Tune out. If you’re wondering where the time goes, it may be getting zapped by cathode rays. “If you look at 35 hours a week of TV, you realize you’re watching somebody else be creative, rather than creating something for yourself,” says Dr. Fiore. “If you’re able to keep your TV viewing under 5 hours a week, you have a lot of extra time. You can find 15 or 20 hours to learn to play the piano or the guitar, or to learn Italian or to do a number of things that can be enhancing and enriching.”
Make eating a happy time. Add a joke du jour to the dinner menu. Don’t allow your evening repast to become a nightly gripe session about what went wrong that day. “This day and age, the table at dinner becomes a stress pot,” Dr. Collins says. “Everyone comes to the table bringing their stresses of the day. Pretty soon your digestive tract is grinding away and no one’s happy. We try to, at our table, have everyone bring a joke or have some humor. It’s a very important way of uncoupling stress.”
Let leisure suit you. Don’t fill every waking moment with something you must do. As Dr. Collins puts it, “Leisure time has become stressful in our lives.” Do something relaxing and noncompetitive, whether it’s reading, meditating or taking a walk. “You need leisure time in order to be productive,” says Dr. Fiore. “I love the paradox in that statement.”
Meditate. The best way to shut down an overactive stress-response system is to meditate, says Dr. Collins. “Yoga, tai chi, all of those things that are related to self-understanding, I think, are essential.”
Check out certified yoga schools in your area, recommends Dr. Collins. Or look for stress management courses offered at hospitals.
Retreat. Go on a weekend retreat in the country. Leave your watch at home. Slow down and take time to explore your emotions and feelings for a change. You’ll come back rested and renewed.
Take a vacation. If you thought National Lampoon’s Vacation was a documentary film, you may need to change your approach to your own summer getaways. The point of a vacation is to relax and get away from the pressures of the office and daily life. Too many men trade their hectic, stressful jobs for hectic, stressful vacations, says Alvin Baraff, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and the founder of MenCen-ter, a counseling practice in Washington, D.C. The typical take-no-prisoners executive gets up at dawn to see every sunrise, visits every museum and historical site in the guidebook and takes more pictures than a photographer for National Geographic. “He comes back from vacations more tired than when he left,” says Dr. Baraff.
This time, try slowing down. Sleep late. Read a good novel. And don’t try to see  everything. “Whatever you wind up seeing,” says Dr. Baraff, “will be more than what you’ve seen.”
*634\257\8*

Excessive production of male sex hormones is observed in men particularly when there are tumors of the male sex glands. Such tumors have been observed by physicians in many cases. Occasionally excessive growth of tissue of the anterior pituitary gland or in other portions of the brain may stimulate the sex glands excessively, so that large amounts of male sex hormones are thrown into the circulation. The manifestations of excessive secretion vary with the time when the condition occurs. If it comes on before the young boy has reached puberty, the excessive gland material may cause puberty to come on much sooner than normally. Associated with this precocious pseudo-puberty is a too-early development of all of the male sex characteristics, including excessive growth of the sex organs, the development of a large amount of hair around the sex organs and under the arms, and, even in little boys, the development of a beard and a mustache, a deep voice and similar conditions. Physicians have observed that excessive amounts of male sex gland material will cause increased secretion of the oil glands in the skin, and associated acne is not uncommon. There may often also be changes in the growth of the skeleton. In this instance, the trunk, the arms and legs are found to be short due to too-early closure of the points from which the bones grow. Associated also with these developments may be excessive and definitely increased muscular development and strength; the so-called “infant Hercules.”
If the excessive secretion of glandular material comes on after the body has passed puberty, the condition manifests itself by accentuation of the masculine character. Obviously, the skeleton has already developed so that there cannot be effects on the skeleton.
The only known treatment for excessive activity is removal of the tumor which is responsible. Removal of portions of the tumor or of all of the tumor would naturally result in lessening the amount of sex gland material. This can be measured by chemical study so that the return to normal can be definitely known. If, however, the tumor material should return and grow again, the excess of glandular secretion can be determined through examination of the urine. In this way the physician can trace the progress of the tumor growth.
Fortunately tumors of the male sex gland are relatively rare. Doctors believe that these tumors occur more often when there has been failure of the male sex gland to descend into the sac, which it normally does before ten or eleven years of age, if not sooner. Experience has shown that the best thing to do whenever there is any tumor of this area is to have it removed by surgery as soon as possible. If the tumor is not a malignant tumor, it is in any event a threat. If, however, it is a malignant tumor, the growth quite certainly threatens life itself. In fact, so definitely is that threat known that it has become customary to use the X-ray to irradiate the area from which the tumor has been removed, to make certain that all excessive action has been stopped.
If the male sex gland is retained and fails to descend into the sac, its function may be destroyed by the heat to which it is subjected in the body.
Failure of sexual gland function causes psychosexual changes in the males, including loss of initiative and drive. Some psychiatrists feel this effect is wholly mental and results from a feeling of inferiority because the person knows of his deficiency.
Sexual precocity associated with excess of testosterone or androsterone has also been noted with adrenal and pituitary gland tumors.
*1/318/5*

Players: Husband and wife.

Activist: Husband, without wife’s knowledge, or both. Setting: Any bedroom.

Aim: Husband deliberately uses dirty language that wife consciously finds repugnant but unconsciously fantasizes about, thereby making conscious that which was formerly unconscious.

Game Plan: Some evening (or morning or afternoon, as the case may be) while the husband is making love to the wife, he suddenly looks at her and says,

“You slut.”

“What?”

“You slut. You dirty little slut.”

“Why are you saying that?”

“Because that’s what you are—a dirty little slut.”

“I am not.”

“You are, and you know it. And don’t pretend to be shocked by this language. You know you like it. A dirty little slut like you always likes dirty talk. And dirty sex, too—right?”

*102/196/1*

The success of this game depends on getting both members out of their customary mode of relating, in which the depressed spouse negates both himself and his mate, and the nondepressed spouse continually tries either to soothe him or expresses resentment toward him. In this game, both accept and go along with the depression and the underlying feelings of hopelessness. Further, mirroring the depressed spouse’s hopelessness gives him a glimpse of how he is acting. If they can both accept the depression and allow themselves to have hopeless sex, then they can move on and actually have hopeless sex. Then, ironically, they will find that the sex becomes less hopeless. It may also lead to getting more in touch with the hopelessness and letting go of it.

*77/196/1*

Players: Passive spouse (audience), aggressive spouse (actor), and dummy.

Activist: Aggressive spouse, without the knowledge or cooperation of mate.

Setting: Living room with makeshift stage or room with real stage.

Aim: To shock passive into awareness and allow aggressive to discharge rage.

Game Plan: This game is a take-off on the play within a play from Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which he notes that “The play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

The aggressive spouse announces to the passive spouse one night after dinner, “Darling, I have a little surprise. I’ve made up a little play just for you. You like theater, don’t you, darling?”

The aggressive spouse turns the lights down and prepares to act out a scene from their sex life. On the stage is a sofa or bed on which lies a life-size “dummy” (or doll) which will be the surrogate for the passive spouse. The aggressive spouse, having stripped down, enters the scene naked, and lies beside the dummy. (Let’s generally refer to the passive-spouse “dummy” as the dummy, and to the aggressive spouse as simply the spouse.)

*52/196/1*

It is crucial for the wife to never, never give up. She must regard this as a battle—which it is! Her husband has maintained his defenses against spontaneity and intimacy for a good reason (let’s say, for example, he had a very intrusive mother), and he may fight almost to the death to protect himself against vulnerability. The wife must therefore be prepared to fight this battle until he finally gives in, never taking any of his refusals or insults personally, never insulting him back or in any way losing her temper, but always sticking firmly and seductively to the game plan.

Once he gives in to the seduction, the rest of the game is easy. Having lured him out of his defensive posture (of being boring), and herself out of her own defensive posture (of being bored or frustrated), there will most likely be a newfound passion for one another, as well as a newfound interest in sex.

*27/196/1*

“Doc, I don’t understand women today,” he said. “Why not?” “They’re weird.” “What happened?”

“I was at my summer share this weekend and I went out with one of the women in my house, and we had sex—sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Right. See what you make of this. Doc.” “Go on.”

“I really don’t understand it, but maybe you can.” “I’m listening.”

He paused to find the words, sighing and sitting back in his chair. He was a successful young man in his early thirties who had lived in Manhattan for several years, was buying a condo in the East Thirties, and had just broken up with another woman who had angrily accused him of having a fear of intimacy. He had rented a room in a summer house in the Hamptons, hoping to wash out the bitter taste from this last relationship with a lot of salt air, ocean, and, most important, more noncommittal sex.

*1/196/1*

Prostatitis refers to an inflamed, swollen, and tender prostate. This painful condition can be caused by an infection (by bacteria) or by something else— doctors don’t know what causes nonbacterial prostatitis. In any case, the symptoms may include pain in the joints, muscles, lower back, and area behind the scrotum; aches, fever and chills (in acute cases); urinary trouble, including blood in the urine, pain, or burning; and painful ejaculation.

Bacterial prostatitis manifests itself in both acute (severe and requiring immediate treatment) and chronic (long-term) forms, and may be detected by bacteria in the urine; neither formm contagious, and neither form can be transmitted to a man’s sexual partner. The treatment is to combat the bacteria and thus stop the infection. For nonbacterial prostatitis, the arsenal of treatments includes muscle relaxants. A related condition, called prostatodynia, or painful prostate, may not be an actual prostate disease but may in fact be caused by muscle spasms in the pelvis.

Next we’ll take a look at how the male urinary and reproductive systems work normally, before examining what happens when the prostate—which is involved in both systems—causes trouble.

*4\201\8*

The scrotum is the bag of skin that sits below the penis and contains the testicles, the epididymis, the vas deferens (spermatic cords), and blood vessels that lead to the testicles. The skin is normally loose and wrinkled, and sparsely covered with hair.

Testicles

The two testicles, which are located inside the scrotum, are the structures that make sperm and testosterone. (Testosterone is the hormone primarily responsible for the development of male physical characteristics.) The testicles sit away from the body to keep them below body temperature (the lower temperature is required for the production of sperm). The testicles should feel smooth to the touch and have the consistency of a hard-boiled egg. They vary in size, from the size of a large grape to the size of an egg. Normally, most men have one testicle that hangs lower than the other.

When a male infant is in the womb, the testicles start out in the pelvic area and descend into the scrotal sac. Sometimes one or both testicles do not descend; they remain in the pelvis and are not visible from the outside. This condition must be surgically corrected, since an undescended testicle is a risk for developing testicular cancer.

Every month all men should do a self-examination of the testicles, feeling for any bumps or irregularities on them, which can be a sign of testicular cancer. The testicles can be a site of infection, called orchitis, which can be caused by mumps in men who were not adequately immunized or (rarely) by sexually transmitted infections or other viruses.

The area above the testicles feels like cords of string. This area contains the epididymis, which stores sperm; the vas deferens, which carry sperm into the urethra during ejaculation,- and blood vessels going to and from the testicles.

Epididymis

The epididymis is a collection of coiled tubes, the main purpose of which is storing sperm and providing a place for the sperm to mature. The tubes also carry sperm from the testicles to the vas deferens, which carry the sperm into the urethra. Sperm move slowly and mature as they travel through the epididymis. The epididymis can become infected with sexually transmitted bacteria (such as gonorrhea and chlamydia) or nonsexually transmitted bacteria. Infection of the epididymis is called epididymitis.

Vas Deferens

The vas deferens are straight, hollow tubes that carry the sperm from each epididymis to the urethra as it travels though the prostate. These are the tubes that are cut in the sterilization procedure for men called vasectomy.

*3\213\8*

Although prostate “trouble” does seem to be a normal part of aging, prostate cancer is not just an old man’s disease. In 1994, the American Cancer Society’s

Department of Epidemiology and Statistics estimated that two hundred thousand new cases of prostate cancer would be diagnosed in the United States, and that more than thirty-eight thousand men would die of the disease. It is now the second-leading kind of cancer in men (second only to skin cancer); and, of all cancers, prostate cancer is the one whose prevalence increases most rapidly with age.

Again, there is good news: Caught early, before it has spread, prostate cancer is curable with surgery or radiotherapy. Better surgery has drastically reduced the operation’s worst side effects, impotence and incontinence. And new research is laying careful groundwork for understanding prostate cancer and improving the hope for curative treatment even after the disease has spread.

If prostate cancer is detected early, men can be cured; they can also have a normal life. This critical message needs to be heard by doctors as well as patients. Men need to have themselves tested, and doctors need to start checking for prostate cancer earlier, and more vigilantly.

*3\201\8*

Newer Posts »

Related Posts:

• GAMES FOR HYSTERICAL COUPLES – GAME 5: TALK DIRTY TO ME (INTRODUCTION)
• GAMES FOR DEPRESSED COUPLES – GAME 4: HOPELESS SEX (PART 3)
• GAMES FOR PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE COUPLES – GAME 3: NUDE HAMLET (PART 1)
• GAMES FOR BORED COUPLES – GAME 1: SEDUCTION SURPRISE (BY THE WIFE) (PART 3)
• JUNK SEX VS. LOVING SEX – INTRODUCTION
• PROSTATITIS
• GENITAL ANATOMY: SCROTUM
• MALE ANATOMY: PENIS
• BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA (BPH)
• SEXUAL ATTRACTION: GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHOICE