Ballet sex, Sarah Lane and Topamax

Sarah Lane’s Capezio Glisse with verses from Isaiah & Psalms inscribed on the fore-sole.

Jack, and more about ballet sex: “I certainly can understand that men could fetishize sex with ballerinas. After all they are meant to be females in search of physical beauty and perfection of form and movement of their bodies in an archetype of female beauty. The same goes of course for the extended line en pointe. So in a sense a conquest of a prima (or perhaps not so prima) ballerina would be a coveted accomplishment regardless of how adroit she actually was at "sex". The notion that ballerinas or dancers or gymnasts who have developed advanced control, flexibility and muscle tone of their bodies carries with it the notion that would be superior lovers to those females who lack this level of body development. This of course, applies to those who have a keen interest in "gymnastic" type of sexual positions for fornication. I personally find contortionist sex mostly unappealing, but certainly appreciate a fine toned and flexible and strong female lover. I have no experience with females who have trained their vagina as Jill discusses, both for their own pleasure and that of the male's cock which enters it in sex. I suspect, that cocks (and men who have them) are not terribly sensitive too a huge variety of stimuli as part of sexual stimulation. This is not to reduce coitus to an overly very simple mechanical interaction of cock with the walls and structure of the vagina. So I can only take Jill's many comments on the subject at face value, because I have neither direct personal experience with such females who have enormous control of the vaginal cavity nor have heard of same from others. Yet I do know from personal experience, that all pussies and sex with them are not the same, but the variations are not terribly vast considering the basic difference of size and lubrication. I'm all for some double blind experiments!”

Jack on his Sarah Lane Plans: “I'm going to make an effort to speak with Ms Lane in the coming months as I have a project next door to ABT on 890 Broadway and see if I can get her scoop on the controversy and show her some support. Stay tuned. I won't be discussing pointe sex however.”

I hope you will be successful in discussing the controversy with her and I look forward to learning what she has to say. I agree, I’m fairly sure you won’t be discussing pointe sex with a dancer who inscribes passages from the Old Testament on her pointe shoes. In the Photo above quotations from the verses she inscribed are:

“The Lord will be your everlasting light” (Isaiah. 60:20)

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love” Psalm 107

These passages may help explain why she seems so disappointed in some ways with her Hollywood - Black Swan experiences.

Topamax and contraception: Last week I was volunteering at the clinic when a UNLV grad student came in. She is in the Cosplay group and has been using Topamax (topiramate) to control migraines and since it makes her hormonal contraceptive pills less effective she has been using one of the latex Reflexions flat spring diaphragms she was fitted with [See my entry: for October 18th 2010 entitled ‘Ballet Cosplay & Horizontal Academics’] as backup. Several months ago she ran out of spermicide and decided she didn’t need to use any so she had been inserting her diaphragm ‘dry’, without spermicide. Topamax also increases the risk of birth defects in pregnant women and she had tested positive for hCG several weeks ago so she had finally decided to terminate the pregnancy. She was in for a menstrual extraction and I helped prepare her and sat holding her hand while our Gyn prepped her, dilated her cervix, inserted the cannula and sucked out her endometrium along with the fetus. It was over in less that 45 minutes and she seemed to tolerate the procedure well. However, afterward even with the risk of birth defects she regretted having the abortion. She came to us so her friends at school wouldn’t find out and she hadn’t told her boyfriend who is in school in LA and was the father. She was given a ten days supply of antibiotics and told not to have penetrative sex for two weeks. Two days later she disappeared from school and no one has seen her since.

Blogger Dynamic Views: For those readers who are learning about the 5 Dynamic View options available on Blogger starting on Thursday March 31, 2011 I have turned off the Dynamic Views feature on my blog, at least for now. I’m beginning to think Google needs to fix the problems bloggers have rather than rolling out more bells and whistles… grumble, grumble. Sigh!

Obesity and birth control

The weight loss drug Qnexa

The Wall Street Journal - Business
July 13, 2010
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

FDA Says Obesity Drug Works But With Side Effects

“WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that a proposed Vivus Inc. (VVUS) weight-loss drug resulted in "significant" weight loss, but the agency raised questions about the drug's long-term side effects.

The questions from the FDA aren't related to Qnexa's effectiveness, which has been proved in multiple clinical trials, but rather to the side effects of a drug that the agency is assuming may be taken indefinitely. Specifically, the panel pointed to increases in anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression, and debated usage by pregnant women.

Qnexa faces a review by the FDA's endocrinologic and metabolic drugs advisory committee Thursday. The panel of non-FDA medical experts will vote then on whether it thinks Qnexa should be approved by the larger FDA in a decision expected by late October.

Tuesday, the FDA posted its review of the product, which totaled 248 pages, on the agency's website.

Shares of Vivus rose 12.4% to $11.98 in early trading Tuesday. Wall Street analysts said the documents weren't particularly negative in their tone or content, but they warned that there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the panel's ultimate outcome.

A Vivus spokesman said the company looks forward to answering the FDA's questions at the panel, but he declined to comment further.

In its safety review of Qnexa, the FDA said it saw increases in heart rate among patients taking the drug but that the clinical significance of the finding is unknown.

The agency also said it saw increases in anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression among patients taking Qnexa compared to placebo but said the overall incidence of such side effects were low. The agency noted, however, that four to seven times as many patients taking the highest dose of Qnexa dropped out of the study because of anxiety-, sleep-, or depression-related side effects.

The FDA's review of Qnexa and the advisory committee meeting are being watched carefully by other companies with obesity drugs in development. Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (ARNA) lorcaserin will face an FDA panel in September, and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.'s (OREX) Contrave is tentatively scheduled for a December panel review. The three drugs use different methods of damping appetite.

The other two stocks also rose Tuesday. Arena added 9.2% to $4.14, while Orexigen jumped 19% to $4.94.

The development of obesity compounds has been a tough area for companies since the fen-phen drug combination was taken off the U.S. market in 1997 after one of the medication's components was linked to heart-valve damage.

In 2007, an FDA panel unanimously rejected Sanofi Aventis SA's (SNY, SAN.FR) obesity drug Acomplia on concerns that the drug increased the number of psychiatric events, such as depression and suicidal thinking, among users. Sanofi later withdrew its application seeking FDA approval for the drug, and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Merck & Co. (MRK) scrapped plans in 2008 to continue developing similar drugs.

However, given that one-third of Americans are considered obese, companies successful at gaining FDA approval could tap a large market.

Qnexa is a controlled-release formulation that combines low doses of two older drugs: the stimulant phentermine, which cuts appetite, and topiramate, which increases the sense of feeling full. Topiramate is sold under the brand name Topamax by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to treat migraines and seizures.

Said the FDA: "Both drugs have reasonably well-established safety profiles because of their widespread use."

But because of the heart problems seen among patients taking fen-phen, the FDA looked at such side effects that might be attributed to phentermine and whether psychiatric side effects and birth defects potentially linked to topiramate would be seen among patients taken Qnexa. The agency noted that current evidence indicates the increased risk for heart-valve problems was attributable to fenfluramine and not to phentermine, one of Qnexa's components.

The FDA said heart palpitations were seen among 1.8% of Qnexa patients compared to 0.8% of patients taking a placebo. Patients taking Qnexa also experienced an increased heart rate. The agency said the clinical significance of the events "in terms of hard cardiovascular outcomes in the overweight and obese population is unknown."

The agency said it was concerned about a "large potential" for women to become pregnant while taking the drug as 34 pregnancies were seen in clinical trials despite instructions to use birth control and obtain a pregnancy test at each doctor visit. Of the 19 pregnancies carried to term, no birth defects were seen, although studies of topiramate in animals have shown it can cause birth defects.

Vivus is seeking a more relaxed birth-defects designation in its application, but FDA documents said the proposed labeling could be confusing to physicians and patients of child-bearing age. The FDA recommended that Qnexa be labeled as pregnancy category X, which means that the risk of using of the drug during pregnancy "clearly outweighs any possible benefit."

Two main clinical studies involving Qnexa were submitted to the FDA. The studies compared about 2,200 patients taking three doses of Qnexa to about 1,500 patients on a placebo, or fake drug, for 56 weeks.

The FDA said patients in the highest dose of Qnexa lost an average of 10.6% of their starting body weight, compared to an 8.6% loss for the middle-dose of Qnexa, 5.1% for the lowest dose and 1.7% for patients on placebo.”

Personal comment: My circle has no problem with obesity. Actually, with the calories we burn our problem is to keep our weight up healthily. I posted this article because we are seeing a lot of women coming into the clinic for help with weight reduction. And obesity and weight loss meds can decrease the effectiveness of hormonal birth control. In addition some weight-loss medications can cause birth defects. Weight loss can also decrease the effectiveness of cervical barrier methods of birth control because a woman’s reproductive anatomy changes with weight gain or loss. A diaphragm should be checked for correct size for every +/- 7 to 10 pounds of weight change and a cervical cap should be checked for every +/- 14 to 20 pounds of weight change. That’s why if a woman plans to lose a lot of weight our clinic recommends she use FC2 condoms until her weight stabilizes because they are safe, effective, aren’t weight sensitive and better tolerated by male partners.