7 Things You Never Knew About Men's Bodies

By Oprah.com | Love + Sex

Photo: ThinkstockBy Corrie Pikul

They Can Get It Up in the Womb

Fetuses as young as 16 weeks have been spotted with teensy protuberances that rise and fall throughout gestation, according to studies in the Journal of Ultrasound Medicine Scientists aren't sure why this happens, but one theory, reported in the Los Angeles Times, is that these periodic movements help the penile tissue stay oxygenated and healthy.

Even the Most Masculine of Them Aren't Exactly Surging with Testosterone

Infertility - Understanding Male Infertility : Sex Ed 101

Infertility has traditionally been thought of as a woman's problem. But as it turns out, we men don't get off that easily. About one out of every three cases of infertility is due to the man alone, and we're somehow involved in infertility about half the time.

A diagnosis of male infertility can be one of the hardest challenges a man can face. For some, it can be devastating. After all, the necessity of reproduction is one of the few things on which both Darwin and the Bible agree. Not being able to father a child can make a guy feel like he’s failing at one of his most primal responsibilities.

Why boys don’t know how to break up

By Olivia Yao, Three Moons | Yahoo! SHE 


Have you heard the horror stories about boys breaking up with their girlfriends through text, e-mail, fax (maybe in the olden days), or via someone else relaying the message? There are more versions I’m sure, but you get the picture. Then there are those boys who are able to gather the courage to tell you to your face but give you classic lines like, “It’s not me, it’s you,” or “I’m just really confused,” or “I’m going through a really bad time/phase/mental illness (if he’s truly desperate).”

It will just save everyone time, heartache, and frustration if your man (ex-man?) just manned up and admitted what he was really feeling: that he doesn’t love you anymore. Well, that’s not exactly how guys are programmed.

Avoiding the tears

Herald Cruz, certified life coach and head of the parenting cluster of the Center for Family Ministries (CEFAM) of the Ateneo de Manila University says it is difficult for men to break up face to face or to say that they don’t love you anymore because they struggle when it comes to being vulnerable. They would rather get out of a relationship the way you would rip off a band-aid—fast and painless—so they don’t have to deal with the emotions, theirs or the girl’s.

“Actually, an ideal way to break up with a girl is to just text her so you don’t have to hear her screaming at you,” says 29-year-old Tom (his name has been changed to protect him from the wrath the women in his life will unleash upon him once they read this article). “In the end, she’s going to hate you either way, so why not just avoid the confrontation? If you text her, she can scream and rant on her own. If she calls you, you can choose not to answer or to put the phone down if you don’t like what you’re hearing. You can’t do that in person.”

The exception?

Since Tom admits there’s really no nice way of breaking up without the girl wanting to string them up from the nearest tree, most guys would rather choose a way that’s the least stressful for them. However, he adds, “If your girlfriend is really nice, but you just feel she isn’t the one for you, then she should be given the opportunity to scream and rant at you in person. But if she was horrible to you during your relationship, then what’s the point of breaking up nicely?”

It’s also possible, though, that if he does break up with you in person because he thinks you’re such a nice girl, he won’t be able to bring himself to tell you the truth. Thus all those “It’s not you, it’s me” lines. Melissa Pizaña-Cruz, Cruz’s wife of 18 years, certified life coach and head of the parenting cluster of the Center for Family Ministries (CEFAM) of the Ateneo de Manila University, says, “They can’t seem to hurt the girl, not knowing that by not talking to her, they hurt her more.”

The male psyche

Cruz explains, “I think men have been raised not to be emotional and not to be totally honest about their emotions. Anger, they are allowed to express, but they struggle with expressing this other kind of emotion.”

So even if women will never accept or even tolerate this kind of behavior, at least we know where it’s coming from and why mature and intelligent guys are reduced to this when it comes to breaking our hearts. Oh well.

Olivia Yao has been writing ever since she can remember. She has written for health, teen, parenting, and children's magazines. Her latest endeavor is being a mom to her three-year-old daughter—her toughest assignment yet. Swap stories with her at threeolivias@yahoo.com.

For counseling and other inquiries, contact: Center for Family Ministries (CeFaM)
Spiritual Pastoral Center
Ateneo de Manila University Campus
Loyola Heights, Quezon City

Telefax: 426-4285
Telephone: 426-4289 up to 92
 E-mail: cefam@admu.edu.ph

http://ph.she.yahoo.com/why-boys-don’t-know-how-to-break-up.html

Charity urges more action on young male suicide

 By Sima Kotecha
                 Newsbeat reporter Danni Mather says he overcame his suicidal thoughts after seeking help

A national suicide prevention charity is demanding that the government launches a major campaign to raise awareness of suicide.

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 35 in the UK.

Shoulders hunched and legs pressed together, Danni Mather, 23, told Newsbeat about his experiences of feeling suicidal.

"I just felt empty - that's the only way you can describe it," he says. "It's just complete emptiness."

"You can't smile. You can be told the greatest joke in the world, the greatest news in the world, and you'll just feel like it's nothing. You just exist."

The musician says he did not have much to be depressed about but was unable to push the dark thoughts away.

Continue reading the main story

Every time something goes wrong it becomes the first thing that pops into your head

Danni Mather, 23

On several occasions he considered suicide, he says: "Every time something goes wrong it becomes the first thing that pops into your head: just do it.

"You're waiting for a train and the first thing that pops into your head as you're waiting for it is get in front of it - because if that hits you you're not waking up."

Luckily for Danni, he received professional help and says he overcame his depression.

But more than 3,000 male deaths in England and Wales in 2010 were ruled as suicides or undetermined fatalities according to latest figures.

A total of 868 of those were aged between 15 and 35 - that is three times more than the number of women in the same age bracket.

Advice if you're affected by the issues in this article

Unemployment worries

Jane Powell, director of Calm - a charity that concentrates on preventing male suicide, says more needs to be done.

"Nine out of 10 people aren't aware that suicide is the biggest killer of young men under the age of 35," she explains.

Continue reading the main story

I think awareness of the dangers of salt is higher amongst parents then suicide, and that can't be good

Jane Powell, Calm

"That disempowers both family and parents, plus the young men themselves.

"I think awareness of the dangers of salt is higher amongst parents then suicide, and that can't be good."

She wants the Department of Health to set up a campaign and says she is worried that economic problems, like high unemployment, could make the problem worse.

"For men, they are defined by in many people's eyes by what they do," says Powell.

"If they haven't got a job, then they're no one. I think that is part of why suicide is such a male issue."

Male suicides in the UK have reduced over the last 10 years but the figures are still far higher than those killed in road accidents or knife and gun crime.

Despite that, the man who used to head up the Department of Health's mental health division says the government's current approach is working.

"It took 25 years for the suicide rate in young men to double," says Louis Appleby.

"It took 12 years for it to fall back again to the same level, so something very beneficial has happened.

"Part of that has been the awareness of the front-line agencies that they are dealing with a very troubled, potentially high-risk, group of people."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17338696

Clue to male baldness discovered

By Helen BriggsHealth editor, BBC News website 
Half of men have thinning hair by 50 
A biological clue to male baldness has been discovered, raising the prospect of a treatment to stop or even reverse thinning hair.

In studies of bald men and laboratory mice, US scientists pinpointed a protein that triggers hair loss.

Drugs that target the pathway are already in development, they report in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The research could lead to a cream to treat baldness.

Most men start to go bald in middle age, with about 80% of men having some hair loss by the age of 70.

The male sex hormone testosterone plays a key role, as do genetic factors. They cause the hair follicles to shrink, eventually becoming so small that they are invisible, leading to the appearance of baldness. Reverse balding?

Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have analysed which genes are switched on when men start to go bald.

They found levels of a key protein called prostaglandin D synthase are elevated in the cells of hair follicles located in bald patches on the scalp, but not in hairy areas.

Mice bred to have high levels of the protein went completely bald, while transplanted human hairs stopped growing when given the protein.

Prof George Cotsarelis, of the department of dermatology, who led the research, said: "Essentially we showed that prostaglandin protein was elevated in the bald scalp of men and that it inhibited hair growth. So we identified a target for treating male-pattern baldness.

"The next step would be to screen for compounds that affect this receptor and to also find out whether blocking that receptor would reverse balding or just prevent balding - a question that would take a while to figure out."

The inhibition of hair growth is triggered when the protein binds to a receptor on the cells of hair follicles, said Prof Cotsarelis.

Several known drugs that target this pathway have already been identified, he added, including some that are in clinical trials.

The researchers say there is potential for developing a treatment that can be applied to the scalp to prevent baldness and possibly help hair regrow.

gotquestions  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17457098