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Latest News from the ISSM - August 13, 2018 Member Login
Passing of Gorm Wagner: 1930 - 2018

The ISSM is deeply saddened to announce the sudden passing of our colleague Dr. Gorm Wagner on July 24th, 2018 after a few days of illness.

He obtained his medical degree at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology before he devoted his career to research at the Department of Physiology at the University of Copenhagen where he became an associate professor.

He was a real scientist always ahead of his time within his field, thinking new ideas and implementing new methods. This was expressed throughout his whole career in research, education, and involvement in scientific societies and journals.

His research career started within the field of physiology of the uterus and pregnancy in which he implemented new methods to study the myometrium. From this he moved into the sexual medicine area with studies on the vagina and later the penile physiology. His knowledge on sexual physiology and biology was immense, and he always strived to understand it’s true function and how it could be translated to the clinical situation for the benefit of the patients. 

Gorm Wagner was one of the pioneers of Sexual Medicine and one of the founding fathers of the ISIR (later ISSM) where he served as president from 1988-1994, and of the ESIR (later ESSM) where he served as president from 1995-1995. He foresaw a new area in medicine, and with his involvement and leadership of the organizations he was one of the forerunners responsible for the transformation of a small group of people interested in biological aspects of sexual function and health into a true medical society. Our society would never had been where it is today without his visionary involvement.

He was also one of the persons responsible for the establishment of the IJIR, our former journal, on which he served as one of the first two co-editors from 1989 to 2002. Very early he understood the importance of having a journal to share science within the field and he convinced the publisher to adhere to the project, which turned out to be a real success, and today our society has three journals in sexual medicine.

He published substantially throughout his whole career both in scientific journals and books. He also produced educational movies for example the film describing “The physiological responses of the sexually stimulated male and female in the laboratory” which was remarkable in 1975.

In 1972 he established a curriculum and course in Basal Sexology for medical students at the University which was extraordinary at the time. He ran the course until 2002 and it still exists and has taught hundreds of medical students about sexual function and dysfunction.

His death has saddened us all and our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues who will miss him. Sexual medicine has lost one of its great spirits.

Note: This article is available on the ISSM website here. 

Sex Doesn't Impair Strength Training in the Knee, Study Finds

New research in the Journal of Sexual Medicine supports the position that sexual activity before an athletic event does not hurt a man's performance. 

The study involved 12 healthy men who regularly engaged in strength training.

The men took part in 3 exercise sessions during which knee extension and knee flexion range of motion was assessed. The men were asked to either abstain sex for 12 hours beforehand or to have sexual intercourse during the same time frame. 

Sexual activity had "no sinificant effect" on the men's exercise performance, the authors said. 

Get the details here.

Rear Tip Extenders: How Do They Affect Penile Rigidity of Prostheses?

The use of rear tip extenders with inflatable penile prosthesis is the topic of our website's latest research summary. 

"Rear Tip Extenders and Penile Prosthesis Rigidity: A Laboratory Study of Prostheses" by Dr. Nannan Thirumavalavan, et al. was first published online in June by the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

The ex vivo investigation assesses various rear tip extender lengths and their effects on erectile dynamics in a laboratory model. 

Please see the full summary here. 

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ISSM | International Society for Sexual Medicine
P.O. Box 94 | 1520 AB Wormerveer | The Netherlands