Sexual desire is a largely misunderstood aspect of our sexual health. It’s stigmatized and pathologized on both ends: whether you have no appetite or an extremely high desire to have sex, it’s seen as problematic. All of that can make it feel really overwhelming to reach out for help when something might actually be out alignment with your libido. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) is a persistent or recurring lack of sexual fantasies and appetite for sex which is causing the patient distress and can’t be accounted for as a symptom of another illness.

It can be difficult to diagnose HSDD as there is no baseline “norm” for sexual desire across the spectrum — you have to feel out where your level of desire feels nourishing. Everyone is different when it comes to how they experience sexual desire and it’s perfectly normal for your libido to ebb and flow throughout your life. Juliet Widoff, an OBGYN at Callen-Lorde, says screenings for HSDD should happen regularly, as “it is a disorder that can cause a significant amount of personal and interpersonal distress and, because there is a great deal of shame and stigma surrounding it, patients may not be forthcoming regarding their symptoms.”

Is mental illness just an outcome (not sure if that's the right word) of mental and emotional insecurities? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

There is no one cause of mental illness. Some seem to have a strong genetic component, such as Schizophrenia, and others appear to be the obvious result of an exposure to environmental trauma, such as a soldier’s PTSD, with everything in between these two extremes.

Here are some of the main variables that combine to determine the likelihood that someone will develop a diagnosable mental disorder:

Genetics

It’s time to talk about Pap smears, guys.

More specifically, if you’re a man who has sex with other men, or MSM, you should consider talking to your medical provider about getting an anal Pap smear.

Most men outside the medical profession probably have only a vague idea at best of what a Pap smear is in the first place. It’s a screening test first developed for cervical cancer, known by a shortened version of its discoverer’s name. It’s performed by collecting a small sample of cells from the cervix, which are then examined for changes in their structure that might be signs of precancerous states. By routinely screening and initiating treatment early, what was once a leading cause of death among women of childbearing age now ranks 14th in cancer frequency.

In recent decades, the link between human papillomavirus and cervical cancer has been clearly established. The overwhelming majority of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV infection, with two strains of the virus causing over 70 percent of them.

By 7am, I’ve already had two orgasms.

I have to get up if I want to get a shower in before work, but I can’t resist going for one more. In the end, I rush for the bus in a haphazard outfit, my self-induced bedhead neatly packed away in a bun.

The lack of shower aside, it’s a regular scenario – getting myself off is part of my morning routine. It’s about more than sexual satisfaction; I use it as a form of relaxation.

My stress levels are generally quite high. I work in a fast-paced environment where tight deadlines come as part of the package and my mind is constantly 'on'. I also suffer from anxiety, which adds another layer of tension to my already overworked brain. Switching off is difficult – as a natural workaholic, my evenings and weekends are frequently filled with more work.

Bonnie and Joel have known each other for over half a century. Now, they’re filming their very first porno.

They sit on a white leather couch, backlit by the Southern California sun, and gaze romantically at each other. “I could spend all day just looking into your eyes,” she says, a boom and mic hovering overhead. A camera pans their torsos, capturing wandering hands. Bonnie, 70, strokes Joel’s long, white mane, which has been pulled into a low ponytail. Joel, 69, runs his fingers through her closely cropped silver hair.

The kissing begins, with pointed pauses for eye contact, face nuzzling, and laughter—but then Bonnie pulls back. “I’m uncomfortable,” she says as a straightforward statement of fact. “First of all, I’m too hot.” Bonnie slowly shrugs a pink cotton robe off her shoulders, revealing a black lace bra from Target, and shifts her position. She has fibromyalgia and her back has been acting up today.

The camera keeps rolling because this is exactly what the film crew is here to capture: two people navigating the vicissitudes of sex and aging.

Imagine this: You're surfing the Internet, looking for some porn to watch (you know why), and after scrolling for what seems like forever, you finally find a video that fits what you're in the mood for. You click play, and after watching the prerequisite awkward intro, you hear one person in the film ask another, "Is it OK if I kiss you?"

Consent between performers may be happening behind the scenes, but much of the porn we see, particularly the free kind young people are likely to find online, doesn't include explicit examples of verbal consent on camera prior to sexual acts. Since sex education laws across the U.S. continue to lag, not providing the country's young people with a solid understanding of sexual interactions, and since we know that may impact the number of young people who understand consent, it begs the question: What if we saw more consent in our porn?

According to a survey from the U.K., 60% of students in the survey had turned to porn to learn more about sex, and 40% of them said porn colored their understanding of what sex is. Young people in the U.S. also report turning to porn when their school sex ed classes don't equip them for the realities of sex.

A lot of people enjoy hookup culture, but that doesn't mean it's for everyone. Personally, I participated in hookup culture in college, and I had mixed feelings. While I definitely enjoyed frequenting the 24-hour froyo place (self-serve, my sometimes nemesis) with my "friend for the evening", I missed being in a stable relationship. Even though hookup culture is perfectly healthy, as long as everyone is being respectful of everyone else, there's nothing wrong with not liking it. There are be reasons hookup culture isn't all that, and it's totally normal if it's not your favorite.

Hookup culture comes with its fair share of downsides. Sure, if you're watching Riverdale, you may think it seems fun, but if you're watching Grey's Anatomy, you might think "get out of the on-call room and stitch those people up, their terminal illness aren't going to magically cure themselves before the commercial break!" Not everyone enjoys hookup culture, and if you've never wanted to partake in it, that's totally normal. Any sort of sexual activity needs to be something you truly want to do and consensual, and if you don't like to engage in casual hookups, you're not alone.

In a bid to stop under-18s accessing pornographic websites, the government has announced that from July 15 age-checks will be introduced to commercial porn websites in the UK. The move has been dubbed the "porn block" and will require all sex websites that make money and run as businesses to introduce “robust” age verification procedures or risk facing a fine of up to £250,000 and being blocked by internet service providers. However, critics of the policy have said that teens will simply access porn in other ways, the loopholes are too large, and the changes may make little differences to big pornography platforms while putting smaller sex bloggers out of business.

While the porn block has come as a bit of a surprise for some it has actually been in the works for a long time, as the BBC reports. During the 2015 election the Conservative party pledged to introduce age-verification for online pornography if it won the election. It was also included in the Digital Economy Act 2017 and while it was supposed to be implemented in 2018 it has faced numerous delays.

The company that owns YouPorn and PornHub has developed the technology AgeID that will be used by those companies to verify the ages of its users. James Clark, Director of Communications at AgeID, told i-News, “first, a user can register an AgeID account using an email address and password, both of which are protected..." He continued:

“The user verifies their email address and then chooses an age verification option from our list of 3rd party providers, using options such as Mobile SMS, Credit Card, Passport, or Driving Licence.”

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, Argentina — Lucía sat up in her hospital bed as the priest made the sign of the cross on her forehead, the 11-year-old’s bulging belly visible underneath her pajama shirt.

“Think long and hard about what you’re considering doing,” Lucía’s mother remembered the priest telling them. “Save both lives,” he said.

Lucía wasn’t sure what the priest was talking about. She only knew her grandmother’s partner had done something bad to her and now she had a terrible stomachache.

The priest was just one of a constant stream of people, including government officials, who came to the hospital in February to coerce Lucía into giving birth. But Lucía, who still had some of her baby teeth, only had one thing on her mind as she begged the adults around her in between crying fits: Take out the thing the old man put in me.

Her visitors refused.

You would think that the crisis over clerical abuse roiling the Catholic Church for the past few years would be an “all hands on deck” moment in terms of the resources and attention of the Catholic hierarchy. You would also think that given the revelations about predatory behavior reaching to the very highest levels of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the systemic misogyny of the church’s leadership, which last week prompted the entire staff of the Vatican women’s magazine to resign, the hierarchy might back down on its insistence that contraception and abortion were to blame for many of society’s ills and turn its attention inward.

You would be wrong.

Apparently the Catholic hierarchy still has time to find ways to attempt to undercut access to birth control and abortion. As the New York Times reported last Friday, the Trump administration is funneling $5.1 million in federal Title X family planning funding to a Southern California-based chain of faith-based anti-choice medical clinics called Obria. Obria is the more millennial-friendly name given to the former Birth Choice crisis pregnancy centers founded by Kathleen Eaton Bravo, a Catholic woman who pioneered the idea of creating a “medical model” corporate-sounding anti-abortion clinic to siphon money away from Planned Parenthood.

The Obria clinics keep the features of crisis pregnancy centers, including the lure of free or low-cost pregnancy testing and ultrasounds, which lure women with unintended pregnancy in the door to hear a pitch about the horrors and dangers of abortion, but add just enough primary care services—STD testing, prenatal care, and well-women visits—to qualify for Medicaid and some private insurance reimbursement, and now, with the aid of the Trump administration, actual Title X family planning funding.

Giraffes are beloved of evolutionary biologists for a number of reasons. They are, of course, the tallest of all living animals, and that elegant neck is the primary reason why. The origin of that beautiful neck has also been attributed to sexual selection. It is extravagant and slightly absurd, like a peacock’s tail, so it might be one of those runaway traits that we see exaggerated in males of so many sexual beasts. This is where the sex lives of giraffes gets interesting. The neck is certainly a major part of sexual and social behavior. Since 1958, the male-to-male wrestling that giraffes are often seen engaging in has been called “necking.” They curl their necks around each other and rut. It’s incredible to watch, the necks twisting and bending at almost right angles, the normal grace of these animals replaced by ungainly aggression and awkward legs, with none of the elegant power of two stags clashing antlers.

A Pennsylvania man who was seemingly not in the Christmas spirit last week was arrested after he allegedly assaulted a man for singing festive songs, according to reports.

A judge has sentenced a 37-year-old Ugandan woman to 11 years in jail for performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on her three-year-old daughter, the UK's Press Association (PA) news agency reported.

The defendant was found guilty of the "barbaric" practice last month, becoming the first person to be convicted of the offense in the UK.
In sentencing at London's Old Bailey criminal court Friday, Judge Mrs Justice Whipple handed down an 11-year jail term and a further two years for possession of indecent images and extreme pornography.

"FGM has long been against the law and let's be clear FGM is a form of child abuse," PA reported the judge as saying.

There are numerous identifiable factors that can contribute to people having more sex, according to a new study.

UK researchers published their findings in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Journal last month. It looked at the sexual habits of 3,000 British men and 3,800 British women aged 50 and over.

They then analyzed certain sociodemographic and behavioural factors and found you’re more likely to have more previous sexual partners if you’re:

A gay man

A former kennel owner was indicted in Virginia this week on multiple counts of bestiality and animal cruelty, according to reports.

The charges include an allegation that Richard Patterson, 48, and his wife, Christina Patterson, 42, both from Suffolk, had the front toenails of a male dog removed so they could more easily have sex with the animal, according to court documents.