It’s perfectly normal for men to have an occasional problem gaining or sustaining an erection. But for some men, these difficulties are frequent and severe, making penetration impossible. This condition is known as erectile dysfunction, or ED, and occurs when there is a reduced blood flow to the penis at the time of erection. We now know that erectile dysfunction is in the pelvis, not in the mind – but this understanding is relatively recent.

David Heath of the Center for Public Integrity recently investigated a new breed of corporate dental care chains that cater to low-income adults and children. Heath collaborated with Jill Rosenbaum of PBS FRONTLINE on “Dollars and Dentists.” They found a high-volume business model that scored dentists on production and offered bonuses based on the revenue they brought in.

In recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, OnlineNursingPrograms.com has created an infographic that's chock full of sobering statistics about the disease. For instance, one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. In 2011, there were more than 230,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in women and more than 2,000 in men. Furthermore, among cancers in women, one in three is breast cancer. Check out the graphic after the jump.

The United States has had a shortage of primary care providers for quite a while, and the doctor shortage is not expected to ease up anytime soon, with more people gaining access to health coverage along with the increased health needs of aging Baby Boomers. In an attempt to address this shortage, the Affordable Care Act includes provisions to train more primary care providers – including nurse practitioners (NP) and physician assistants (PA), not just MDs.

The main takeaway of a new study from the Guttmacher Institute may seem rather common sense, but it's important nonetheless: women use contraception so they can achieve life goals like getting an education, planning and taking care of a family, and maintaining financial stability. The report found that most of the women surveyed said that "contraception has had a significant impact on their lives."

The time most of us spend looking at a screen has rapidly increased over the past decade. If we’re not at work on the computer, we’re likely to stay tuned into the online sphere via a smart phone or tablet. Shelves of books are being replaced by a single e-book reader; and television shows and movies are available anywhere, any time. So what does all this extra screen time mean for our eyes? Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that like many good eye myths, there is simply no evidence to support this old wives' tale.

In her new book, Vagina: A Biography, Naomi Wolf, author of the much-lauded, The Beauty Myth, espouses the concept of an intrinsic "brain-vagina connection." She spends hundreds of pages trying to back her theory up and urges women to follow her into liberation via vaginal appreciation. But don’t be fooled: Naomi Wolf's Vagina (the book) is, in fact, about Naomi Wolf’s vagina, and not about anyone else's.

Sandra Fluke is once again under attack. This time by Representative Joe Walsh. She responded in the Huffington Post to Rep Walsh, writing that a friend "lost an ovary when she was unable to afford the contraception her insurance failed to cover, but that she needed to treat her polycystic ovarian syndrome." Unfortunately, her assertion regarding the hormonal contraception as a treatment of ovarian cysts is not accurate.

Women’s private and public spheres converged in the bathroom of a bar in Mankato, MN with the recent installation of a pregnancy test vending machine. Jody Allen Crowe, founder of the nonprofit Healthy Brains for Children, installed the first vending machine of its kind at Pub 500 on July 17 in an effort to reduce prenatal exposure to alcohol. Two days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a survey showing that one in 13 pregnant women reported consuming alcohol.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reaffirmed its previous recommendation that most women don’t need routine ovarian cancer screening. The agency looked at recent evidence to see if anything new has been published that might alter its 2004 recommendation and concluded, once again, that annual screening is likely to do more harm than good in women who do not have any symptoms, genetic markers, or other increased ovarian cancer risk factors.

A new study from researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands looks at the rather interesting interplay between the natural human "disgust" response and sexual arousal in women. The premise: "Sex and disgust are basic, evolutionary relevant functions that are often construed as paradoxical....Saliva, sweat, semen and body odours are among the strongest disgust elicitors. This results in the intriguing question of how people succeed in having pleasurable sex at all."

We’re often told by the popular press and well-meaning family and friends that, for good health, we should fall asleep quickly and sleep solidly for about eight hours – otherwise we’re at risk of physical and psychological ill health. Sleep need varies depending on the individual and can be anywhere from 12 hours in long-sleeping children, to six hours in short-sleeping healthy older adults. But despite the prevailing belief, normal sleep is not a long, deep valley of unconsciousness.

Of course there are differences between female genital mutilation and female genital cosmetic surgery, the most striking of which is the conditions under which they are performed. Common to FGM is the use of non-sterile instruments in unhygienic conditions, whereas FGCS is typically “medicalised”, carried out in professional surgical environments like plastic/cosmetic surgeons’ clinics. Yet FGM and FGCS may not be as dissimilar as we might imagine.

Why mail the book “Our Bodies, Ourselves” when you can deliver it in person? Yes, a Chicago-to-Missouri road trip to Rep. Todd Akin’s office begins this afternoon to deliver copies of the newly revised and updated 40th anniversary edition of the landmark book. Seriously, who needs accurate women’s health information more than a member of Congress who thinks women can magically ward off pregnancies if their rape was “legitimate”?