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Many older men find that they ejaculate less forcibly, the premonition that they are about to reach orgasm is less strong, and it takes longer for them to become sexually aroused again. These changes are normal consequences of growing old and should not cause concern.

Of course, sexual problems can arise in old age, as they can at any other age. The problems are least when you and your partner both enjoy sex and both have the same interest in sex. The problems may become marked if your partner dies and you are left alone and lonely. Society (and family) is censorious of older people who form new relationships, particularly if there is a disparity between the ages of the partners, and especially if a man wishes to remarry. The obstruction by middle-aged children may be praiseworthy, as your partner may be unsuitable, or may be due to their own selfishness as they fear you will change your will, or you (and they) will be mocked by friends and neighbours.

Discuss your relationship with them, but in the end make up your own mind; they do not own you, and your happiness is important.

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To send a homosexual to prison is, in the words of Dr Stanley Jones, ‘as futile from the point of view of treatment as to hope to rehabilitate an alcoholic by giving him occupational therapy in a brewery’.

The question must arise: is homosexuality a pathological condition which needs treatment? And if it is, does treatment do any

The answer to the first question is a matter of belief obscured by emotion, rather than a rational decision made upon unequivocal evidence. It will be clear by now that I do not believe homosexuality to be either a sin or a pathology. But many people do and, true to their belief, contend that homosexuals must be treated. Even if ‘cure’ – that is, a turn to a heterosexual erotic attachment – is uncertain, they believe that the treatment may help those tortured by neurotic reactions of guilt, depression, and anxiety, or at least may make the man a better-adjusted homosexual. With this latter view there can be no argument, although it seems that a homosexual’s maladjustment is as much due to societal attitudes to homosexuality as to his own psychological disturbance.

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Gonorrhoea is an acute infection of the genito-urinary tract, and is almost always spread from person to person by sexual intercourse. In very rare cases it is spread by other methods. It can, for example, be spread from an infected mother to the eyes of her infant during childbirth.

The organism which causes gonorrhoea is a small bean-shaped germ called Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonococcus), which is transferred from the urethra or from the entrance to the womb (the cervix) of an infected woman to the urethra of the man who is having sexual intercourse with her. If the man is homosexual it can be transferred during anal intercourse. Occasionally if the throat of the man’s partner is infected with gonorrhoea, he may be infected during fellatio.

The most reliably reported study of the treatment of premature ejaculation is that of Dr Masters and Dr Johnson in St. Louis. In the past fourteen years they have treated over 200 couples whose main sexual problem was that of premature ejaculation, with only four failures.

The programme initiated by Masters and Johnson at the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation is fairly complex. They believe that as most forms of sexual dysfunction are learned (because of anxiety-provoking sexual experiences), they can be unlearned, and a new and better sexuality, more harmonious and pleasure-giving, can replace the older sexual dysfunction. They are convinced that sexual dysfunction is a problem to be solved by the couple and that it can never be solved by treating only one partner. They are certain that in all sexual problems there is no uninvolved partner. For cure, both partners need to be involved. They believe additionally that, particularly in sexual dysfunction in the male, fear of inadequate sexual performance is not only a threat to his psyche but to his masculinity. Men with premature ejaculation fear that their performance is inadequate compared with that of other men, and that they are ‘lousy lovers’. Masters and Johnson also believe that communication on sexual matters between the partners is essential. This communication is both verbal and non-verbal.

Once the investigation has established when ovulation is due, the woman goes to the doctor. He has some donor’s semen available, which has either been produced within the preceding two hours by masturbation, or has been donated earlier and has been ‘snap frozen’. Rather more pregnancies follow insemination with fresh semen, but the organizational problems are greater.

The doctor takes the donor’s semen and injects it gently with a syringe into the woman’s upper vagina and over her cervix. The woman lies on her back for about thirty minutes and then goes home. The procedure is repeated the next day or the day after that.

About 60 to 65 per cent of women inseminated in this way become pregnant if the method is used over six ovulation times.

The organization of an A.I .D. programme is the problem. Ideally the donor, who provides his semen, should resemble the husband to some extent. This is understandable. A tall, blond Scandinavian man married to a similar woman might be disconcerted if the donor was a short, dark Southern European and the child resembled the donor rather than the mother. For this reason a well-organized Donor Insemination Service has to have a large panel of donors, one or more of whom has physical characteristics which can be matched as closely as possible with those of the husband. A donor should be removed from the list when his sperm has produced six pregnancies, to avoid the possibility, however remote, of his progeny mating.

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