Sex Talk Gets Scientific in the Latest Charlie Rose Series

On Tuesday, it was announced that in the latest episode of the Pfizer, Inc-sponsored Charlie Rose Science Series, Charlie Rose and co-host Sir Paul Nurse, who is a Nobel Laureate and the President of Rockefeller University, convene leading medical experts to explore the physiological and psychological aspects of human sexuality. The series begins airing on over 200 PBS stations on November 20th.

The explorations will include a study of gender differences as they relate to sexuality, the correlation between sexual performance and health, major trends in sexual behavior, changing public perceptions about sex and sexuality, and medical breakthroughs related to sexual dysfunction.

"What amazes me is how little science knows about the multidimensional components of human sexuality," said Charlie Rose.

"Science has developed treatments for short term sexual dysfunction and we have a basic understanding that good health is important to avoiding long term dysfunction, but beyond that we need to engage in much more research," says Dr. Nurse.

Research published by the University of Chicago and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has demonstrated that sexual dysfunction affects 43 percent of women and 31 percent of men. Medical conditions including diabetes, obesity, heart and vascular disease, neurological disorders, hormonal imbalances, chronic disease, or drug abuse can also have profound effects on people's ability to engage in healthy sexual relationships.

Psychological issues that include work-related stress, high levels of anxiety, deep concern about sexual performance, marital or relationship problems, depression, or the effects of past sexual trauma or abuse can also hinder sexual pleasure and fulfillment.

Pfizer's creation of a drug to treat erectile dysfunction has been praised by sexual health practitioners not only for its returning of sexual satisfaction to many men and their committed partners, but also for encouraging men to open up to their doctors when they are having sexual problems.

"As we know, enjoying a safe, intimate relationship involves a host of complex, sociological and physiological factors that begin with good health," says Dr. Michael Allen, Vice President, Urology and Sexual Health at Pfizer's United Kingdom research and development site.

Sex was long considered something that was never to be talked about openly, sometimes not even between husbands and wives. This attitude, which has its roots in what most would now call a distorted understanding of certain passages from the letters of Paul in the New Testament, reached its height of power in the Victorian Age of the late 19th and early 20th century.

As the newly formulating medical practice of Psychiatry was being developed, it became clear that sexual repressions were capable of causing vast amounts of pain, suffering, trauma, and ill health effects.

In the first few decades of the 20th century, then-radical British novelist and poet D.H. Lawrence took a page from the psychology books and wrote a number of sexually explicit best-sellers to inspire people to engage in frank and emotionally open communication about sex and sexuality. His books were often banned and torn apart by literary critics in his day, but Lawrence's works are today considered classics of literature, and sometimes of theology and philosophy. It was he who coined the phrase "have sex".

The sexual revolution was further fueled by the first publications of Playboy magazine in the mid-1950s. Like Lawrence, Hugh Heffner is also a "man of letters" and insisted that his magazine would have to include only the best quality journalism and literary fiction as well as tasteful photography, and its purpose was to get people talking honestly about sexual matters.

However, many people now grow concerned that, as with the bible before it, the message of Playboy has also grown distorted, so that now, instead of being too closed about sex, people have largely become too open.

Original Newswire Source:
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