The ISSM is pleased to announce that the Survey of Literature, previously published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, will now be published quarterly in Sexual Medicine: Open Access.

The open access format ensures that highlights of the scientific literature outside of ISSM publications (complete with editorial commentary from ISSM experts) will be freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world. The first Highlights of the Literature for 2015 will be published in the March issue of Sexual Medicine.

A new editorial board for the Survey of Literature has been convened under the leadership of Ege Can Serefoglu. Membership of the board is detailed below:

• Chair: Ege Can Serefoglu, Turkey
• Sophie Bergeron, Canada
• Joana Carvalho, Portugal
• Fabio Castiglione, Italy
• David Cohen, Brazil
• Christopher Fisher, Australia
• Johanna Hannan, USA
• Michael Krychman, USA
• Lior Lowenstein, Israel
• Lesley Marson, USA
• Stan Monstrey, Belgium
• Alexander Pastuszak, USA

Please click here to read the latest edition of Sexual Medicine.

Most patients between the ages of 18 and 55 are not counseled about sex after a heart attack, according to a new study.

Researchers from the United States and Spain interviewed 3,501 men and women who were hospitalized for heart attacks in those two countries. The patients' mean age was 48 years and about two-thirds of them were women. 

At the start of the study, the participants' answered questions about their sex lives and general health in the year before the heart attack.

A month later, they were asked about their sexual activities and any counseling on sex received by their doctors during this follow-up period.

About 54% of women and 63% of men had resumed sexual activity within a month of their heart attack. But only 12% of women and 19% of the men said they had discussed sexual health issues with their clinicians.

Clinicians in Spain were more likely to bring up the subject than those in the U.S.

Treatment location brought about different outcomes for women.  In Spain, they were more likely to have physician-recommended restrictions on sexual activity than men were. In the U.S., women were less likely than men to have restrictions. 

The authors were concerned that the content of those restrictions were not always consistent or relevant. 

“Neither strong evidence nor clinical guidelines support the specific kinds of sexual activity restrictions patients received, nor do they support making different recommendations based on patient gender or age” they wrote.

The study was first published online before print last month in Circulation. Please click here for more information.