. It is a culture-bound syndrome which causes anxious and dysphoric mood after sex, but is distinct from the low-mood and concentration problems (acute aphasia) seen in Post-Orgasm illness syndrome *
The 1948 Kinsey Report suggested that three-quarters of men ejaculate within two minutes of penetration in over half of their sexual encounters.
Current evidence supports an average intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) of six and a half minutes in 18- to 30-year-olds. If the disorder is defined as an IELT percentile below 2.5, then premature ejaculation could be suggested by an IELT of less than about two minutes. Nevertheless, it is possible that men with abnormally low IELTs could be satisfied with their performance and do not report a lack of control. Likewise, those with higher IELTs may consider themselves premature ejaculators, suffer from detrimental side effects normally associated with premature ejaculation, and even benefit from treatment.
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists the following sexual dysfunctions:
- Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (see also asexuality, which is not classified as a disorder)
- Sexual aversion disorder (avoidance of or lack of desire for sexual intercourse)
- Female sexual arousal disorder (failure of normal lubricating arousal response)
- Male erectile disorder
- Female orgasmic disorder (see Anorgasmia)
- Male orgasmic disorder (see Anorgasmia)
- Premature ejaculation
- Dyspareunia
- Vaginismus
Additional DSM sexual disorders that are not sexual dysfunctions include:
- Paraphilias
- PTSD due to genital mutilation or childhood sexual abuse
Premature ejaculation (PE) occurs when a man experiences orgasm and expels semen soon after sexual activity and with minimal penile stimulation. It has also been called "early ejaculation," "rapid ejaculation," "rapid climax," "premature climax," and (historically) "ejaculatio praecox." There is no uniform cut-off defining "premature", but a consensus of experts at the International Society for Sexual Medicine endorsed a definition including "ejaculation which always or nearly always occurs prior to or within about one minute". The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) applies a cut-off of 15 seconds from the beginning of sexual intercourse. Hong argued that rapid ejaculation is an evolutionary adaptation.
Although men with premature ejaculation describe feeling that they have less control over ejaculating, it is not clear if that is true, and many or most average men also report that they wish they could last longer. Men's typical ejaculatory latency is approximately 4–8 minutes. The opposite condition is delayed ejaculation.
Men with PE often report emotional and relationship distress, and some avoid pursuing sexual relationships because of PE-related embarrassment. Compared with men, women consider PE less of a problem, but several studies show that the condition also causes female partners distress.
It can depend on one or more of several causes, including:
- Sexual inhibition
- Pharmacological inhibition. They include mostly antidepressant and antipsychotic medication, and the patients experiencing that tend to quit them
- Autonomic nervous system
- Prostatectomy - surgical removal of the prostate.
- Ejaculatory duct obstruction
- Spinal cord injury causes sexual dysfunction including anejaculation. The rate of being able to ejaculate varies with the type of lesion, as detailed in the table at right.
- old age
Anejaculation, especially the "orgasmic" variant, is usually indistinguishable from retrograde ejaculation. However, a negative urinalysis measuring no abnormal presence of spermatozoa in the urine will eliminate a retrograde ejaculation diagnosis.
Thus, if the affected man has the sensations and involuntary muscle-contractions of an orgasm but no or very low-volume semen, ejaculatory duct obstruction is another possible underlying pathology of anejaculation.
Female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) is a disorder characterized by a persistent or recurrent inability to attain sexual arousal or to maintain arousal until the completion of a sexual activity. The diagnosis can also refer to an inadequate lubrication-swelling response normally present during arousal and sexual activity. The condition should be distinguished from a general loss of interest in sexual activity and from other sexual dysfunctions, such as the orgasmic disorder (anorgasmia) and hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity for some period of time.
Although female sexual dysfunction is currently a contested diagnostic, it has become more common in recent years to use testosterone-based drugs off-label to treat FSAD. While drug companies are technically not allowed to market these drugs for off-label uses, sharing the information with doctors at CME conferences has proved to be an effective way to navigate around the FDA approval process.
Anejaculation is the pathological inability to ejaculate in males, with ("orgasmic") or without ("anorgasmic") orgasm.
Physical arousal caused by this syndrome can be very intense and persist for extended periods, days or weeks at a time. Orgasm can sometimes provide temporary relief, but within hours the symptoms return. The return of symptoms, with the exception of known triggers, is sudden and unpredictable. Failure or refusal to relieve the symptoms often results in waves of spontaneous orgasms in women and ejaculation in men. The symptoms can be debilitating, preventing concentration on mundane tasks. Some situations, such as riding in an automobile or train, vibrations from mobile phones, and even going to the toilet can aggravate the syndrome unbearably causing the discomfort to verge on pain. It is not uncommon for sufferers to lose some or all sense of pleasure over the course of time as release becomes associated with relief from pain rather than the experience of pleasure. Some sufferers have said that they shun sexual relations, which they may find to be a painful experience. The condition may last for many years and can be so severe that it has been known to lead to depression and even suicide.
A Dutch study has connected PGAD with restless legs syndrome.
There is not enough known about persistent genital arousal disorder to definitively pinpoint a cause. Medical professionals think it is caused by an irregularity in sensory nerves, and note that the disorder has a tendency to strike post-menopausal women, or those who have undergone hormonal treatment.
In the DSM-5, male hypoactive sexual desire disorder is characterized by "persistently or recurrently deficient (or absent) sexual/erotic thoughts or fantasies and desire for sexual activity", as judged by a clinician with consideration for the patient's age and cultural context. Female sexual interest/arousal disorder is defined as a "lack of, or significantly reduced, sexual interest/arousal", manifesting as at least three of the following symptoms: no or little interest in sexual activity, no or few sexual thoughts, no or few attempts to initiate sexual activity or respond to partner's initiation, no or little sexual pleasure/excitement in 75%-100% of sexual experiences, no or little sexual interest in internal or external erotic stimuli, and no or few genital/nongenital sensations in 75%-100% of sexual experiences.
For both diagnoses, symptoms must persist for at least six months, cause clinically significant distress, and not be better explained by another condition. Simply having lower desire than one's partner is not sufficient for a diagnosis. Self-identification of a lifelong lack of sexual desire as asexuality precludes diagnosis.
Young males are most often affected, though similar symptoms have been reported in females with excessive vaginal discharge or leucorrhea, which is also considered a "vital fluid".
Premature ejaculation and impotence are commonly seen. Other somatic symptoms like weakness, easy fatiguability, palpitations, insomnia, low mood, guilt and anxiety are often present. Males sometimes report a subjective feeling that their penises have shortened. These symptoms are usually associated with an anxious and dysphoric mood state.
Medications to treat high blood pressure, benign prostate hyperplasia, mood disorders, surgery on the prostate and nerve injury (which may occur in multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or diabetes).
A physical exam of the genitals is applied to ensure that there are no anatomical problems. The urine will be examined for the presence of semen. If there are no sperm in the urine, it may be due to damage to the prostate as a result of surgery or prior radiation therapy.
HSDD was listed under the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders of the DSM-IV. In the DSM-5, it was split into male hypoactive sexual desire disorder and female sexual interest/arousal disorder. It was first included in the DSM-III under the name inhibited sexual desire disorder, but the name was changed in the DSM-III-R. Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include sexual aversion and sexual apathy. More informal or colloquial terms are "frigidity" and "frigidness".
Some doctors believe dhat syndrome to be either a culture-bound presentation of clinical depression, as a somatized set of symptoms, or a result of Western doctors' misinterpretation of patients' descriptions of their condition.
It is very common in Nepali culture as well. Most of them come with the complaints of "drops" and become extremely anxious about it and see it as loss of "male power". It is often related with obsessive ruminations and somatoform symptoms. Others see it as a distinct clinical entity which is less culture-bound than these critics assert, and describe it as one form of a syndrome of "semen-loss anxiety" which also occurs in other Eastern cultures as jiryan and shen-k'uei, as well as in Western cultures.
Chlamydia infection might also be related to it because of similar symptoms in case of infection of the urethra (urethritis), which is usually symptomatic, causing a white discharge from the penis with or without pain on urinating (dysuria).
There are several subtypes of female sexual arousal disorders. They may indicate onset: lifelong (since birth) or acquired. They may be based on context: they may occur in all situations (generalized) or be situation-specific (situational). For example, the disorder may occur with a spouse but not with a different partner.
The length of time the disorder has existed and the extent to which it is partner- or situation-specific, as opposed to occurring in all situations, may be the result of different causative factors and may influence the treatment for the disorder. It may be due to psychological factors or a combination of factors.
Aspermia is the complete lack of semen with ejaculation (not to be confused with azoospermia, the lack of sperm cells in the semen). It is associated with infertility.
One of the causes of aspermia is retrograde ejaculation, which can be brought on by excessive drug use, or as a result of prostate surgery. It can also be caused by alpha blockers such as tamsulosin and silodosin.
Another cause of aspermia is ejaculatory duct obstruction, which may result in a complete lack of or a very low-concentration semen (oligospermia), in which the semen contains only the secretion of accessory prostate glands downstream to the orifice of the ejaculatory ducts.
Aspermia can be caused by androgen deficiency. This can be the result of absence of puberty, in which the prostate gland and seminal vesicles (which are the main sources of semen) remain small due to lack of androgen exposure and do not produce seminal fluid, or of treatment for prostate cancer, such as maximal androgen blockade.
Although widely discussed, there had been scant information in medical research literature aside from a brief article by Chalett and Nerenberg in "Pediatrics" 2000, which found little formal data existed regarding the condition, but concluded that "[t]he treatment is sexual release, or perhaps straining to move a very heavy object — in essence doing a Valsalva maneuver."
Although spinal cord injury (SCI) often causes sexual dysfunction, many people with SCI are able to have satisfying sex lives. Physical limitations acquired from SCI affect sexual function and sexuality in broader areas, which in turn has important effects on quality of life. Damage to the spinal cord impairs its ability to transmit messages between the brain and parts of the body below the level of the lesion. This results in lost or reduced sensation and muscle motion, and affects orgasm, erection, ejaculation, and vaginal lubrication. More indirect causes of sexual dysfunction include pain, weakness, and side effects of medications. Psycho-social causes include depression and altered self-image. Many people with SCI have satisfying sex lives, and many experience sexual arousal and orgasm. People with SCI employ a variety of adaptations to help carry on their sex lives healthily, by focusing on different areas of the body and types of sexual acts. Neural plasticity may account for increases in sensitivity in parts of the body that have not lost sensation, so people often find newly sensitive erotic areas of the skin in erogenous zones or near borders between areas of preserved and lost sensation.
Drugs, devices, surgery, and other interventions exist to help men achieve erection and ejaculation. Although male fertility is reduced, many men with SCI can still father children, particularly with medical interventions. Women's fertility is not usually affected, although precautions must be taken for safe pregnancy and delivery. People with SCI need to take measures during sexual activity to deal with SCI effects such as weakness and movement limitations, and to avoid injuries such as skin damage in areas of reduced sensation. Education and counseling about sexuality is an important part of SCI rehabilitation but is often missing or insufficient. Rehabilitation for children and adolescents aims to promote healthy development of sexuality and includes education for them and their families. Culturally inherited biases and stereotypes negatively affect people with SCI, particularly when held by professional caregivers. Body image and other insecurities affect sexual function, and have profound repercussions on self-esteem and self-concept. SCI causes difficulties in romantic partnerships, due to problems with sexual function and to other stresses introduced by the injury and disability, but many of those with SCI have fulfilling relationships and marriages. Relationships, self-esteem, and reproductive ability are all aspects of sexuality, which encompasses not just sexual practices but a complex array of factors: cultural, social, psychological, and emotional influences.
SCI usually causes sexual dysfunction, due to problems with sensation and the body's arousal responses. The ability to experience sexual pleasure and orgasm are among the top priorities for sexual rehabilitation among injured people.
Much research has been done into erection. By two years post-injury, 80% of men recover at least partial erectile function, though many experience problems with the reliability and duration of their erections if they do not use interventions to enhance them. Studies have found that half or up to 65% of men with SCI have orgasms, although the experience may feel different than it did before the injury. Most men say it feels weaker, and takes longer and more stimulation to achieve.
Common problems women experience post-SCI are pain with intercourse and difficulty achieving orgasm. Around half of women with SCI are able to reach orgasm, usually when their genitals are stimulated. Some women report the sensation of orgasm to be the same as before the injury, and others say the sensation is reduced.
The diagnosis of oligozoospermia is based on one low count in a semen analysis performed on two occasions. For many decades sperm concentrations of less than 20 million sperm/ml were considered low or oligospermic, recently, however, the WHO reassessed sperm criteria and established a lower reference point, less than 15 million sperm/ml, consistent with the 5th percentile for fertile men. Sperm concentrations fluctuate and oligospermia may be temporary or permanent.
Sources usually classify oligospermia in 3 classes:
- Mild: concentrations 10 million – 15 million sperm/mL
- Moderate: concentrations 5 million – 10 million sperm/mL
- Severe: concentrations less than 5 million sperm/mL
The diagnosis of oligozoospermia requires a work-up via semen analysis (listed in Male infertility).