The journal of Pediatrics has conducted a study which allays fears that being inoculated with the HPV vaccine would encourage sexual promiscuity among teenagers.

The human papilloma virus can lead to cervical cancer and the vaccine helps protect against transmission of the virus.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, with about 50% of sexually active men and women contracting it at some point during their lives. Early sexual behaviors and multiple sexual partners are risk factors for infection, but other studies have hinted that the vaccine may not encourage sexual activity; in one review of 1,398 girls ages 11 to 12, there was no indication that that girls who received the vaccine planned to engage in more sexual activity. These studies, however, were largely based on self-reported data. The current study is one of the first to evaluate sexual activity after vaccination among this age group based on clinical data.

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea.

Those infected with gonorrhea often show no symptoms, however, the disease can lead to serious complications, including infertility and chronic pelvic pain in women, and in men, a painful inflammation of the ducts attached to the testicles that may cause infertility.

Left untreated, according to the CDC. If the bacteria spread to the blood or joints, the condition can be life-threatening, the CDC says.

Over the last several decades, the bacteria that cause gonorrhea have developed resistance to many antibiotics used to treat the condition, including penicillin, tetracycline and fluoroquinolones.

That left just one class of drugs, called cephalosporins — which include the drugs cefixime and ceftriaxone — to be used as treatment.

But today, the CDC announced it no longer recommends cefixime, an oral medication, as a first-line treatment for gonorrhea, citing data over the last several years that show cefixime has become less effective at treating the infection.

What seems like the simplest form of birth control and protection from sexually transmitted disease, condoms are actually more complicated than we thought.

“We chronically underestimate how complicated condom use can be,” University of Kentucky professor Richard Crosby, who co-authored the study, said in a statement. “It involves the use of a condom, while negotiating the condom use and sex with a partner all at the same time.”

With perfect use, condoms prevent pregnancy with 98 percent success, according to the World Health Organization. Typically, however, the rate of unintended pregnancy with condoms is around 15 percent.

With proper use, condoms offer excellent protection from disease and unwanted pregnancy.

Condoms are also a highly affordable form of protection with little to no side affects which are available to everyone.

Men are not getting the whole truth when it comes to sex after prostate cancer.

The reality for many of the 240,000 men in the United States in whom prostate cancer is diagnosed each year is not all that rosy, at least when it comes to their intimate lives. After surgery and radiation treatments, many men quickly discover that sex will never be normal again. Sensations change. Many men can no longer achieve erections without pumps or pills. For some, the ability to have sex goes away entirely.

Your heart health may be the biggest predictor of your sex life.

Nearly 1 in 5 men in the U.S. has difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection, a condition known as erectile dysfunction (ED). The new study, which appears this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that ED drugs such as Viagra aren’t the only solution and aren’t always enough to address the problem, says coauthor Dr. Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Jealousy rears it’s ugly head from time to time with all of us but men and women feel the sting in different ways.

“Relative to women, men are more distressed by sexual infidelity, and women are more upset over emotional infidelity, relative to men,” says study author Barry X. Kuhle, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Penn.

HPV is extremely common—75 percent of all women will eventually come in contact with this virus. But the good news is that most of those cases will clear up by themselves in as little as two years. Plus, there’s the additional protection of vaccination.

Nearly 100 percent of cervical cancers are caused by high-risk HPV, says Mark Einstein, M.D., director of clinical research at Montefiore Medical Center and Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. If left untreated, cervical cancer may require chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or a full hysterectomy, and may even result in infertility or death.

The vaccine Gardasil protects against four of the most common strains of HPV, 16 and 18 (which can cause cervical cancer) and 6 and 11 (which cause genital warts).

Another vaccine, Cervarix, has also been approved by the FDA and is highly effective in treating strains 16 and 18. The National Cancer Institute reports that there is evidence that Cervarix may also protect against other types of HPV that cause cancer.

The HPV Vaccine can be beneficial, however, a government mandate may not be popular.

Do we want government officials dictating medical policy?

Men suffering with erectile dysfunction may discover that it comes with a host of other problems which Viagra can’t cure.

While medications may help some men maintain an erection, “our research suggests there are other common sexual issues that remain largely unaddressed,” said Dr. Darius Paduch, a urologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

“We must expand the definition of quality of life when it comes to sexual performance,” Paduch said. “For the last few decades, we have focused on penile rigidity, with erection as a synonym of normal sexual function. However, many patients say that problems with ejaculation — like decreased force or volume or decreased sensation of orgasm — are just as critical.”

A healthy lifestyle including exercise and abstinence for drugs and alcohol will help where pharmaceuticals fail.