Tag: sexual health

An interview with Dr Francois Fong, Hong Kong’s Sexual Health Practitioner

In the heart of Central, Hong Kong, hidden within its bustling financial district and high-end malls lies Hong Kong’s first specialised Sexual Health Centre, Neo-Health. Founded in 2007 by Dr. Francois Fong, Neo-Health today not only helps its patients deal with sexual health issues, it also provides executive health screening services with the opening of their Neo Health Screening and Specialist Centre in 2014. Housing an in-house laboratory service, they have not only been able to reduce testing times for their patients, but also provide increased privacy and confidentiality.

We’ve had the privilege to interview Neo-Health’s founder and Hong Kong’s first private sexual health practitioner, Dr. Francois Fong.

SimplySxy: Hi Dr Fong, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. It’s truly a privilege for us to hear about sexual health from someone like yourself. Please tell our readers more about yourself.

Dr Fong: My family moved to Melbourne when I was in high school and I completed my undergraduate training in both medicine and medical science at Monash University in Melbourne Australia. I was initially trained as a surgeon but I preferred more personal contact with patients, so I move changed my path in Family Medicine and sub-specialized in sexual medicine

SimplySxy: Tell us why did you decide to set up Neo Health and how did you find yourself becoming a sexual health practitioner and advocate?

Dr Fong: After training in family medicine which emphasizes on an whole person approach in caring for people physically, mentally and socially, I felt that sexual well being of patients is often neglected by medical profession and in particularly in Asia. In many cities in Australia, it is common to see sexual health clinics, such as Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and Sydney Sexual Health Centre. So I thought, Hong Kong being an international City should have a Hong Kong Sexual Health Centre.

However, I believe having a signage with “Sexual Health Centre” would still have stigma for people to feel comfortable to walk in the door. At the time, we did not know how well the service will be perceived and accepted. Neo-Health was set up as we had other services such as health screening, vaccination and family medicine, so people would not feel embarrassed when they enter our center.

SimplySxy: How has your patient demographic changed over time? What do you attribute this to?

Dr Fong: Initially, our patients were 90% expatriates and now roughly 50-50. We initially targeted the expat market as Western patients already have the concept of regular sexual health check-ups and have more positive attitudes in maintaining their sexual well being. Over time, the local patients are becoming more aware of sexual well being and finding us a comfortable place to have sexual health checkups without being worried about being stigmatized. Our emphasis on confidentiality and having our own laboratory played a very important part.

SimplySxy: You’ve lived in Melbourne for some time, what’s the difference culturally in terms of how your patients view sexual health?

Dr Fong: Western culture is more open in discussing sexual health issues and patients are more willing to talk about sexual problem with their doctors. In Hong Kong and many parts of Asia, patients are more reluctant. Sex educations also is conducted far better in Australia than in Hong Kong, such as how to practice safe sex. Today, I was talking with a patient from Australia who has just commented that in Hong Kong, he had come across people who believe that using Vaseline, message oil or even Olive oil as lubricant is ok.

SimplySxy: As you’ve mentioned before, sexual issues don’t just focus on the physical aspect, how is Neo- Health’s approach different?

Dr Fong: Many people believe being sexually healthy means they do not have sexually transmitted infection (STI) or HIV. However, we believe that sexual well being extends to their perception of sex, their own sexual identity as well as their interaction with their sexual partner. For example, many people we see with STI may be so because they have poor relationship (sexual or non-sexual) with their partners. So they may visit sex workers or engage in extra-marital relationship. Not until their relationship issue is addressed, the same behavioral pattern will repeat. When they have bad relationship with their partners, they feel guilty and miserable also. At Neo-Health, we have a team of international trained sex therapists, relationship counselors and psychologists to work on different aspects whether it is personal or couple issues.

SimplySxy: What are some of the most common sexual issues which you’ve encountered?

Dr Fong: We provides regular sexual health screening to patients, as well as managing common STIs such as chlamydia, herpes, genital warts. We also manage patients with HIV. We also manage other sexual issues such as erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, low sexual desire, sex addiction, etc.

SimplySxy: You’ve built Neo-Health into a World Class facility in a short span of time. What are some of the more advanced treatments that you provide?

Dr Fong: The key in providing patient care is to understand patient’s need. I think we have transformed patient care in some aspects. For example, many patients when they want to have a HIV test, they may already in a panic mode. Having to wait for 3 months to be able to have a HIV test is just ridiculous. We popularized the 4^thgeneration HIV test which has a window period of only 2 weeks. But when we send out samples to an outside laboratory, it may take 2 days for the report to come back and much of the time were lost in logistic time while the test only takes an hour to perform. So we decided to set up our own laboratory service with my background in medical science. Even a few years back, it took 2-3 weeks for patients to get confirmation for their HIV status. Now we can provide HIV viral load and CD4 result within hours. We were also one of the few places in Hong Kong that provide Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in Hong Kong for HIV prevention.

SimplySxy: What are your future plans for Neo-Health?

Dr Fong: We hope to continue to work with our partners such as NGOs or other organizations in promotion of sexual health as well as sex education. I have been conducting many lectures to doctors, pharmacists and nurses. It would be my vision to develop a medical specialty in sexual medicine in Hong Kong. For Neo-Health, it would be to expand on my vision that every city should have a sexual health centre like what we have now.

SimplySxy: As a sexual health practitioner, what are your biggest challenges?

Dr Fong: The most difficult part is to find partners with similar vision and personal characters. Sexual health practitioners have to be passionate, empathetic, non-judgmental and with very good communication skills. Skills can be trained but bed-side manner takes much longer to cultivate.

We’d ideally like to have some personal questions which Dr Fong can choose not to answer but we think that other than the professional side, it’s good to showcase a personal aspect to it as well.

SimplySxy: Have you had patients ask you to share your own experiences outside of the medical domain during treatment?

Dr Fong: I think during consultations, I do focus mainly on the patient’s problem. However, some gay patients did asked me whether I am a member because I seem to understand them so well.

SimplySxy: How does being a sexual health practitioner impact your own sex life?

Dr Fong: When we see patients, sometimes we do reflect on our own personal life and seeing others problems will help us to avoid pitfalls in our own life. I think it is good to understand these and to avoid one stumbling the same way and helping other to avoid troubles.

SimplySxy: Thank you very much Dr Fong for your time! Before we go, tell us, what’s sexy to you?

Dr Fong: Wet healthy looking figures.

Follow the sexy Dr Fong and Neo Health on:
Email: sexhealth@neohealth.com.hk
Contact: (852)3162 0001

Website: http://www.neohealth.com.hk/

Address: 21/F Li Dong Building, 9 Li Yuen Street East, Central, Hong Kong

Featured image courtesy of Neo Health

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June 30, 2015
A Little Goes A Long Way: Sexual Frustration and Haemorrhoids

What do you mean you didn’t know there was a connection? There is. Think about it. Think about where you feel sexual tension in your body—feel it—now think about where you feel tension releasing from in your body when you climax and now think about where in your body you can feel that build up … in your ass.

Many months ago I wrote an article called ‘Sexual Frustration Causes Haemorrhoids: Discuss’ on my blog that covered a very simple practice that you can do to re-circulate the energy associated with sexual frustration. Piles (haemorrhoids) are caused (energetically speaking) by stagnant sexual energy or ‘Chi’ as the Chinese call it. It stands to reason that if you circulate that energy this practice could, just could, help alleviate some of the symptoms associated with those grapey little suckers hanging down in an oh so unsexy fashion but wait … there’s a far more important point to this article … stay with me.

In Parts I, II and III of Masturbation: A Series on How to Get You Off we looked at new and intense ways to get to know yourself sexually by exploring your body in perhaps a fresh way. This builds sexual energy in the body. Just writing this to you now; I can feel it building. Can you feel it? Just by recalling those articles on masturbation I can feel it building, can you feel it?

Energy—whether sexual, physical, emotional etc—has to go somewhere. It must move in order to prevent stagnancy and to alleviate pressure. If our bodies start to swell, stiffen (no, not that kinda stiffening) or bruise then we know that something somewhere is stuck. So to get the most out of the previous articles (and to prevent/help symptoms* associated with piles) it really is best to work with me in getting into our bodies, ‘grounding’ ourselves even deeper into those bodies and, yes, doing some very important exercises to keep that energy moving which will … drum roll please … lead to better sex, more intense orgasms and an ‘earthier’ more complete climax.

So this maybe a little too practical for you and you might be thinking ‘God this is boring, I clicked onto SimplySxy for some titillating fun!’ but trust me on this one, it only takes a minute (or two, or three) and you really will feel the benefit if you keep this exercise up. In fact … for you men reading this, I can tell you how this exercise benefits me: it gives me stronger erections, helps me to last longer, intensifies my climax and gives me more control. Yeah … I thought that might get your attention. Ladies, I’m not a lady and don’t want to go making claims I can’t prove, you know, with the lawyers watching an’ all, but just humour me on this one and do feel free to report back … ready … steady … let’s go (some of what follows has been reproduced from my blog).

Firstly you need to know a little bit more about this sexual energy that I keep talking about. The sexual energy is housed within the perineum or ‘root Chakra’. We need this energy to circulate around the body freely, travelling up the spine, around the brain and down the arms, through the palms of the hands and so on.

This is needed in our everyday lives—not just when we are having sex.

You can probably feel it awakening now, reading this. You will most probably feel a tingle at the top of your head, a rush down your arms and maybe even a heat in your groin. This is your body responding to my words, the sexual energy resonating with the energy of my intentions as I share this information with you.

When the energy stops flowing and/or if there is a blockage preventing full movement of energy, this causes obvious sexual symptoms: loss of sexual appetite, impotence, dryness, frustration, premature ejaculation, inability to reach climax etc. It also causes a more physical build up of blood in the anus and rectum due to the lack of movement. The stagnant sexual energy has, quite simply, resulted in stagnancy in the blood circulation and this combined with vascular weakness/valve failure, causing piles (haemorrhoids).

The Solution:

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, knees softened, limbs relaxed. Imagine a chord pulling you upright (keeping knees soft) from the centre of your head. Relax your jaw and close your eyes.

Now curl your toes under as if digging them into the ground. Now ‘pull up’ your anus and perineum. If you cannot maintain this tension (eventually, with practice, you will) just keep squeezing and pulling up. This will feel like a ‘pumping’ sensation. To maintain the squeeze is preferable, but pumping will do.

Now you will probably feel a heat from your perineum/anus rising up the spine. This is the stagnant sexual energy and you are now waking this up, drawing it up the spine.

Can you feel that heat?

Now visualise that you are THROWING this up and out of the top of your head—DRAMATICALLY. Throw it up in the air and let it disappear. Keep that tension in your perineum/anus and keep bringing that energy up the spine and throwing it out of the top of your head.

Relax your toes but maintain the anal tension. Continue to throw the energy up and out.
Now relax everything but stay upright. That completes the practice, dead easy or what?

Now just to finish you off (pun intended):

VERY IMPORTANT—Ground Yourself: Stamp your feet, shout, scream (this releases energy, don’t ask, just humour me and do it) and then return to the initial knees-soft standing posture (without tensing your toes or anus) and visualise roots growing out of the soles of your feet. You might even want to go outside and do it or stand with your back against a tree and do it. If you are a wheelchair user, you can of course, do all the above in your own way and easily visualise growing roots out of the soles of your feet. You can back your wheelchair up against a tree, no problem.

The grounding after an exercise of this nature is important and also can be very helpful before and after masturbating. Try it and see what difference it makes. Put as much effort into your grounding practice as you did throwing the energy out of the top of your head.

We are now with this article and the series on masturbation, really getting to know how to work with our sexual energy. I ask this a lot and will continue to ask you: can you feel that heat?

Wonderful.

Matt xXx

Here’s to your intimate adventures…

*This article is written based on Matt’s personal and professional experiences and does not make any claim to be in replacement of treatment for Haemorrhoids or the symptoms of Haemorrhoids and makes no claims to improve sexual performance. NB Please seek medical advice before attempting the exercises mentioned in this article should you require this. Matt cannot be held responsible for any adverse effects experienced as a result of not taking this advice and this article is not to be used in replacement of medical, psychological or emotional treatment.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock
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January 22, 2015
Why 1 In 3 Men Cannot Control Ejaculation

A man may lose control over his own normal ejaculation for various reasons. Therefore, when this control is lost, the only way to get it back is with patience and certain ways to treat in a very positive way.

Are Ejaculation Issues Mind Over Matter In Reality?

The mind can indeed become a big problem where ejaculation issues are concerned. This is because it does have a tendency to create them very effectively. However, just as effectively as it can create them, the mind can destroy them. So, with this said, in essence mind over matter does matter where ejaculation issues are the focus. However, if a man has an ejaculation issue, it won’t really matter much when he does climax. Therefore, he should stimulate his partner to the very brink of orgasm at the very same time he feels he is ready to climax himself. Then it is matter over mind.

What Are Some Common Psychological Causes For ED?

Some of the most apparent of all common psychological causes for erectile dysfunction (ED) are as follows. These psychological causes can range from the lack of overall attractiveness to a partner to certain religious beliefs that having sex is very sinful to traumatic events. These traumatic events can include having a partner cheat on them to having illicit sex to discovering that they have been masturbating in secret and it is brought to attention by someone. There are also some factors where anger towards a partner can be involved and this brings it on.

What Are Some Common Ejaculation Problems?

Some very common ejaculation problems do include premature ejaculation, retrograde ejaculation, and delayed ejaculation. Each one of these ejaculation issues is not identical in nature. They all have their own individual symptoms and so forth. Therefore, with this said, just like there are numerous causes for these issues, there are also numerous forms of these problems at the end of the day.

What Causes Delayed Ejaculation?

There are lots of varying reasons why a man gets delayed ejaculation. Some of these reasons can be due to taking anti-depressants for depression to you name it. Another reason is a man’s advancing age. A good deal of time, the nerve endings on the penis do become less sensitive with physical age. A man’s erection ability is another thing that can go down physically with age too.

Does Masturbation With Ejaculation Issues?

A man can have a strong hand in his own delayed ejaculation problem. How can he do this? He just needs to do some very good masturbation with his hand on his penis. A masturbation technique that has lots of very real pressure, friction, and intense speed can do wonders for a stimulation like no other. Men can physically train themselves to pleasure themselves to such a level of top stimulation that even what a partner can provide them with falls on the average. Therefore, masturbation is indeed a good thing, and it can help a man’s ejaculation in a major physical way that is also therapeutic in delivery. Masturbation is something that can also teach a man to control his own level of arousal. This is a working essential if a man is trying to delay orgasms for himself.

What Are Some Other Ways To Treat Premature Ejaculation?

A technique that is very time honored and popular is no other than the distract yourself technique. You should distract yourself from having an orgasm by focusing on something that is either very boring or disgusting to you in description. This will help to halt your want to have an orgasm in a very big way. This is something that may prove to work for some men. However, for others it can distract them away from their partner, and also, from the sexual experience that is trying to take place.

Just because a man has issues with control over his own ejaculation, it doesn’t mean it is the end of the world for him sexually overall. If anything, it is quite the reverse, there is hope to regain control of male ejaculation with just the right form of treatment. However, he himself needs to determine what that specific treatment is and apply it to the root cause.

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October 6, 2014
Stocking Your Personal Sexual Kitchen

Most people these days are working or/and taking the kids to this or that. It seems at the end of the day you might be doing all you can, just to get dinner on the table, before you grab a bath and fall into bed. Sometimes the time for a sexual encounter with your partner doesn’t become an opportunity until the weekend, and for some, that becomes a rushed experience. The reasons ‘why not to’ can become longer than the shopping list for stocking your kitchen for the week. Why is that? Isn’t your sexual health as important as your physical health? If it isn’t, why not?

I have talked to some of my friends about their personal sexual kitchens, and their responses made good sense. However, there are other factors to consider. One friend, a nurse, raising two children just has enough time to get home and have her children taken care of before she is too tired to crawl into bed herself. Working twelve-hour shifts can really take a lot out of you. There also comes meeting the needs of children and a partner who works eight-hour shifts. Just subtle differences in a schedule can cause a little too much for one person, and not enough for another. I understand her situation, and that both want to get the kids to bed and get to sleep as quickly as they can before the alarm goes off. Staying up late can lead to a slow and sleepy day at work, but so can a restless night of tossing and turning. Why not take advantage of the body’s natural spice, oxytocin. This is a powerful hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It increases in response to affection, and released after climax. It provides such a feeling of intense relaxation, it can make you drift off to sleep faster than you normally would. No sense in using melatonin or another supplement, when your body has its own natural kitchen of spice just waiting to be used.

Maybe getting to sleep is not your problem? Every situation is different, as with another friend of mine who is raising her two young children between the deployments of her Army husband. You would think this couple would have no problems. However, both children alternate being sick from one week to another. She is a business owner, a mother of two sick children, a daughter of a mother who is fighting cancer, and the wife of an absentee husband. When he is home, what better stress reliever than sex. You would think she would need the intimacy and the health benefits herself. Health benefits? That’s right, being sexually active contributes to lowering your blood pressure. This girl stays stressed out; so what if this sounds like you? Treat yourself to the spice of hypotension for good health, and less stress.

Not every situation is the same, as none of my friends are. My friend Marybelle works twenty-four hour shifts. She also has a daughter. Between work and obligations as a mother and such, she still makes time to get to the gym. There’s date night as well. She never has any complaints from her partner about their sex life, nor from her, or her doctor. Her doctor? Going to the gym is a regular thing for Marybelle. She does it to look and feel good, and regular exercise is proven to benefit your health in many ways. For her, it means a healthy heart, lower stress levels and a higher libido. For her partner, it means a longer life with her, a smile on her face and nights where she will take advantage of burning those extra calories in the bedroom. Did you know that burning the midnight oil for sex, burns calories as well? So don’t feel bad if you didn’t make it to the gym today, because you had to run by the store and stock the fridge. Get to bed a little early and burn those calories.

You probably have great sexual health, and a happy partner to boot. It is just occasionally you have had a bad day, or a long day. On those days, you just don’t feel like it. You tell your partner, not tonight. Sometimes they understand, and sometimes the drama becomes so bad, you think it would have been easier to just have said, “Oh, alright, just make it quick.” We’ve all been there. These are the times when you should remember our title: Stocking Your Personal Sexual Kitchen. The body is filled with so many wonderful chemicals, or as I call them, the spices of life. There are endorphins like oxytocin, a neurotransmitter in the brain stimulated to release by affection. Serotonin is a hormone found in multiple places of the body. It is found in the pineal gland in the center of the brain, the central nervous system, blood platelets, and the digestive tract. It is a neurotransmitter that reduces your appetite, your sexual behavior and it suppresses the way you perceive pain. Prolactin is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland and is vital for regulation of the immune system. All of these chemicals are contained in semen, and are absorbed through the tissues of the vaginal walls. You may not feel like it before, but afterwards, you will feel so much better, and you will be glad you did.

As I said, I know every situation is different. I know for some people, sexual health takes a back seat to physical health. For both parties, this is a real setback. When a person suffers from a chronic illness, sometimes pain from that illness can destroy sexual health. For the partner, it seems this part of their life is over. However, I ran across some very valuable information on boosting the immune system. It just so happens, that studies from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania says individuals who have sex once or twice a week show 30 percent higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A.[i] What a wonderful way to boost your immune system!

Who knew that physical health was so positively affected by sexual activity? Now that we do know, when you sit down to make out that shopping list, which type do you stock on those fruits and vegetables for the week? Add some strawberries, some mushrooms, maybe some whipped cream from the dairy section or oysters from the seafood department. Whatever aphrodisiacs you like, add them to you kitchen list. Stock you sexual kitchen for the week as well, and get some spice back in your life, and in your bedroom.

[i] Sex Does the Body Good: Regular Romps Can Provide a Host of Physiological Benefits. (2006, December 19). Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2014, from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16282622/ns/health-forbes_com/t/sex-does-body-good/#.UwlDi4Wtx8s

March 17, 2014