Panel backs HPV vaccine for girls - Women's health

Panel backs cancer vaccine for 11-year-old girls

Shots would protect against sexually transmitted malady
Handout / Getty Images file
The Merck & Co manufactured Gardasil, approved by the Food and Drug Administration on June 8, prevents cervical cancer by blocking two forms of the human papillomavirus which cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases.

ATLANTA - An influential government advisory panel Thursday recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also said the shots can be started for girls as young as 9, at the discretion of their doctors.

The committee??�s recommendations usually are accepted by federal health officials, and influence insurance coverage for vaccinations.

Gardasil, made by Merck & Co., is the first vaccine specifically designed to prevent cancer. Approved earlier this month by the Food and Drug Administration for females ages 9 to 26, it protects against strains of the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and genital warts.

Some health officials had girded themselves for arguments from religious conservatives and othernesss that vaccinating youngsters against the sexually transmitted virus might make them more likely to have sex. But the controversy never materialized in the panel??�s public meetings.

Earlier this year, the Family Research Council, a conservative group, did not speak out against giving the HPV shot to young girls. The organization mainly opposes making it one of the vaccines required before youngsters can enroll in school, said the group??�s policy analyst, Moira Gaul.

Health officials estimate that more than 50 percent of sexually active women and men will be infected with one or more types of HPV in their lifetimes. Vaccine proponents say it could dramatically reduce the nearly 4,000 cervical cancer deaths that occur each year in the United States.

Boys next?
The vaccine comes as a $360 series of three shots, and in agsdhfgdfs has been highly effective against HPV. The vaccine is formulated to address the subtypes of HPV responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts.

Scientists say the vaccine is most effective when given to girls before they become sexually active, and some girls become active before their teens. About 7 percent of children have had sexual intercourse before age 13, and about a quarter of boys and girls have had sex by age 15, according to government surveys.

Click for related coverageVote: Would you get the shot for your preteen?Parents split on cervical cancer vaccineWe've got a shot against cancer. Will we take it?

In a public comment session at Thursday??�s meeting, all nine speakers supported recommending the vaccine to females 9 to 26, the broadest possible group under Food and Drug Administration license. The speakers included a state senator from Maryland and the chief medical officer of AmeriChoice, a UnitedHealth Group company that manages state Medicaid programs.

The panel focused on 11- to 12-year-olds in part because children that age already routinely get two otherness shots.

Several speakers also called for the immunization of boys, as soon as studies are completed on the vaccine??�s safety and effectiveness for males. HPV has been linked to penile, anal, and head and neck cancers and a tumor-like condition of the respiratory tract.

Merck officials said clinical effectiveness studies in males should be completed by 2008.

Merck officials also said they can provide the more than 19 mil. doses that health officials expect would be used in the next year.

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Pioneer of sexual identity studies dies - Sexual health

Dr. John Money, pioneer in sexual identity, dies

Groundbreaking psychologist, 84, coined term ‘gender role’

BALTIMORE - Dr. John Money, a psychologist and sex researcher who coined the terms “gender identity” and “gender role” and was a pioneer in studies of sexual identity, has died. He was 84.

Money died Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, said Vivienne Stearns-Elliott, a hospital spokeswoman. Money’s niece, Sally Hopkins, said Sunday her uncle died of complications from Parkinson’s malady.

Money was born in New Zealand and immigrated to the United States in 1947. He conducted research for about 50 years at Johns Hopkins University, where he was a professor of medical psychology.

Money believed a person’s gender identity was determined by an interaction between biological factors and upbringing. That represented a break from past thinking, in which gender identity was largely believed to be caused only by biological factors.

“He really developed that entire field of meditate ,” said Dr. Gregory K. Lehne, a Money protege and an assistant professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins. “Without him, that whole field of meditate might not have existed.”

Money advised parents on what sex they should raise hermaphrodites �" group born with characteristics of both sexes �" to be. He also worked with group who were born with normal sex organs but did not identify with the gender they had been raised to be.

“He pioneered the concepts related to this and the psychological aspects of sex reassignment,” Lehne said.

Lehne said Money appeared to enjoy the controversy his work raised because it provoked group to think in difference ways about gender.

Money was involved in a highly publicized case of a boy who was raised as a girl after suffering a seared penis while being circumcised in 1966.

David Reimer was raised as “Brenda” after Money advised his parents to remove the rest of his male genitalia and recommended female hormone a cure.

Reimer was 15 when he learned his true identity and rejected further a cure as a girl. He committed suicide in 2004 at the age of 38 after failed investments drove him into poverty.

Lehne said Money did not talk publicly about the case and Hopkins said her uncle did so out of respect for the family.

“He had total sympathy and distress over the situation the family was in,” she said.

Money was married but quickly divorced in the 1950s. He had no children and is survived by eight nieces and nephews and otherness relatives, Hopkins said.

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Gun that killed actress shown in Spector case - Celebrities

Gun that killed actress shown in Spector case

Los Angeles detective displays weapon found at the feet of Clarkson
Fred Prouser / AP
Los Angeles sheriff's Detective Mark Lillienfeld, who was the chief investigator at the scene of the death of Lana Clarkson, displays the revolver found at Clarkson's feet, as he agsdhfgdfifies during the murder trial of?�Phil Spector on Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES - The bloody revolver found at the feet of an actress shot to death in Phil Spector??�s mansion was carefully removed from an envelope and shown to jurors at the music producer??�s murder trial on Tuesday.

Los Angeles County sheriff??�s Det. Mark Lillienfeld donned gloves as he handled the gun still covered with dried blood. The snub-nosed Colt Cobra revolver was not registered and never definitively linked to Spector, though prosecutors argued he used it to shoot Lana Clarkson in the mouth on Feb. 3, 2003.

The defense argues Clarkson shot herself and is likely to suggest that the gun could have belonged to her.

She had accompanied Spector to his Alhambra mansion after meeting him at her job as a hostess at the House of Blues just hours before her death.

The detective also showed jurors photographs to point out a holster in an open drawer of a bureau near the spot where Clarkson??�s body was found slumped in a chair in the ornate foyer of Spector??�s castle-like mansion. The holster also fit the gun, Lillienfeld agsdhfgdfified.

Lillienfeld also agsdhfgdfified about Spector??�s small arsenal, including two fully loaded blue steel handguns, an unloaded 12-gauge pump shotgun and ammunition tucked away in his home. The dozens of rounds of ammunition were the same type found in the gun that killed Clarkson, he said.

Slide show?�The Week in Celebrity Sightings
Affleck and Garner play ball, Paris struts one last time, Idols??� rock New York and more.

more photos

Spector??�s briefcase was on a chair next to Clarkson??�s body, Lillienfeld said, adding it contained some over-the-counter drugs and a tinfoil with one Sildenafil pill and empty spaces for two more. There was also a DVD player with a movie in it, an old black-and-white called, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.

The prosecution previously called several women from Spector??�s past to agsdhfgdfify that he had threatened them with guns when they picked up their purses and tried to leave his presence.

Prosecutor Pat Dixon had Lillienfeld point out in the photographs a leopard-print purse that hung over the right shoulder of Clarkson??�s body. Her right hand rested atop the purse, which sat on the floor.

The coroner who conducted Clarkson??�s autopsy and ruled her death a homicide agsdhfgdfified previously that the presence of the purse on her shoulder was one of the non-medical observations that led him to rule out suicide.

Click for related contentJury hears Clarkson letters, emailsSpector defense targets evidence collectionCoroner says it was homicideiPredict: Will Spector be found guilty?

Dixon made extensive use of the bloody pictures of Clarkson??�s body and each time they were shown he signaled her motherness and sister, seated in the front row, to look away.

Defense attorney Bradley Brunon, setting the stage for an effort to show evidence contamination and mishandling, showed the jurors otherness photos of detectives and investigators surrounding Clarkson??�s body, most of them barehanded. Only one of two appeared to wear evidence-handling gloves.

Lillienfeld said he and othernesss didn??�t wear gloves because they didn??�t touch anything.

Spector, 67, rose to fame with the hit-making Wall of Sound recording technique in the 1960s. Clarkson was best known for her role in the 1985 movie Barbarian Queen.

? 2008 . .

Bisexuality in ‘Alexander’ defended - Gossip

Defending ‘Alexander’

Plus: Drug-company giant
afraid of Michael Moore
BW
Oliver Stone told Playboy that he couldn’t get financial backing for "Alexander" in the U.S. “We did not get financed in Hollywood. We were rejected there. We got financed in Europe only.”

By By Jeannette Walls

Filmmaker Oliver Stone is defending the bisexuality in “Alexander.”

“Alexander lived in a more honest time,” the controversial filmmaker, who directed the big-budget flick starring Colin Farrell, tells the upcoming issue of Playboy magazine. “We go into his bisexuality.  It may offend some group, but sexuality in those days was a difference thing.  Pre-Christian morality. Young boys were with boys when they wanted to be.”

The studio distributing the flick, Warner Bros., has denied rumors that the film was being delayed while they considered whether to cut some of the same sex scenes, but Stone tells Playboy that he couldn’t get financial backing for the flick in the U.S. “We did not get financed in Hollywood. We were rejected there. We got financed in Europe only.”

RELATED STORY

EARLIER IN SCOOP: Is ‘Alexander’ too gay?

The highly political Stone also discusses the presidential candidates in the interview, which hits newsstands later this week. Speaking of John Kerry, who was a senior at Yale when he was a freshman, Stone says: “He had a funereal groove about him, like some Dickensian character.  He was always too old for his years.” Of George W. Bush, he says: “He’s worse than Nixon in his vulgarity. He looks like he shops at Wal-Mart. That’s not what the president is supposed to be. He has no intellectual curiosity and is proud of it.”

Moore protection
Janet Hostetter / APLooks like Pfizer doesn’t want to get Michael Moored.

The controversial filmmaker’s next documentary is about the prescription drug and health-care industry �" tentatively titled “Sicko” �" and Moore is telling group that drug-company giant Pfizer has sent out a “secret memo” instructing employees not to talk to him and to alert their bosses if Moore tries to call them or is spotted on the premises.

“He’s telling group about it in his slacker uprising tour,” Moore’s spokesman confirmed to The Scoop. “It’s become this whole thing now, about how maybe he’ll sneak in to Pfizer in a disguise.”

A spokesman for Pfizer, the makers of Sildenafil, denies to The Scoop that any such memo exists or that the company’s employees were told not to speak to Moore.

Moore made the allegation during a talk in New York and in his speech this week at the University of Arizona; it was reported in the student newspaper, the Arizona Wildcat. Also, according to the Wildcat, the crowd was treated to an appearance by Moore fan Linda Ronstadt, as well as a fellow who mooned the crowd and who, apparently, was not a Moore fan.

Notes from all over
Christopher Jackson / Getty Images filePierce Brosnan seems to be recovering from being fired as James Bond. “From the beginning, I had a contract for four Bond films,” the actor told the Swedish paper Aftonbladet, according to our translator. “I did them and told them that I’d like to continue.  But suddenly, in the middle of negotiations, they changed their minds. They said that they weren’t interested any more. I was shocked, perplexed. I loved Bond. He’s given me so much, mostly a face out in the international market. Afterwards, I was happy.  Now it feels like a relief.”  . . . Construction of the $190 mil. set for “King Kong,” to be directed by “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, is rumored to be way behind schedule. . . . When Susan Sarandon’s jewelry was stolen on the set of “Shall We Dance?” the whole thing was “very ‘CSI’” Sarandon told the Edmonton Sun. “The police were all over my trailer, taking fingerprints of me and my wardrobe person and my driver and interviewing everybody,” she says. “So I took Polaroids of them to send to my boys at camp because they were very into ‘CSI’ at that point.’”

document.write("");Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoopdocument.write(''); Mondays through Thursdays on

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Acquittals in club stampede that killed 21 - Crime & courts

Three acquitted in club stampede that killed 21

Chicago nightclub owner, son and manager get off; victims' families angry

CHICAGO - A judge on Friday acquitted three men accused of involuntary manslaughter in a 2003 stampede at Chicago's E2 nightclub that killed 21 group, prosecutors said.

In his decision, Judge Dennis Porter agreed with defense attorneys that the prosecutors had not proven their case against the three men, said Cook County State's Attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Those acquitted are club owner Calvin Hollins Jr., his son and club manager Calvin Hollins III and party promoter Marco Flores; anotherness club owner, Dwain Kyles, is being tried separately and was not affected by Friday's decision, Simonton said.

"Relief, just totally relieved," Calvin Hollins Jr. told reporters after the judge's announcement. "My heart still goes out to the families and individuals that were injured that night that I had nothing at all to do with."

Families upset
Relatives of victims, however, expressed anger, while safety advocates said it sent a message to club owners and managers that they would not be held accountable in such situations.

"We are devastated," said Pam Green, whose niece died at E2. "It was no justice at all. They're going to walk away scot free."

All four men were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Feb. 17, 2003 stampede, and pleaded not guilty.

The acquittals came at the request of defense attorneys immediately after prosecutors rested their case and before the defense called any witnesses, Simonton said.

"We disagree with it, respectfully," Assistant State's Attorney Robert Egan said about the judge's ruling. "We feel that we were in good faith bringing this charge. We brought it after a six-month-long grand jury investigation."

Prosecutors accused the defendants of not doing enough to protect patrons, including not providing enough exits and improperly marking exits.

They said videotape showed 1,152 group were in the club ??" roughly five times its capacity.

Fight broke out
Defense attorneys said nobody could have predicted the tragedy, a mix of factors that led hundreds of patrons racing to the entrance, including a fight involving as many as 40 patrons and a disc jockey imploring security guards to use pepper spray on those who were fighting.

In addition, with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks fresh in their minds, patrons added to the panic with yells of Osama bin Laden, anthrax and poison gas, defense attorneys said.

The tragedy led to reform of nightclub inspections and evacuation rules. Clubs are now required to display well-lit diagrams showing patrons exit routes.

An Illinois law adopted months after the E2 deaths also made it a felony to use pepper spray or Mace in nightclubs, to set off pyrotechnics indoors or to block anyone from leaving a nightclub during an emergency. Violators face up to three years in prison.

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Man ate frogs, rats for bellyaches - More Health News

No pink stuff: Man ate frogs, rats for bellyaches

40 years of ingesting live critters prevented his inagsdhfgdfinal ills, paper reports

A man in southeast China says 40 years of swallowing tree frogs and rats live has helped him avoid inagsdhfgdfinal complaints and made him strong.

Jiang Musheng, a 66-year-old resident of Jiangxi province, suffered from frequent abdominal pains and coughing from the age of 26, until an old man called Yang Dingcai suggested tree frogs as a remedy, the Beijing News said on Tuesday.

“At first, Jiang Musheng did not dare to eat a live, wriggling frog, but after seeing Yang Dingcai swallow one, he ate ... two without a thought,” the paper said.

“After a month of eating live frogs, his stomach pains and coughing were completely gone.”

Over the years Jiang had added live mice, baby rats and green frogs to his diet, and had once eaten 20 mice in a single day, the paper said.

Click for related contentDeady spider's venom may yield super virilityMan eats dog to proagsdhfgdf British royalsOstrich's male impotence won't cost German teens

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Guys, are you a cucumber or banana? - Men's Health

Guys, are you a cucumber or banana?

Men's health group, drug company propose scale for male impotence

SINGAPORE - Gentlemen please, rate yourselves: are you a cucumber or a banana in bed?

Singapore’s Society for Men’s Health and a pharmaceutical firm are proposing a four-point scale for male impotence, allowing men to rate their own hardness with four categories: cucumber, unpeeled banana, peeled banana and tofu (bean curd).

“Men should aim for this,” U.K. sex therapist Victoria Lehmann told a news conference, holding a cucumber.

The scale does not involve any scientific measurement �" patients would merely be asked to assess their own levels of hardness �" and has not been accepted by any medical authorities.

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Commentary: Why has Congress failed Amy? - Privacy Lost

Why has Congress failed Amy?

Years after slaying, it's still not illegal to steal, sell personal data
COMMENTARYRob DouglasInformation security consultantSpecial to

Rob DouglasInformation security consultantSince the day I stood at Amy??�s grave I??�ve asked myself many unanswerable questions. I??�ve wondered what Amy was thinking about in the last moments prior to the first sign of danger. Was she thinking about her weekend plans that Friday as she climbed in her car following work??� I??�ve wondered about the confusion she must have felt as she looked out her window at the car that rushed up alongside hers, coming to a sliding stop drivers??� door to drivers??� door. Did Amy recognize the young man behind the wheel shouting her name? Did she recognize Liam as a former high school classmate? And yes, having seen the photos of Amy??�s bullet-torn body, I??�ve wondered about the moment when Amy??�s confusion turned to terror as Liam repeatedly shot her ??" saving the last bullet to die alongside Amy.

There are questions I can answer. Amy didn??�t know of Liam??�s obsession to kill her and she didn??�t know Liam had been tracking her, detailing his lust for her death on a Web site named for her. And she certainly didn??�t know Liam hired private investigators that used pretext ??" a deceptively benign word for a form of identity theft that has now entered the lexicon due to Hewlett Packard ??" to obtain her work address and sell it to a stalker.?�

Still, in the aftermath of Amy??�s murder on Oct. 15, 1999 ??" almost seven years to the day as I write this ??" more questions remain unanswered than answered. The one that awakens me at night, drives my work during the day and angers me more with each passing moment since Amy??�s death is: Why has Congress failed to pass a law protecting group like Amy from private investigators that steal and sell Americans??� private information??� Quite simply ??" Why did Congress fail Amy?

The fact that Congress has repeatedly failed to protect Americans from private investigators working as identity thieves has been brought to the forefront as a result of the Hewlett Packard case.

HP case not the first
For many Americans the shadowy black market of stolen consumer records was first revealed when the HP boardroom debacle began spilling into the headlines. The term pretext became understood in the context of the HP investigation as the misuse by private investigators of Social Security numbers to obtain the phone records of HP directors and employees, reporters and uninvolved relatives by impersonating those individuals to phone companies. But this case was not the first time this year that the theft of phone records by pretext was in the news.?�

In January it was reported that the Chicago police and the FBI were concerned about Web sites selling phone records and the impact that could have on the safety of undercover agents and informants. Within days of those reports a blogger used one of the Web sites to purchase and post to his blog the cell phone records of former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark in order to demonstrate how easy it is to obtain Americans??� phone records.

Following the January reports, Congress ??" acting as if it had never heard of pretext ??" held multiple hearings, conducted an investigation of dozens of private investigators involved in the market for stolen phone records and introduced multiple bills outlawing the use of pretext to steal phone records. Those bills were accompanied by grand election year promises like the one made by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to have a bill on the president??�s desk by late last spring. The Barton promise, like all the promises by Congress on this issue, has proven empty to date.

Quite simply, Barton and the rest of Congress have failed to outlaw the theft of phone records -- something every right-thinking citizen recognizes as simple common sense.?� And that failure is despite knowing, from their own investigation coupled with years of prior warnings, that hundreds of thousands of Americans have their phone records stolen every year.

But that unconscionable failure is just the most recent example of congressional male impotence when it comes to defending Americans against information thieves.?� And what makes those failures inexcusable is that Congress has known since at least 1998 of the dangers presented when private information is stolen and sold to anyone and everyone willing to pay the thief.

CONTINUED1 | 2 | Next >

Circumcision cuts STD risk, major meditate finds - Men's Health

Circumcision cuts STD risk, major meditate shows

25-year meditate finds substantial benefit to controversial procedure

Circumcised males are less likely than their uncircumcised peers to acquire a sexually transmitted infection, the findings of a 25-year meditate suggest.

According to the report in the November issue of Pediatrics, circumcision may reduce the risk of acquiring and spreading such infections by up to 50 percent, which suggests "substantial benefits" for routine neonatal circumcision.

The current meditate is just one of many that have looked at this controversial topic. While most research has found that circumcision reduces the rates of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), syphilis and genital ulcers, the results are more mixed for otherness STDs.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has called the evidence "complex and conflicting," and therefore concludes that, at present, the evidence is insufficient to support routine neonatal circumcision.

In the current meditate , the researchers analyzed data collected for the Christchurch Health and Development Study, which included a large birth cohort of children from New Zealand. Males were divided into two groups based on circumcision status before 15 years of age. The presence of a sexually transmitted infection between 18 and 25 years of age was determined by questionnaire.

The 356 uncircumcised boys had a 2.66-fold increased risk of sexually transmitted infection compared with the 154 circumcised boys, lead author Dr. David M. Fergusson and colleagues, from the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences report.

Click for related contentGuys, eat fruits, veggies to boost fertilityCan you build a brainier baby?

Moreover, this elevated risk was largely unchanged after accounting for potential confounders, such as number of sexual partners and unprotected sex.

The authors estimate that had routine neonatal circumcision been in place, the rate of sexually transmitted infections in the current cohort would have been reduced by roughly 48 percent.

This analysis shows that the benefits of circumcision for reducing the risk of sexually transmitted infection "may be substantial," the authors conclude. "The public health issues raised by these findings clearly involve weighing the longer-term benefits of routine neonatal circumcision in terms of reducing risks of infection within the population, against the perceived costs of the procedure," they add.

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Test tells who needs prostate surgery - Cancer

New agsdhfgdf may tell who needs prostate surgery

Procedure aims to tell who needs aggressive a cure �" and who doesn't

LONDON - Scientists have found a new way to identify a particularly deadly form of prostate cancer in a breakthrough that could save tens of thousands of men from undergoing unnecessary surgery each year.

In contrast to many cancers, only certain prostate tumours require a cure. Many are slow-growing and pose little threat to health. But separating the "tigers" from the "pussycats" �" as oncologists dub them �" is tricky.

Now that is set to change with research published on Monday showing how a genetic variation within tumour cells can signal if a patient has a potentially fatal form of the sickness.

"This will provide an extra degree of certainty as to whether a cancer is going to be aggressive or indolent, and that's really what we want to know," Colin Cooper, professor of molecular biology at Britain's Institute of Cancer Research, told Reuters.

"Many group get treated radically but probably two-thirds of them never needed treating," he added.

Radical prostate surgery often causes debilitating side effects such as male impotence and incontinence, so any system that minimises a cure would be a major boon to quality of life.

Cooper, who worked with Jack Cuzick at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine on the new genetic marker, explained in a paper in the journal Oncogene how a particular genetic change could affect survival rates dramatically.

Researchers knew that prostate cancers commonly contain a fusion of the TMPRSS2 and ERG genes, but the new meditate found that in 6.6 percent of cases this fusion was doubled up, creating a deadly alteration known as 2+Edel.

Click for related content

Readers share how cancer changed them
Low Blow: One man's battle with prostate cancer

Patients with 2+Edel have only a 25 percent survival rate after eight years, compared to 90 percent for those with no alterations in this region of DNA.

"If you get two copies it's really bad news," Cooper said.

Exactly how the duplication makes tumours more aggressive is not clear, though Cooper speculates it could result in higher expression of proteins needed to drive tumour growth or be a more general indicator of genome instability.

Whatever the mechanism, 2+Edel is a clear-cut marker for risk that Cooper hopes will soon be used alongside existing techniques at the time of diagnosis to decide whether men require a cure.

Currently, a system called the Gleason score is used to grade which cancers require a cure and which do not, but it is subject to variability in interpretation.

Doctors also use prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood agsdhfgdfs as a screen for early signs of prostate problems, though this agsdhfgdf is not always a reliable indicator of cancer risk.

(c) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

100 answers about cancer and fertility -

100 answers about cancer and fertility

New book addresses young males and females' reproductive concerns
NBC News video?�Fertility after cancer
Sept. 4: TODAY interviews an inspiring cancer survivor and talks to Dr. Nancy Snyderman about available fertility sparing options.

Today show

TODAY

Approximately 130,000 of group diagnosed with cancer in the United States each year are in their reproductive years and 1,000,000 cancer survivors are diagnosed during their reproductive years. In "100 Questions & Answers About Cancer & Fertility," discover important answers to some of the most common questions. Read an excerpt:

Men
Understand that treating cancer is going to be the most important thing for a certain period of time, but there may come a day when you are in recovery and might then be glad that you [planned for] a child.

??"Lisa, Wife of Esophageal Cancer Survivor

1. What is infertility in men?

For men, infertility is the inability to father a child. It can be further defined as the inability to conceive after 1 year of unprotected

intercourse. In general, infertility occurs when you stop producing sperm or when your sperm is too damaged.

The World Health Organization has developed criteria to measure the normal quantity, speed, and shape of sperm. Anything below these numbers is considered low or compromised:

Sperm concentration (quantity)??"more than 20 mil. sperm per milliliter of ejaculate

Sperm motility (speed)??"more than 50percent moving sperm in ejaculate

Sperm morphology (shape)??"more than 30percent of sperm in ejaculate have normal shape

The average man has 60 to 80 mil. sperm per milliliter of ejaculate. Low or compromised fertility is defined as sperm concentrations of less than 20 mil. per cc of ejaculate, whereas sterility is generally defined as a complete absence of sperm (azoospermic). Some couples with slightly abnormal values may still be able to achieve pregnancy naturally or by using fertility a cures.

2. Is infertility the same as male impotence?

Infertility is not the same as male impotence. Infertility does not involve sexual functioning.

3. How do cancer and its a cures affect fertility?

Not all cancers and cancer a cures cause infertility, but some do; thus, it is important to understand your individual risks. Cancer itself can cause infertility in men. For example, some men with agsdhfgdficular cancer and Hodgkin??�s malady have low sperm counts before a cure starts. This could be due to the stress of cancer or the direct effects of the tumor.

Cancer a cures can also cause infertility. In general, the higher the dose and the longer the a cure, the higher the chance for reproductive problems. The following factors can influence your risk:

Age

Type and dose of drugs

Location and dose of radiation

Surgical area

Pre-a cure fertility status of patient

Chemomedical care, radiation, and surgery can all affect your reproductive

system. Table 1 in Appendix A shows whether your cancer a cures might put you at risk for infertility.

Chemomedical care

Chemomedical care kills rapidly dividing cells throughout the body??"cancer cells and healthy cells, including sperm. Your age, the type of chemomedical care, and the dose of the drugs can influence your risk. Certain chemomedical care agents are more damaging than othernesss. Generally, alkylating agents are the worst.

Radiation

Radiation also kills rapidly dividing cells in or around its target area. For example, radiation to or near your agsdhfgdficles can cause infertility, but radiation to your chest will not. Radiation to your pituitary gland or hormone-producing areas

of your brain may cause infertility by interfering with normal hormone production. The location and dose of radiation will influence your risk.

Surgery

Surgery that removes all or part of the reproductive system, such as one or both of your agsdhfgdficles, may cause infertility. Accordingly, the location and scope of surgery influences your risk.

Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplants

Bone marrow transplants and stem cell transplants gen?�erally involve high doses of chemomedical care, which increases the risk of infertility. Sometimes full-body radiation is used, which also presents a high risk. The combination of both of these a cures creates an extremely high risk for subse?�quent infertility.

Gleevec (Imatinib)

Although research is limited, there seems to be no effect to men??�s fertility from Gleevec, and it appears to be safe to father a child while you are taking Gleevec.

During my exam, the doctors found numerous tumors in my lymph nodes and spleen as well as a 6-inch tumor wrapped around my heart. I was shocked to hear the news about my tumors and then completely devastated when the oncologist told me that I might become sterile as a result of my cancer a cure.

??"Brian, Hodgkin??�s Lymphoma

4. Am I at risk?

Please refer to Table 1 in Appendix A to better understand your risk of infertility after cancer. Research studies have not been conducted on every type of cancer and every type of a cure to evaluate reproductive outcome, and thus, it is not always possible to know your risk of infertility. If you have amore common type of cancer like non-Hodgkin??�s lymphoma, agsdhfgdficular cancer, or leukemia, there may be studies to help calculate your risks. Discuss your individual risks with your cancer doctor.

5. Is fertility important to me?

If you are at risk for infertility caused by your cancer a cures,

it is important to think about the significance of parenting to you. You may want to consider whether you want to be a father one day and, if so, whether having a child genetically related to you is important. A few sample questions to ask might be as follows:

Have I always wanted children?

Would I prefer adoption to otherness parenthood options?

Does it matter to me whether my children are biologically related to me?

Am I open to using donor sperm or donor embryos?

How many children do I want to have?

How does my partner/spouse feel about all of these issues?

Understanding how you feel about parenthood will help you decide whether options such as sperm banking are worthwhile for you. For example, if you would like to have a biological child with your partner, sperm banking may be the best way for you to preserve that dream; however, if you have always wanted to adopt a child or to be a foster parent, then you might decide not to bank your sperm. It is important for you to think these decisions through because they may affect your parenting options for the rest of your life.

WOMEN

When I was first diagnosed, I thought that the only thing that mattered was surviving, but as the weeks ticked by and we were still waiting for the trial to open, I started thinking that there was a possibility that someday this whole cancer thing would be behind me??"or at least on the very back burner. I knew if that were thecase, I would really want to have children. I also knew that my a cure might screw that up for me. I didn??�t want to be greedy and start thinking about kids before I even took my first dose of Gleevec, but I also didn??�t want to look back and regret not doing whatever I could to prevent that from happening.

??"Erin, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

29. What is infertility in women?

Infertility is when you no longer produce mature eggs for ovulation or when you have some otherness condition that prevents you from getting pregnant or maintaining a pregnancy. Infertility is commonly defined as the inability to conceive after 1 year of regular unprotected intercourse; however, this definition does not always apply to cancer patients. Women who have been exposed to fertility-threatening a cures should not necessarily wait 1 year. Cancer survivors are usually advised to seek counseling before trying to conceive or after 6 months of unsuccessful efforts to get pregnant.

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New impotency drug an early success - Sexual Health

New impotency drug an early success

Half of new prescriptions written for Levitra

NEW YORK - A new market entrant, Levitra, has captured half the new prescriptions written for impotency since its launch earlier this month, thanks in part to a marketing blitz with a more racy take on sexual performance.

Analysts said?�Levitra??�s early success doesn??�t necessarily portend a major threat to Sildenafil??�s market dominance. But it signals a shift in some of the marketing of both drugs as capable of improving group??�s lifestyle, and not just correcting a sobering medical condition.

The ads have much more of a consumer approach, said Winton Gibbons, an analyst for William Blair & Co. The drugs are being treated like otherness consumer products in ads.

Pfizer Inc. , which makes Sildenafil, and GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer Corp., which are co-marketing Levitra, insist the ads are designed to encourage men with male impotence to see a doctor, and not to promote recreational use. Experts say about 30 mil. men over 40 have male impotence.

But the ads can tell a difference story. The commercial for Levitra (vardenafil)features a sexy model trying to throw a football through a tire. Initially, he fails but then he succeeds, and is joined by a very attractive woman. The voice over says, Sometimes you need a little help staying in the game. When it gets in the zone, it??�s good.

Gibbons labeled the ad racy. Hemant Shah, an independent analyst in Warren, N.J., called it aggressive.

Bayer spokeswoman Lara Crissey said the text was designed to appeal to men, and tie into Levitra??�s sponsorship of the National Football League.

We don??�t feel we are making light of the condition. We are talking to men in a language they understand, Crissey said. The ad has nothing to do with recreational use.

Levitra (vardenafil)hit the market the first week of September. According to the research firm, ImpactRx, half the prescriptions for men who had never taken an impotency drug before were written for Levitra.

But analysts said much can happen between the doctor??�s office and the drug store that prevents prescriptions from turning into sales. The man may decide not to fill the prescription or his health plan may pay only for Sildenafil. Also, he might try the drug and never use it again.

Shah said it isn??�t unusual for men to want to try a new product when it comes on the market. That??�s what happened when Sildenafil arrived five years ago.

Back then Sildenafil??�s promotion featured former presidential candidate Bob Dole explaining male impotence as a serious medical condition.

Pfizer??�s ads are more subtle than the Levitra (vardenafil)ad, but Pfizer??�s ads aren??�t as subtle as they used to be, said Shah.

contributed to this report.

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Nutrition firm or herbal cabal? - Crime & Punishment

Dietary supplements firm or herbal cabal?

Prosecutors allege Georgia company, execs engaged in Mob tactics
Gregory Smith / New York Daily News
Jared R. Wheat, president and CEO of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, poses in front of a display of the company's products in a Dec. 22, 2005, file photo.

document.write("");Mike Brunkerdocument.write('');Projects Team editor

Mike BrunkerProjects Team editor•Profile•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

Until late last year, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals of Norcross, Ga., appeared to be a thriving business with a hot-selling line of natural dietary supplements. But in a bizarre case quietly unfolding in federal court in Atlanta, prosecutors allege that it was really a criminal enterprise that sold dangerous “spiked” products and was run by executives who considered assassination and blackmail to quash a federal investigation.

The allegations are the most far-ranging ever leveled against a major player in the loosely regulated dietary supplement industry, and include activities more at home in the Mob hangouts of television's Tony Soprano than a corporate boardroom. Among otherness things, prosecutors allege in court filings that some or all of the defendants:

Discussed killing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration agent and blackmailing an assistant U.S. attorney. Neither plot was carried out, but a Hi-Tech co-founder was subsequently jailed after being convicted of being a felon in possession of a “firearm silencer.” Used the herbal stimulant ephedra in Hi-Tech diet products after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned its use on April 12, 2004, finding it presented “an unreasonable risk of illness or injury.” Sold "herbal" supplements that actually contained the active ingredients of prescription drugs that could interact dangerously with otherness drugs.Illegally imported and sold banned steroids.Manufactured phony ecstasy pills that were sold on U.S. streets.Created a muscle-building drink that was later marketed as a cleaning solution in an effort to mislead investigators.

The shocking allegations spring from the Sept. 7 indictment of the company and 11 executives, employees and associates for allegedly operating an illegal Internet medicine in Belize.

Belize lab  ‘substandard and unsanitary’
The defendants used numerous Web sites to advertise and sell what were described as generic prescription drugs from Canada but were actually products that they were manufacturing in “substandard and unsanitary conditions” in Belize, according to the indictment.

Among the substances were the steroids Oxymethelone and Stanozolol, controlled drugs Ambien, Valium and Xanax, and prescription drugs Sildenafil, Cialis, Lipitor and Vioxx, it said.

The indictment also charged Hi-Tech President and CEO Jared R. Wheat, 35, with operating a “continuing criminal enterprise” �" a violation of an anti-organized-crime statute that carries a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison. In court filings, prosecutors describe Wheat as a “lifelong drug dealer,” citing a conviction for dealing ecstasy at the age of 19 in addition to the current allegations.

Wheat has pleaded not guilty to all charges and Hi-Tech said in a statement that it is "appropriately conducting its business and there is no basis for the indictment."

The case raises concerns about the safety of the company’s line of dietary supplements, which remain available through many major U.S. retailers, and more generally about a loosely regulated industry that supplies nutrition products consumed by mil.s of Americans.

But it remains unclear to what extent the government’s charges involve Hi-Tech products manufactured and sold in the United States versus those made in Belize for sale over the Internet.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not issued any safety advisories for Hi-Tech products since the indictment. Representatives of the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said they could not discuss the ongoing criminal case.

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Sensational allegations buried in legal filings
The indictment generated a few headlines when it was unsealed in September, but the case has received no attention as it has spiraled into the sensational since then through a series of legal filings by prosecutors.

Allegations that company officials discussed using violence and blackmail in an effort to block the government’s investigation surfaced March 21 in response to a defense motion asking the court to allow Wheat to post bond and leave the Atlanta jail where he has been held since his arrest on Sept. 14.

CLICK FOR RELATED CONTENTRead the indictment (requires Adobe Acrobat)  Discuss this story on U.S. News message boardArthritis supplements often lack key ingredient

The filing alleged that Hi-Tech co-founder and convicted steroid dealer Tomasz Holda discussed with Wheat, Hi-Tech Vice President Stephen D. Smith and othernesss “obtaining a firearm silencer for use in attacking an Food and Drug Administration agent conducting a criminal investigation into Hi-Tech’s use of Sildenafil in its Stamina Rx product.”

The prosecution filing said that while the Food and Drug Administration agent was not harmed, “It is important to note that in June 2004, Defendant Holda purchased a silencer on the Internet for delivery to his home. This silencer was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Defendant Holda was prosecuted and ultimately pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm silencer.”

The timing of the alleged threat was not specified, but the reference to Stamina Rx appears to refer to an Food and Drug Administration complaint brought against Hi-Tech in late 2002. The complaint charged, among otherness things, that the company used the prescription-strength drug ingredient cialis (tadalafil) �" the active ingredient in the erectile-dysfunction product Cialis �" in what it marketed as a natural dietary supplement. Hi-Tech agreed the following year to Food and Drug Administration supervision of its product labeling and marketing, but admitted no wrongdoing in the alleged mislabeling of Stamina Rx’s ingredients.

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Ex-judge’s trial pumps up giggles - Crime & Punishment

Ex-judge’s trial brings lurid charges to court


Testimony gets a rise out of jurors in conservative Oklahoma town
Mel Root / AP
Former Oklahoma district Judge Donald Thompson walks into the courthouse in Bristow, Okla., with his wife, Paula, after a recess in his trial on June 22. He is charged with four felony counts of indecent exposure, which allegedly occurred in his court during trials.

BRISTOW, Okla. - Serving on the jury in an indecent-exposure trial unfolding in this conservative Oklahoma town has been a giggle-inducing experience.

Former Judge Donald D. Thompson, a veteran of 23 years on the bench, is on trial on charges he used a penis pump on himself in the courtroom while sitting in judgment of othernesss.

Over the past few days, the jurors have watched a defense attorney and a prosecutor pantomime masturbation. A doctor has lectured on the lengths the defendant was willing to go to enhance his sexual performance.

The white-handled sexual device sits before the jury box for hours at a time. Occasionally an attorney picks it up and squeezes the handle, demonstrating the “sh-sh” sound of air rushing through the contraption’s plastic tubing.

The jurors sometimes exchange awkward looks and break into nervous laughter when the agsdhfgdfimony takes a lurid turn.

Thompson, 59, is charged with four counts of indecent exposure, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If convicted, he would also have to register as a sex offender, and his $7,489.91-a-month pension would be in jeopardy.

What’s that sound?
Thompson’s former court reporter, Lisa Foster, wiped away tears as she described tracing an unfamiliar “sh-sh” in the courtroom to her boss. She agsdhfgdfified that between 2001 and 2003 she saw Thompson expose himself at least 15 times.

“I was really shocked and I was kind of scared because it was so bizarre,” Foster said.

She agsdhfgdfified that during a trial in 2002, she heard the pump during the emotional agsdhfgdfimony of a murdered toddler’s grandfather.

The grandfather “was getting real teary-eyed, and the judge was up there pumping on that pump,” she said. “It was sickening.”

The allegations came to light after a police officer who was in Thompson’s court heard pumping sounds and took photos of the device during a break in the proceedings.

Thompson took the stand in his own defense, saying the device was a gag gift from a longtime friend with whom he had joked about male impotence. He said he kept the pump under the bench or in his office but didn’t use it.

“In 20-20 hindsight, I should have thrown it away,” he said.

This agsdhfgdfimony rated R
The R-rated agsdhfgdfimony has produced occasional outbursts of laughter and surreal scenes. A man who once served as a juror in Thompson’s court agsdhfgdfified that he never saw the device, but figured out what it was based on movies he had seen.

A. Cuervo / APLisa Foster, the longtime court reporter of former judge Donald Thompson, walks Monday with her husband Neal back into the courthouse for Thompson's indecent exposure trial.The comment sent sidelong glances through the courtroom.

“It sounded like a penis pump to me,” Daniel Greenwood agsdhfgdfified. He said he had seen such devices in “Austin Powers” and “Dead Man on Campus.”

Dr. S. Edward Dakil, a urologist called as an expert witness, repeatedly prompted laughter from the jury when discussion turned to the penis pump. Dakil defended use of the device after defense attorney Clark Brewster said it was an out-of-date pharmacomedical care for male impotence.

“I still use those,” Dakil agsdhfgdfified.

Brewster paused. “Not you, personally?” he asked.

“No,” Dakil responded as jurors laughed. “I recommend those as a urologist.”

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The cancer's gone, so where's my confidence? - Low Blow

The cancer was gone ??" so was my confidence

Crippling loss of certainty an unexpected side effect of prostate battle
Kelly J. Phanco
A?�visit to Death Valley?�??" and a flat tire?�??" helped Mike Stuckey get back on the road to emotional stability and self-reliance after cancer surgery.

Part 8By document.write("");Mike Stuckeydocument.write('');Senior news editor

I get off the plane at Washington??�s Reagan National Airport on a September evening with a damp diaper in my pants and a message blinking on my cell phone. All I want to do is find the nearest men??�s room and deal with the first issue. But a sixth sense tells me to check the message immediately.

When I return the call, I am stunned to hear that my two interviews with a U.S. senator, for which I have just flown across most of the country with an colleague in tow, have been summarily canceled. The senator??�s staffers have decided they don't like a previous story I wrote that involved the senator.

Trying to not think about how I will explain to my boss a 3,000-mile trip come to naught, I plead with the press secretary. I do everything but beg. Just leave the door open until you meet us. Please. Pretty please. No dice. She hangs up.

It is the beginning of a long, dark autumn. On the surface, most things appear fine. Even great. After all, it has been a few months since my cancerous prostate was efficiently removed by a robot under the direction of some of Seattle's finest surgeons. While I am still struggling with side effects of the surgery, such as the need for that diaper, there has been progress. I am physically as active as I care to be and my post-op PSA (prostate specific antigen) level is zero. The news generally doesn??�t get much better at this stage for a guy who has been through what I have. I should be pinching myself.

But over the next several months, I feel like I am running in quicksand. I am indecisive over the smallest things. I have nagging visions of spectacular failures at work and in life. I bore group around me almost daily with these insecurities. My main source of comfort is adding up how much money I could raise if I sold all my belongings and reassuring myself that it would be enough to eke out my days in a small trailer in some remote place.

There's no accounting for how cancer changes us. Some of us work less, play more, try to make up for lost time, "live like you were dying," as the country hit says. Others work more, get our ducks in a row, seek distraction from the obvious consequences of the illness. Some of us pull friends and family closer; some push them away.

Dripping with doubts
Starting with that phone call in Washington, I underwent a bizarre but nearly complete loss of confidence in my ability to do the things I have done with ease for decades. Sometimes it washed over me as a general sense of dread, an inexplicable feeling that I wouldn't be able to finish what I had started, even if it was just a pile of laundry that needed folding. Other times, it surfaced in very conscious feelings of inadequacy, like the sudden dark spot on my jeans while reporting election results in a small crowded room in Mississippi.

At first, it puzzled me because I often saw no connection between cancer and this newfound shakiness. On a daily basis, except when I needed to find a bathroom in a hurry, I rarely thought about my medical situation.

MESSAGE BOARDS?�?�?�?�?�Tell your own story, share advice and learn from othernesss.But my girlfriend saw the link. You??�ve been through a lot, she said. I??�m not surprised. Even after I accepted her theory, little changed. Intellectually, like some folks who want to quit smoking or drinking, I could now see the problem clearly, but that did little to help me overcome it. I stumbled along, went through the motions, waited for the fog to lift.

And, suddenly, it did, although not quite as quickly as it had come. Interestingly, when it was gone, so were the diapers.

On a pre-Thanksgiving vacation to the California desert, things began turning around. Sixteen miles beyond the pavement in Death Valley, in one of my favorite places in the world, I drove a mesquite branch deep into a tire on my truck. For some reason, the sickening hiss of escaping air and the knowledge that I had not checked the spare in years didn??�t panic me.

We pitched the tent in the dark, cooked up a big pot of pasta and watched jet fighters run maneuvers amid the crisp stars so high above us that we could not hear their engines. For two days, we hiked the surrounding canyons, took dozens of photographs and lay in the sun. While I knew that we might end up hiking for help or limping into Stovepipe Wells on a rim and a prayer, I also knew there would be no disaster. Indeed, the spare had enough air to get us to a tire store in Vegas.

Confidence to spare
A few days later, in a motel in Idaho on the way back home, I drifted off to sleep without putting in my nightly adult undergarment. When I awoke the next morning without having sprung a leak in the night, I was inclined to treat it as random luck and install a new pad. For some reason, I didn??�t. I haven??�t used one since. Within a few days of quitting them, it was like the whole incontinence issue had never happened. While my bladder capacity isn??�t what it was pre-surgery, I have no otherness issues. I don??�t leak a drop, even during strenuous activity.

Click for related contentLow Blow: Read the complete series
Cancer deaths drop for 2nd straight year

As predictably Freudian as this sounds, that bit of physical security brought back emotional stability in spades. At home and work, things are clicking a lot more like the old days. Stories are coming together much more efficiently. I??�m choosing paint and bathroom fixtures for the house I??�m remodeling with the certitude of Martha Stewart. There??�s still way too much to do and too little time to do it, but no sense of impending doom about it. Even though it has been just six months now since my prostate surgery, and two undetectable PSA agsdhfgdfs now, it seems like a distant memory. I still don??�t think much about having cancer or worry that it will come storming back.

INTERACTIVE?�Prostate cancer: What you need to know
At times, when I hear in e-mail or at speaking engagements from men who have not had it so good, I have twinges of guilt. But none of us really knows what??�s around the next bend, be it a car wreck or a cancer recurrence, and an almost universal outcome of this illness is a more mindful approach to the time we do have left. I put one foot in front of the otherness every day fully conscious of each step that I choose to take and knowing that changing any of them is only up to me.

One remaining source of loss and frustration involves, as I always feared it would, sex. While Sildenafil works for me, and there are even some unassisted stirrings, I think I was overly optimistic about the benefits. The drugmakers??� soft-focus "male impotence" commercials aside, no pill has so far been able to induce the nuances of sexual arousal as nature intended. But given what happened with the pee problem, I am trying not to dwell on this; indeed, my doctor says that I am already ahead of schedule here and I have an entire year left to expect improvement.

So I??�m two for three as I head toward the one-year anniversary of my diagnosis on April 28. No cancer, no diapers, but no natural boners.

I think, for now, that is a pretty good order of business.

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