Leonore Tiefer

Gonadal hormones and mating behavior in the adult golden hamster

Abstract Nine female and 10 male adult golden hamsters were tested intact and gonadectomized with identical doses of heterologous and homologous gonadal hormones for mating behavior, investigatory behavior, aggressive patterns, and “marking.” All experimental animals were tested under all hormone treatments with both intact male and estrous female test partners. Lordosis responses were shown by females under conditions of natural and induced estrus. Lordosis responses were shown by castrated males after administration of estrogen and progesterone, estrogen alone, and testosterone propionate. The males showed lordoses most consistently after estrogen and progesterone, but even under this condition the lordoses were of significantly shorter duration than those shown by females. Mounting behavior of males was independent of hormonal state, although intromissions and ejaculations were only seen when the males had some source of androgen. Only one female hamster displayed mounting behavior. These data are interpreted in light of the “organizational theory of sexual behavior” as currently proposed.

EVALUATION OF FIRST 406 PATIENTS IN UROLOGY DEPARTMENT BASED CENTER FOR MALE SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION

Four hundred six patients with a complaint of erectile dysfunction were evaluated in a urology department based Male Sexual Dysfunction Center. Results of physical examination, medical and psychosexual history, nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT), penile blood pressure, visual sexual stimulation, hormonal screen, and partner interview were used in establishing the final diagnosis. A summary of the final diagnoses is as follows: organic impotence 117 (28.8%), psychogenic impotence 161 (39.7%), combined factors 102 (25.1%), and dysfunction of unknown origin 26 (6.4%). Data analysis confirms that to establish a diagnosis of organic erectile failure multiple objective measurements in combination with patient and partner history are necessary.

THE MEDICALIZATION OF IMPOTENCE Normalizing Phallocentrism

Today, phallocentrism is perpetuated by a flourishing medical construction that focuses exclusively on penile erections as the essence of mens sexual function and satisfaction. This article describes how this medicalization is promoted by urologists, medical industries, mass media, and various entrepreneurs. Many men and women provide a ready audience for this construction because of masculine ideology and gender socialization. While there may be some advantages to this construction, there are major disadvantages to men in terms of the inevitable failure of the promised perfectible erection and the perpetuation of a falsely universalized and biologized vision of sexual experience. Any sexual interests of women in other than phallocentric sexual scripting are denied.

Sexology and the pharmaceutical industry: The threat of co‐optation

In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has become very interested in sex as a focus for drug development and marketing. Many sexologists have embraced this new trend, particularly because of greatly welcomed research funding and increased professional opportunities. However, this new relationship may be a Faustian bargain, and certainly raises serious ethical, political, theoretical, and research problems which must be openly discussed. This paper examines background elements which have led to this new science‐industry rapprochement, discusses research and publication problems which have arisen, analyzes conflicts between the models of sexuality favored by industry and sexology, and offers advice for preventing further erosion of sexologys liberatory mission despite the threats of commercialization.

Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: Freakish or Inevitable? Analysis from Medical Marketing, Bioethics, and Feminist Theory

Female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) refers to new treatment/enhancement technologies that have engendered much controversy. Examining FGCS through the lenses of bioethics, feminist theory and medical marketing situates it within makeover culture and deregulatory politics, and links it to feminist debates about making choices within constrained contexts. This article points out numerous analogies between the creation of FGCS and the new sexuality pharmaceuticals, and shows the relevance of the New View Campaigns analysis for this new domain.

Arriving at a “New View” of Women's Sexual Problems

Abstract This essay offers an all-embracing narrative of the “new view” project to explain how and why a feminist critique of current sex problem nomenclature, an alternative vision, and an activist campaign have emerged since 1999. The story begins with 15 years of urology-promoted medicalization of mens sexuality and the building of a female market near the end of the 1990s. The Food and Drug Administration role is illuminated by the authors advisory panel experience and the FDAs proposed guidelines for testing sex drugs for women. The prevailing theory of womens sexual problems is traced to Masters and Johnsons biased research and continuing debates about orgasm. Finally, the origins of the “new view” campaign are described: a growing discomfort with the aggressive roles of urology and the drug industry in womens sexual medicine, the decision to take public as well as professional positions, the creation of a working group, and ongoing activism.

Accuracy of the initial history and physical examination to establish the etiology of erectile dysfunction

OBJECTIVES Because of its implications for possible therapy, the ability to establish a diagnosis of erectile dysfunction (ED) solely on the basis of history and physical examination has been a matter of controversy. The determination of the etiology of ED based on history and physical examination is evaluated in this present study. METHODS Consecutive patients presenting for evaluation of ED were evaluated by careful history, physical examination, psychologic evaluation, and RigiScan monitoring. They were then stratified into either organic or psychogenic groups based on each of these modalities. These diagnoses were then compared to a final diagnosis obtained through additional testing. RESULTS History and physical examination had a 95% sensitivity but only a 50% specificity in diagnosing organic ED. The accuracy rates of history and physical examination in diagnosing ED were 80% and 60%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS A multifaceted comprehensive approach is required to evaluate fully and to diagnose ED.

Sex therapy as a humanistic enterprise

Abstract Contemporary sexology is fragmented, with the new sexuality studies almost completely split off from the new sexual therapies. Clinical sexology research and practice are in danger of being captured by commercial interests, chiefly the global pharmaceutical industry. One solution to both of these intellectual problems comes from an examination of the all-but-forgotten history of humanistic sexology in the 1970s. It may be that the political involvement, research creativity, body – mind approaches, and respect for sexual diversity that emerge from this history can offer some directions for contemporary sexologists. The New View of Womens Sexual Problems, an educational campaign dedicated to challenging the post-Viagra medicalisation of sexual problems, incorporates some of these humanistic elements in a way that offers some new training directions.

Sexual preferences in neonatally castrated male golden hamsters

Abstract The effects of neonatal hormones on the appetitive aspects of sexual behavior, including sexual preferences, are not well understood. In the present experiment with golden hamsters, males castrated at birth or at 60 days of age, intact males, and females ovariectomized at 60 days of age were tested in a T-maze containing a virile male in one goal box and a receptive female in the other. Except for the intact males, all animals were tested during either testosterone propionate (TP) or estradiol benzoate (EB) and progesterone (P) treatment. After EB and P, both neonatally castrated males and adult ovariectomized females preferred male sex partners. Adult castrated males given EB and P showed no preference. Intact males given oil preferred females, as did adult and neonatally castrated males injected with TP. Females injected with TP showed no preferences. The data suggest that the presence or absence of prenatal androgen determines the development of sex preferences in the hamster. These results are compared with data on the effects of neonatal hormones on the development of hamster copulatory behavior.

Followup observations of operated male-to-female transsexuals.

We performed an in-depth interview to ascertain the psychosocial and functional status in 10 of 22 male-to-female transsexuals who underwent vaginoplasty from May 1985 to December 1988. Followup from 5 to 48 months was available for 14 patients. Our patients comprised a well educated, mostly employed, law abiding group with a low incidence of drug use. Most patients were able to develop strong support systems and showed a marked decrease in suicidal tendencies postoperatively. Functionally, the majority of the patients were able to lubricate the neovagina and have painless intercourse with a potential for orgasm. The cosmetic result was judged to be good, with no patient reporting being discovered of having had a prior operation by the sexual partner. We experienced a 21% rate of vaginal stenosis with 40% of these patients fully functional after a corrective operation.