As 2014 approaches, we would like to again thank you for your continued support and loyalty to the International Society for Sexual Medicine. It is you, the membership community, who drives and shapes the ISSM.

In order to ensure that you will have uninterrupted access to all of ISSM's membership benefits, including the Journal of Sexual Medicine, we kindly ask you to pay your ISSM membership dues for 2014 in a timely manner either through one of our affiliated societies or directly with us through this link. Of course, if you have already paid your membership dues, we thank you.

Also, if your contact information has changed, please take a moment to update it through Your ISSM Membership.

Our latest ISSM Member Profile features Dr. Rupin Shah of Mumbai, India. Dr. Shah is the president of the South Asian Society for Sexual Medicine, which will become an ISSM-affiliated society on January 1, 2014.

Dr. Shah completed his medical training at Mumbai University and his training in andrology microsurgery at University Hospital, Leuven, Belgium.

When asked about the benefits of the ISSM, Dr. Shah replied, "The ISSM is for me the fountainhead of knowledge in the field of sexual medicine. Through its meetings, journal, and online discussion forum, it provides me with practice-relevant information, basic science research, and new thoughts and possibilities."

Among his many successes, Dr. Shah was instrumental in developing an affordable penile prosthesis. In 1994, after working with plastic surgeons, silicon importers, and a local manufacturer, the first Shah penile prosthesis was implanted. It is now the most commonly used prosthesis in India.

Please click here to read more about Dr. Shah.

American researchers have found that patients who receive hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) might have sexual side effects.

The study, published in the journal Blood, involved 131 allogeneic and 146 autologous HCT patients (152 men and 125 women). All had received HCT treatment at City of Hope in California.

Each patient completed two questionnaires on sexual function before treatment and at various intervals afterward for three years. 

Before treatment, 61% of the men and 37% of women reported being sexually active during the previous month. After three years, the rate for men dropped to 54%. But the rate for women increased to 52%.

However, the women's overall sexual function was worse when compared to the men, in spite of their increase in activity.

For both men and women, the average rating of sexual satisfaction declined from "adequate" to "somewhat adequate."

For patients who received allogeneic HCT, chronic graft-versus-host disease was associated with worse sexual functioning as well.  

Total body irradiation had a negative sexual impact on men, but not on women. This might be explained by "physiologic differences in the pathogenesis of sexual dysfunction."

More details on this study may be found here.