EPIDIDYMIS
The sperm-making tubules in each testis converge like streams at the mouth of a river to form the head of the epididymis. In this case, the river is proportionally huge and tortuous. Each twisting, winding epididymis (one on each side), though only a millimeter wide, could be uncoiled to reach a length of fifteen to twenty feet. The epididymis is the “greenhouse” where sperm mature and are stored until orgasm, when two-thirds of ejaculated sperm are rocketed from the tail of the epididymis during a series of powerful muscle contractions. The epididymis hugs the testis, clinging to one side of it before twisting yet again and heading upward at its tail end to join still another tube called the vas deferens.
The Vas Deferens
There is an almost immediate change in topography as the epididymis melts into the vas deferens. This mighty tube (again, one on each side; together they are called the vasa deferentia), is a hard, muscular cord, about eighteen inches long and three millimeters in diameter. Its characteristic thickness—due to its sheath of muscles, designed to pump sperm to the prostatic segment of the urethra—means the vas deferens can easily be felt through the scrotum and even the spermatic cord. The vas deferens winds its way to a space between the bladder and rectum, then heads downward to the base of the prostate, where it meets with the duct of the seminal vesicle to form the ejaculatory duct. It is from the vas deferens that the vasectomy, a form of male contraception, gets its name: When the vas deferens is cut, sperm cannot exit the penis through ejaculation and instead are reabsorbed into the body.
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Since society diminishes the humanity of old people by its attitudes and by its actions, elderly people may have to become militant to regain the respect they once had. Old people may have to stand up, speak up, and never shut up, until they have obtained an adequate pension, good health care, and proper housing. If that makes it sound that old people form a suppressed minority – they are! Old people should not be forced to accept crumbs from society’s table, nor should they be made to believe that they should be grateful for society’s charity, in the form of welfare. What they receive, they have earned. They helped to make life more comfortable for others during their working days, they paid their taxes, they fought the wars, they have earned their retirement, and they have to make society recognize this. You are as much a person at 70 as you were at 20; you have different – but no less important -needs and you have obligations – different, but no less important.
Once society puts you into the category of ‘old’, it makes you a non-person. You are not: you are just a different person. You need what most people need. You need your dignity as a human being. You need sufficient money, as a right not as charity, so that you can live comfortably, rather than existing in poverty. You need access to courteous, non-exploitive, appropriate health care.
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Over-indulgence in alcohol is particularly depressing to a man’s sexuality. Alcohol is a sedative. In small quantities it may reduce his sexual inhibitions but in larger amounts it reduces his performance, so that he either fails to obtain an erection or to reach orgasm. This may lead to the fear that he is becoming impotent. He may hide his
fear by becoming angry with his wife, or showing his contempt for her, in the hope that she will not expect him to be sexually active.
His fear of sexual failure may be intensified because he has noticed changes in his sexual responses and has interpreted these as evidence of a declining sexual capacity. In our society, many men equate sexual success with worldly success, and the diminished ability to perform well sexually is taken as an indication of a decline in general efficiency.
As a man grows older his sexual response changes. In his early twenties, a man responds to sexual excitement by rapidly obtaining an erection. During sexual intercourse, he reaches orgasm quickly, ejaculates powerfully, and is able to repeat the sequence after a short time.
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Once antibody has been formed, blood tests can be made which will detect syphilis. In the U.S.A. these blood tests are necessary before marriage licences are issued. In many other countries similar tests are made in early pregnancy to make certain that the woman does not infect her unborn baby.
Unless the person is treated during the stage when the ulcer is present (called primary syphilis), the disease will continue to develop. Six to eight weeks after being infected the person feels ill, may have a sore throat or headaches, and usually develops a skin rash. The rash starts as faint pale pink spots on the person’s body, but rapidly spreads to appear on the face. Some infected people develop low, grey-coloured, flat-topped growths around the anus, or in the mouth (where they look like snail tracks and are called mucous patches). These lesions can last for up to 12 months and then disappear. They are called the secondary stage of syphilis. The final stage in a person who has untreated syphilis is unpleasant. Some people with the untreated disease develop chronic painful ulcers on the skin or, worse, in a bone. In some, the disease affects the brain causing mental decay.
All the horrible outcomes can be avoided if a man who develops a painless ulcer on his penis between 10 and 90 days after sexual intercourse goes to a doctor for the cause of the ulcer to be diagnosed.
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A loss of interest in sex, or inhibited sexual desire, has recently been identified as a major sexual problem which affects both men and women. In most of the reported cases, the individual is married. Inhibited sexual desire may be general, when the person has no sexual desire for another, or it may be situational. In this form the person has no sexual desire for one person – often the marriage partner – but is sexually aroused by and can perform sexually with other partners. A man who has inhibited sexual desire no longer desires sexual intercourse and, if his partner seeks to stimulate him, remains sexually unaroused. In most of the reported cases, inhibited sexual desire occurs after some years of marriage, but it may occur early in marriage. Unmarried men are not commonly affected. Many men complaining of the sexual problem are under the age of 40, and some are in their twenties, but the condition can affect men of all ages.
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Together, they share the joy at seeing the birth of their baby. First, its head appears, then its shoulders and arms, then its body slips out of the woman’s vagina, and it lies crying gently and moving its limbs between its mother’s legs, its cord still beating.
They can both share in the pleasure of touching and cuddling their newborn child as it lies naked on its mother’s body, being gently stroked by both parents while it searches for her nipple. This early ‘bonding’ between the child and its parents is thought to be important for the subsequent development of the baby and for the relationship between its parents.
Hospitals which have thought about the shared experience of childbirth leave the mother, the father, and the newborn baby alone as soon after birth as possible, so that they may get to know their baby and may enjoy a quiet time together. Unfortunately, these hospitals are still too few: most do not leave the family alone to celebrate the birth of the baby and to adjust to being parents.
Couples who have shared in and jointly participated in childbirth confirm the intensity of the experience, and speak of their mutual joy in being together during such an important and emotionally charged period of their relationship.
The experience is enhanced if both parents have learnt what happens during pregnancy and labour, if both are prepared to share in the care of their baby, and if they have a warm, sharing relationship with each other.
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