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Men who eat too much liquorice could risk damaging their sex lives, according to a study. Researchers from Iran have found that liquorice - used in sweets, chewing gum, toothpastes and herbal remedies - can lower testosterone.

Low levels of testosterone can affect libido and mood and may even increase the risks of sexual problems.

Speaking at the British Pharmaceutical conference in Harrogate, researchers urged men to be aware of the risks.

Dr Mahmoud Mosaddegh and colleagues at the Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences based their findings on a study of 20 healthy men.

Key ingredient

They were all given 1.3g of dried liquorice root extract everyday for 10 days.

The extract contained about 400mg of glycyrrhizic acid, which gives liquorice its distinctive taste.

The extract is used in popular herbal remedies. Manufacturers claim it can relieve cold, flu and allergy symptoms and may even help people with chronic fatigue or ulcers.

It is also found in smaller quantities in confectionery, toothpaste and some herbal teas. Cigarette and drugs manufacturers sometimes use it to improve the taste of their products.

Some brands of chewing gum can contain 24mg of glycyrrhizic acid while some herbal teas can contain up to 450mg per litre.

A report by the European Commission published earlier this year suggested that people should not consume any more than 100mg of glycyrrhizic acid a day.

The Iranian researchers took blood samples from the men involved in their study.

They found that the men all had significantly lower levels of testosterone than they would normally expect.

The findings backs up a previous study published in 1999. It also reported lower testosterone levels in men taking liquorice.

However, other studies have found no such link.

Nevertheless, Dr Mosaddegh said men should avoid consuming large amounts of liquorice and in particular liquorice herbal remedies.

"Liquorice root extract is a popular treatment, traditionally used for treatment of gastrointestinal disorders but until further data are available we would advise caution in use of the extract."

But he added: "More research is needed to assess the hormonal effects of liquorice." BBC News

One in six female university students has had a pregnancy scare after having unprotected sex, a survey has found.

Four in 10 said they had taken the risk after they had been drinking or got "carried away".

Five hundred women aged 17 to 24 were questioned in the survey by NOP for the online contraception information service Evriwoman.

Experts say female students should find a form of contraception which will fit in with their university lifestyle.

Women said other reasons for not using contraception included:-

just forgetting - 19%
not having anything to hand - 11%
not thinking about it - 5%

Lifestyle

Most students said they usually used the Pill when they did use contraception.

A quarter of those who mainly used condoms admitted they only thought about contraception when they were actually having sex.

Just over half of those who had a pregnancy scare had taken the morning-after pill.

Eighty-three per cent of those questioned have had, or expect to have, up to five partners by the time they graduated from university.

Dr Diana Mansour, head of the contraception and sexual health service within the Newcastle Primary Care Trust, said students were not taking contraception seriously.

"The trouble is that young women often don't think about contraception until it could be too late.

"What with the excitement of leaving home, socialising, meeting new people and the pressure of studying, contraception is just not top of their agenda even though for many this will be the first time they'll be getting into a long-term sexual relationship."

She added: "It's a busy time for young students so they should be thinking about using birth control options that fit with their lifestyle.

"The right choice for them could make a real difference on how effectively they use it."

Advice

Dr Mansour added: "Students are taking a chance when it comes to birth control because rather than using a continuous method, then doubling up with a condom for new partners, they're relying on barrier methods, the morning-after pill, or nothing at all and it's this trend that needs to be looked at because it's getting them into all sorts of trouble."

She advised women who wanted more information on the range of contraception methods available to speak to their GP or visit their local family planning clinic.

A spokeswoman for the Family Planning Association said: "Students in further education may be high achievers but that doesn't mean they'll find it easy to talk about sex with a partner.

"Just because we're more open about sex today doesn't mean we're more honest."

She added: "Communicating about sex is a problem for lots of people, and rates of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections remain high.

"The big lesson students must learn is to value their sexual health and future fertility enough to avoid the unhappy consequences of unprotected sex.

"The best way to do this is to use contraception every time."

BBC News

Lesbians are generally fatter and have a higher risk of heart disease compared to other women, a study suggests. Researchers in the United States based their findings on a study of 324 lesbians living in California.

They believe the differences may be linked to the fact that the lesbians they studied were less concerned about their weight compared with other women.

They said the findings highlighted the need to encourage lesbians to exercise more and lose weight.

Overweight

Dr Stephanie Roberts and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco questioned an equal number of lesbian and heterosexual women about their weight.

They found that on average lesbian women had a higher body mass index, larger waist and bigger waist to hip ratios compared with the other women.

A high body mass index - a measure of body fat based on height and weight - is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and severe chest pain. Excess fat around the waist has also been linked to an increase risk of heart disease.

In addition, the researchers found lesbian women were more likely to have problems controlling their weight, tending to put on weight, lose it and gain it again quite regularly.

This so-called weight-cycling can also lead to heart disease. The researchers said the reasons for these differences were unclear.

However, previous studies have found that in addition to being less concerned about their weight, lesbians are also less likely to perceive themselves as overweight.

Dr Roberts said the findings highlighted the need for health education which targeted lesbians specifically.

"Weight control is often perceived as a conventionally feminine behaviour," she said. "A strategy that de-emphasises traditional feminine values may be the most effective for lesbians."

The study is published in the journal Women's Health Issues.

BBC News

A low budget film about a group of young people making a porn film has caused controversy among cinema-goers who don't know whether it's fact or fiction.

The film, El Carrete, starts off by telling the fictional tale of a group of five friends who organise a party which they hope will turn into a drug-fuelled orgy.

But after a few minutes, the director walks on screen, tells the cast they've run out of money and that their only hope is to make a porn film.

The movie has caused controversy among viewers because it is not clear whether from this point on the actors are acting or if they are having sex for real.

Directors Oliver Leftaro and Pavel Saenz told Las Ultimas Noticias online: "Many people ask if this is a documentary, if one of the girls is really a prostitute, if we are telling what happened to us rather than telling a fiction.

"The truth is that we only handed out a few directions for the actors and they took it from there, so most of what you see is reality."

A spokesperson for Cine Arte Alameda, where the movie is showing, said: "We have had complains about El Carrete.

"Some people are furious that we are showing it. They get confused because they don't know if it is reality or fiction they are watching."

Ananova.com

A huge study has revealed that Norwegian women are becoming sexual predators.

The seven-year study of 2,700 young Norwegian men and women says the line between male and female sexual roles is fading.

Norwegian women in their 20s have become more aggressive and are more likely to initiate sex than their older sisters, often even surpassing men in their own age group, said the report.

The report found that women in the study took on a more masculine role in their sex lives but without sacrificing their femininity. It also found that women are experiencing sex and relationships for the first time before males.

"The girls have changed a lot in recent decades. The difference between young men and young women in their sexual lives has increased," said the project's leader, Willy Pedersen.

The University of Oslo sociology professor said the trend seems to intimate that young men sit alone in their rooms satisfying themselves "while the young women go out in the world and live out their new, liberated sexuality."

Norway routinely tops international studies of gender equality.

The country got its first female prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, in 1981.

More than 40% of the current government, and nearly as many as MPs, are women. The government is set to legally require that at least 40% of all corporate boards have female members.

© Associated Press
Ananova.com

A Czech man has been awarded more than £20,000 compensation after his ex-girlfriend tricked him into giving her his sperm.

Jitka Bouchalova used Tomas Kaspar's sperm to become pregnant and then demanded child-support from him.

In an unprecedented case in the Czech Republic, a Prague court ruled that the sperm of Kaspar, 36, was "misused" by Bouchalova, who in 2002 gave birth to twins.

Bouchalova was ordered to pay Kaspar £1,070 while the Gest fertility clinic was told to pay him £21,400 over the incident.

The court ruled in favour of Kaspar after he claimed that in 1999 Bouchalova got him to give her a sample of his sperm after she told him doctors at the clinic needed it to determine what contraception was best for her.

The clinic, which has appealed against the verdict, said Kaspar had approved the use of his sperm for artificial conception.

Bouchalova insisted that Kaspar had been aware exactly what the sperm would be used for.

Ananova.com

Secondary school pupils are to be screened for sex diseases, in an effort to counter rising rates of infection.

The pilot project, in York, comes after known cases of chlamydia, which can lead to infertility in women, rose by 14% last year.

It follows concerns raised by the Commons health select committee that not enough is being done to encourage safe sex among young people.

The two York schools taking part in the project already offer emergency contraception and condoms to children aged 11 to 18.

Ignorance

Chlamydia is sometimes called the "silent infection", as it shows no symptoms in 70% of women and 50% of men.

If left untreated, it can cause infertility or babies to be born with pneumonia or conjunctivitis.

More than 81,000 cases were diagnosed in 2002 - an increase of 139% since 1996.

York Health Services NHS Trust, running the screening project, is also asking nightclubs in the city to take part.

Earlier this year, Professor Paul Reiss of London University's Institute of Education told BBC News Online that pupils needed 10 times more sex education.

Ignorance of chlamydia could lead to higher rates of infertility, which would not be discovered until adulthood, he warned.

Official figures also show syphilis rates have risen fivefold in the past six years and gonorrhoea has more than doubled.

Around 6,500 people learned last year that they had HIV/Aids, a higher number than ever before.

BBC News

The question of whether to legalise prostitution is being debated at a conference in Liverpool. Delegates were due to discuss whether the Dutch approach of lifting the ban on the world's oldest profession would work in the UK.

The conference, at the University of Liverpool, was also examining the dangers faced by prostitutes after the murders of two women in the city in July.

The possibility of setting up 'tolerance zones' in UK cities was also being discussed as part of a review of current policing strategies dealing with the sex trade.

Professor David Canter, director of the university's Centre for Investigative Psychology, said: "Following the recent brutal murder and dismemberment of two Liverpool prostitutes, the risks of the trade have never been more real.

Drug addiction

"In a civilised society we need to find a way of helping women out of this dangerous and degrading trade or of managing their activities so that violence is minimised."

He added that the conference would give local authorities the chance to find effective ways of tackling the problems of prostitution.

Issues faced by prostitutes, such as drug addiction, physical and sexual abuse and poverty, were also due to be discussed.

The remains of Hanane Parry, 19, originally from Chester, and Pauline Stephen, 25, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were found in the Everton area of Liverpool in July.

Mark Corner, 26, of Walton, Liverpool, has been charged with their murder.

BBC News

Men are far more prepared to be tested for a sexual infection if they can pick up their results on the web, research suggests.

A study in Sweden involved mailing out thousands of urine sample pots to 22-year-old men and asking them to return them to be tested for chlamydia.

Instead of having to visit a clinic, the volunteers could anonymously visit a website to see their results.

Almost two in five men sent the pots took part in the testing programme - far more than expected.

Chlamydia is a rising concern for sexual disease experts in the UK and other European countries.

In many cases, it does not produce obvious symptoms in either men or women, but it can cause lasting damage to infected women - including reduced fertility.

The prevalence of the disease is rising fast in the UK, say statisticians.

Scientists at the Unit for General Medicine at Emea University in Sweden were looking for a way to make sure as many young men as possible took part in a screening programme.

They decided that men might be more willing to be screened provided they did not have to have any direct contact with a clinic or doctor during the screening process.

The personally-addressed mailshot was sent to each man at home, with a questionnaire and information sheet included alongside the sample pot.

Men sent urine samples back to the researchers, where they were tested as normal for chlamydia.

Personal code

However, instead of having to attend a doctor's appointment to receive their results, each man was given a code which gave him access to his own results on a webpage.

In all just under 400 out of 1,000 men asked to take part did so.

This is the highest recorded response rate for a chlamydia screening programme in men of this age.

The percentage who actually had the infection was 1.1% - a lower figure than normal - perhaps reflecting the fact that the screening initiative was reaching far more low-risk men who would not normally approach a doctor for a test.

Of the four infected men, three viewed their results on the web and sought medical help independently.

The other man was contacted by researchers after he did not check his results on the web.

BBC News

Scenes including nudity and sexual activity on terrestrial television have increased during the past four years, according to research by TV watchdogs.

Sex scenes have more than doubled from 6% to 14% since 1999, says the survey by the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC), the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the BBC.

But broadcasters continue to respect the watershed, with little change in the amount of sex and nudity shown on TV before 9pm.

Nearly half (48%) of respondents thought that the amount of coverage about sex was "about right", while 44% thought there was too much and 5% said there was too little.

Responsible

Paul Bolt, director of the BSC, said: "The latest research has shown that the use of the watershed remains an effective way of ensuring that viewers can feel confident that pre-watershed programming does not contain material unsuitable for family viewing."

The survey said there was a decrease in nudity before 9pm.

The increase in sex scenes, all occurring post-watershed, was boosted by a small number of programmes that had sex as one of their main themes.

Five factual shows accounted for nearly 39% of all sex scenes.

Two of those broadcast were on Channel 4 (Sex on TV and The Real Linda Lovelace) and two on Five (formerly Channel 5), Real Sex and G String Divas.

Contextual

The fifth was BBC Two's Reading the Decades, which examined the best selling books in post-war Britain, including two novels with sexual themes.

One in five programmes depicted some form of sexual activity, but 60% of those only included kissing and most scenes took place within established relationships.

In total, they accounted for only 0.4% of the total broadcast time sampled.

A third of sexual scenes shown were central or relevant to the story, with a further third providing information about the characters involved.

Female nudity increased to eight in 10 (81%) of depictions in 2002.

Mr Bolt said the survey also showed that attitudes have changed over the years.

"People are now more comfortable with programming that contains sexual material as long as they are made aware of the material to be broadcast and that it is used within context," he said.

BBC News