Abstract
I remember the last evening of the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) conference, held in August 2012 in Chicago. I was having a conversation with an experienced psychiatrist who knew absolutely everything about the history of sexology, who had worked directly with Helen Singer Kaplan, had many scientific publications and extensive experience as a therapist in the clinic he himself ran in New York. He was one of the conference’s big names. I confessed to him that I had mixed feelings about the event, because I had heard many discussions of sexual dysfunctions, hormones, psychological problems and medical treatments, but few on pleasure, satisfaction, the range of sexual expression or ways of improving intimacy within couples. He burst out laughing and told me, “Oh, of course! If you ask my wife she’ll tell you I know nothing about sex!”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Beverly Whipple is another example of a scientist who began researching sexuality when she realized the gaping hole in medical knowledge on the subject. She explains that in the sixties one of her students asked her what to recommend in terms of sex for a patient with cardiovascular disease. Whipple didn’t know what to answer; she asked her medical colleagues and they were stumped as well; she searched out bibliography and decided to start her career as a sexologist when she found that, as outrageous as it may seem, no one in the medical community had taken the time to do rigorous research on whether the sexual act was beneficial, dangerous or neutral for those with heart disease.
- 2.
No one really knows why, but exposure to testosterone during pregnancy affects finger length. The more testosterone, the longer the ring finger is compared to the index. Since this relationship was discovered, researchers are using that measurement as an indication of prenatal exposure to androgens, and comparing that to a large range of physical and behavioral characteristics. There are those who dispute the validity of this association.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Estupinyà, P. (2016). Sex in Our Beds. In: S=EX². Copernicus, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31726-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31726-7_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Copernicus, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31725-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31726-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)