Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, November 10, 2009
Sex / Science We Can Rebuild You
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 9:48 AM
BBC:
Tissue created in a laboratory has been used to completely replace the erectile tissue of the penis in animals. The advance raises hopes of being able to restore full function to human penises that have been damaged by injury or disease.... Professor Anthony Atala said: "Further studies are required, of course, but our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction."Our hope is that patients with congenital abnormalities, penile cancer, traumatic injury and some cases of erectile dysfunction will benefit from this technology in the future."
This could also be good news for female-to-male transsexuals.
2
The thudding sound you hear is conservative elderly senators falling all over each other to prepare amendments to whatever sorry gemisch passes in the way of health-care reform.
3
OK, so will THIS be covered under the House healthcare plan? How nice for all those penile-ly disabled types. Perhaps they'd like to donate to Planned Parenthood for abortion access?
(still pissed off)
(still pissed off)
10
@7 - Why not ask the Miss California USA folks? I'd bet they'd be more than happy to ante up, especially if you've already had your teeth veneered, your nose straightened, your hair lightened considerably . . .
11
I'm just fine with the penis I've got, thank you. But maybe I could get a second one. Now that would be cool.
12
wow...can't wait for the inevitable day of millions of men getting their dicks done like the ladies do with the boobies and the inevitable morons who will insist on 12 inch dicks.
yuck.
yuck.
14
i'm sorry but the only thing i took from this was that my dick can get cancer. that thought might just ruin my day.
15
oh and @1/8 if it's that rare (and clearly i actually don't know as this is the first i've heard of it) then the 28 times more likely is probably just a statistical anomaly. let's always remember that correlation does not prove causation!
20
Well, 14 and 15, your lifetime risk is 1 in 100,000. Compare to breast cancer which is 1 in 8.
Very rare indeed, and completely preventable with the HPV vaccine. You might want to ask for it....
Very rare indeed, and completely preventable with the HPV vaccine. You might want to ask for it....
21
As the jokers have noted, what this truly means is that men will soon be able to get cocks made to order. Which means this will be covered like Viagra.
22
Once again medical perks for men. I don't see any evidence that this could help FTMs, they use the words "restore full function to human penises" which implies to me that you need a penis to start with. How about this, they can give out penis upgrade to men only if they fully cover the cost of birth control for women.
23
Any numbskulls using this to "enhance" their cocks will be getting a cosmetic procedure, something that won't be covered by medical insurance.
24
we're also growing liver, heart, and other tissues. in fact we're looking at some sequencing for a new lipid project involving liver tissue we "make" here.
Most lack of penile erection has more to do with psychology and cardiovascular health, actually. Fix those first. Unless Lorena Bobbit's in town ...
Most lack of penile erection has more to do with psychology and cardiovascular health, actually. Fix those first. Unless Lorena Bobbit's in town ...
25
keshmeshi @23, you're such a kidder. Don't you remember the days when penile implants were covered by insurance but breast reconstruction after cancer was not? I do.
Guess which gender has the organ that most insurances will cover for all sorts of ills while the girls get stuck with the aftermath of the spills.
Guess which gender has the organ that most insurances will cover for all sorts of ills while the girls get stuck with the aftermath of the spills.
26
It's not just penis cancer to worry about. My ex got necrotizing fasciitis (aka the flesh-eating bacteria) on his penis. This was after we broke up. Maybe this would have helped his reconstructive surgery.
27
Is there something wrong with helping men with damaged penises? Holy Christ, but some of you fuckers are bitter. Not every little thing is a slight against your sex- women get their reproductive organs refurbished all the time. Vaginal prolapse, anyone?
Most disturbing to me: Another article on this subject mentioned that the rabbits they tested upon had damaged penises, but they didn't mention how they were damaged. It brings the mind some sadistic lab tech mangling bunny boners.
Most disturbing to me: Another article on this subject mentioned that the rabbits they tested upon had damaged penises, but they didn't mention how they were damaged. It brings the mind some sadistic lab tech mangling bunny boners.
30
@27, nope, nothing wrong at all. We hets think it's great. Just want you to make this a two-way street, sweetie.
(I'm with you on the bunnies, though. Ick!)
(I'm with you on the bunnies, though. Ick!)
35
33 you absolutely stink at math and science, but then you always do. You toss around these citations and numbers like you have a clue, and then betray your ignorance with a comment like this or your boner (sorry, guys! couldn't resist) at 31.
28 X 1 in 100,000 is 28 per 100,000 or 2.8 per 10,000. And as for differences in orders of magnitude (cf., your question at 31), the answer is one, honey. Not 28. If you're going to talk statistics, maybe you should learn a wee bit about it.
As we said: pretty damn rare, and preventable with Gardasil.
28 X 1 in 100,000 is 28 per 100,000 or 2.8 per 10,000. And as for differences in orders of magnitude (cf., your question at 31), the answer is one, honey. Not 28. If you're going to talk statistics, maybe you should learn a wee bit about it.
As we said: pretty damn rare, and preventable with Gardasil.
38
35
I'm not sure why @31 has you hot and bothered-perhaps a reading comprehension problem?
Since Dr Golob isn't here we'll try to muddle through.
One order of magnitude is 10X.
Our 28X would be a little more.
100X would be two orders of magnitude.
Hypothetical question-
If there was a behavior that made your patients 28 times as likely to contract a disease would you consider that significant?
I'm not sure why @31 has you hot and bothered-perhaps a reading comprehension problem?
Since Dr Golob isn't here we'll try to muddle through.
One order of magnitude is 10X.
Our 28X would be a little more.
100X would be two orders of magnitude.
Hypothetical question-
If there was a behavior that made your patients 28 times as likely to contract a disease would you consider that significant?
39
Allegedly @ 37 and 38 and elsewhere, your point is that gay men are 28 times more likely to develop penile cancer. This is supposed to scare the homos on Slog. You offer no citation.
My counter is that 28 times very rare is still very rare. I'm sorry: a 3 per 10,000 lifetime risk is just not that different from a 1 per 100,000 lifetime risk. Yes, it is one order of magnitude different, but it is simply too rare for anyone to spend so much of his (er, your)
limited brainpower on. Compare that to a 1 in 6 lifetime risk for prostate cancer, or a 1 in 20 risk for colon cancer, or 1 in 8 for breast. These are LIFETIME risks, not annual incidence (Oh Jeebus, does he even know the difference?)
And then top that off with the fact that we have an effective vaccine, and I'm wondering exactly why you waste your time on this.
My counter is that 28 times very rare is still very rare. I'm sorry: a 3 per 10,000 lifetime risk is just not that different from a 1 per 100,000 lifetime risk. Yes, it is one order of magnitude different, but it is simply too rare for anyone to spend so much of his (er, your)
limited brainpower on. Compare that to a 1 in 6 lifetime risk for prostate cancer, or a 1 in 20 risk for colon cancer, or 1 in 8 for breast. These are LIFETIME risks, not annual incidence (Oh Jeebus, does he even know the difference?)
And then top that off with the fact that we have an effective vaccine, and I'm wondering exactly why you waste your time on this.
40
Re: all the talk about Gardasil - it works 100% for the four strains of HPV it protects against, the four (currently) most common strains. But it does jack shit to protect against the multitude of other strains of HPV out there. So yes, Gardasil definitely helps, and everyone should get it, but it doesn't guarantee that you'll be immune to HPV and related cancers - just that you'll be less likely to get them.
41
What is the point of that discussion of penile cancer?
What behaviors are associated with that? (it is important not to presume that all gay men engage in the same behaviors, at the same rates) Are these behaviors exclusive to gay men? If it's simply a risk associated with anal sex, that's not the essential component of being gay, nor is it something that straights don't do. Is it a risk of unprotected anal sex? Is it associated with an infection, or is it even unprotected anal sex with an uninfected partner? Without that information, it's basically a meaningless number.
And what are we supposed to be doing with this information, outlawing gay sex? And is that a rational response to anything at that threshold - if it increases your risk for an already rare disease by one order of magnitude or so, we should outlaw it or... what?
There's no point in responding to someone just throwing numbers out there without any sort of explanation or elaboration.
What behaviors are associated with that? (it is important not to presume that all gay men engage in the same behaviors, at the same rates) Are these behaviors exclusive to gay men? If it's simply a risk associated with anal sex, that's not the essential component of being gay, nor is it something that straights don't do. Is it a risk of unprotected anal sex? Is it associated with an infection, or is it even unprotected anal sex with an uninfected partner? Without that information, it's basically a meaningless number.
And what are we supposed to be doing with this information, outlawing gay sex? And is that a rational response to anything at that threshold - if it increases your risk for an already rare disease by one order of magnitude or so, we should outlaw it or... what?
There's no point in responding to someone just throwing numbers out there without any sort of explanation or elaboration.
42
39
Enlighten and educate- not scare.
from the CDC:
The new HPV vaccine was developed to protect against most cervical cancers and genital warts. At this point, it is only licensed to be used in girls/women, ages 9-26 years. Studies are now being done to find out if the vaccine is also safe in men, and if it can protect them against genital warts and certain penile and anal cancers.
Enlighten and educate- not scare.
from the CDC:
The new HPV vaccine was developed to protect against most cervical cancers and genital warts. At this point, it is only licensed to be used in girls/women, ages 9-26 years. Studies are now being done to find out if the vaccine is also safe in men, and if it can protect them against genital warts and certain penile and anal cancers.
43
"Anal intercourse causes abrasions of the relatively fragile rectal wall, especially in the receptive partner. The penetration of E.coli, always present in the stool, and other bacteria, viruses and parasites penetrate through such lesions into the deeper body tissues. This leads to the suppression of the immune system of such individuals even if there is no exposure to HIV. The immune suppression increases the risk to develop certain cancers, opportunistic infections, to which otherwise one would be resistant, and other health problems including the risk of premature death."
44
Sexual practices, sexually transmitted diseases, and the incidence of anal cancer
Abstract
To elucidate the risk factors for anal cancer, we interviewed and obtained blood specimens from 148 persons with anal cancer and from 166 controls with colon cancer in whom these diseases were diagnosed. We found that in men, a history of receptive anal intercourse (related to homosexual behavior) was strongly associated with the occurrence of anal cancer (relative risk, 33.1; 95 percent confidence interval, 4.0 to 272.1). Anal intercourse was only weakly associated with the risk of anal cancer in women (relative risk, 1.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.7 to 4.2). Among the subjects with squamous-cell anal cancer, 47.1 percent of homosexual men, 28.6 percent of heterosexual men, and 28.3 percent of women gave a history of genital warts, as compared with only 1 to 2 percent of controls and no patients with transitional-cell anal cancer. In patients without a history of warts, anal cancer was associated with a history of gonorrhea in heterosexual men (relative risk, 17.2; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.0 to 149.4) and with seropositivity for herpes simplex type 2 (relative risk, 4.1; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.9 to 8.8) and Chlamydia trachomatis (relative risk, 2.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 4.8) in women. We conclude that homosexual behavior in men is a risk factor for anal cancer, and that squamous-cell anal cancer is also associated with a history of genital warts, an association suggesting that papillomavirus infection is a cause of anal cancer.
JR Daling, NS Weiss, TG Hislop, C Maden, RJ Coates, KJ Sherman, RL Ashley, M Beagrie, JA Ryan, and L Corey
Abstract
To elucidate the risk factors for anal cancer, we interviewed and obtained blood specimens from 148 persons with anal cancer and from 166 controls with colon cancer in whom these diseases were diagnosed. We found that in men, a history of receptive anal intercourse (related to homosexual behavior) was strongly associated with the occurrence of anal cancer (relative risk, 33.1; 95 percent confidence interval, 4.0 to 272.1). Anal intercourse was only weakly associated with the risk of anal cancer in women (relative risk, 1.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.7 to 4.2). Among the subjects with squamous-cell anal cancer, 47.1 percent of homosexual men, 28.6 percent of heterosexual men, and 28.3 percent of women gave a history of genital warts, as compared with only 1 to 2 percent of controls and no patients with transitional-cell anal cancer. In patients without a history of warts, anal cancer was associated with a history of gonorrhea in heterosexual men (relative risk, 17.2; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.0 to 149.4) and with seropositivity for herpes simplex type 2 (relative risk, 4.1; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.9 to 8.8) and Chlamydia trachomatis (relative risk, 2.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 4.8) in women. We conclude that homosexual behavior in men is a risk factor for anal cancer, and that squamous-cell anal cancer is also associated with a history of genital warts, an association suggesting that papillomavirus infection is a cause of anal cancer.
JR Daling, NS Weiss, TG Hislop, C Maden, RJ Coates, KJ Sherman, RL Ashley, M Beagrie, JA Ryan, and L Corey
45
How can someone say gay men are 28 times more likely to get a cancer when NOBODY knows how many gay guys there are??
Be specific, please. Having numbers that talk about "of the xnumber of cancer patients, xnumber identifed as gay" is not at all the same as saying "gay men are xnumber of times more likely"
Of course, I haven't seen any citations yet so it don't matter much anyways.....
Be specific, please. Having numbers that talk about "of the xnumber of cancer patients, xnumber identifed as gay" is not at all the same as saying "gay men are xnumber of times more likely"
Of course, I haven't seen any citations yet so it don't matter much anyways.....
46
Consequences and Health Risks to Anal-Penile activity:
(1) “The anus is a delicate mechanism of small muscles.” “With repeated trauma, friction and stretching, the sphincter loses its tone and its ability to maintain a tight seal.” The result is the leakage of fecal matter and permanent damage may result so that this leakage problem persists.
(2) “The single layer tissue cannot withstand the friction associated with penile penetration, resulting in traumas that expose both participants to blood, organisms in feces, and a mixing of bodily fluids.”
(3) In addition to this, “ejaculate has components that are immunosuppressive.” That means any diseases entering the anus when the ejaculate is present do not get attacked by your immune system. Note: This is not the case with vaginal penetration as the vagina is constructed very differently—for the purpose.
(4) These facts “make anal-genital intercourse a most efficient manner of transmitting HIV and other infections.”
(5) Here is a list of diseases that are “extraordinary” in their frequency “among male homosexual practitioners as a result of anal sex.”
i. Anal cancer
ii. Chlamydia trachomatis
iii. Cryptosporidium
iv. Giardia lamblia
v. Herpes simplex virus
vi. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
vii. Human papilloma virus
viii. Isospora belli
ix. Microsporidia
x. Gonorrhea
xi. Viral hepatitis B & C
xii. Syphilis
“Sexual transmission of some of these diseases is so rare in the exclusively heterosexual population as to be virtually unknown.” The risk of anal cancers soars to 4000% in those who engage in anal sex. “Sexual Behaviour and Increased Anal Cancer,” Immunology and Cell Biology 75 (1977); 181-183: “There are substances in seminal fluid called ‘immuno-regulatory macromolecule’ that send out ‘signals’ that are only understood by the female body, which will then permit the ‘two in one flesh’ intimacy required for human reproduction. When deposited elsewhere, these signals are not only misunderstood, but cause sperm to fuse with whatever somatic body cell they encounter. This fusing is what often results in the development of cancerous malignancies.”
More...
(1) “The anus is a delicate mechanism of small muscles.” “With repeated trauma, friction and stretching, the sphincter loses its tone and its ability to maintain a tight seal.” The result is the leakage of fecal matter and permanent damage may result so that this leakage problem persists.
(2) “The single layer tissue cannot withstand the friction associated with penile penetration, resulting in traumas that expose both participants to blood, organisms in feces, and a mixing of bodily fluids.”
(3) In addition to this, “ejaculate has components that are immunosuppressive.” That means any diseases entering the anus when the ejaculate is present do not get attacked by your immune system. Note: This is not the case with vaginal penetration as the vagina is constructed very differently—for the purpose.
(4) These facts “make anal-genital intercourse a most efficient manner of transmitting HIV and other infections.”
(5) Here is a list of diseases that are “extraordinary” in their frequency “among male homosexual practitioners as a result of anal sex.”
i. Anal cancer
ii. Chlamydia trachomatis
iii. Cryptosporidium
iv. Giardia lamblia
v. Herpes simplex virus
vi. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
vii. Human papilloma virus
viii. Isospora belli
ix. Microsporidia
x. Gonorrhea
xi. Viral hepatitis B & C
xii. Syphilis
“Sexual transmission of some of these diseases is so rare in the exclusively heterosexual population as to be virtually unknown.” The risk of anal cancers soars to 4000% in those who engage in anal sex. “Sexual Behaviour and Increased Anal Cancer,” Immunology and Cell Biology 75 (1977); 181-183: “There are substances in seminal fluid called ‘immuno-regulatory macromolecule’ that send out ‘signals’ that are only understood by the female body, which will then permit the ‘two in one flesh’ intimacy required for human reproduction. When deposited elsewhere, these signals are not only misunderstood, but cause sperm to fuse with whatever somatic body cell they encounter. This fusing is what often results in the development of cancerous malignancies.”
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
The Saturday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
NYC Man Ticketed for Not Riding in the Bike Lane by Jonathan Golob
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (46) RSS