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Everyone who lives with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) knows their illness has a major impact on daily life. Many people are diagnosed in their 20s or 30s, a time when we might hope for few health challenges.
Medications, and sometimes surgery, may be used to treat IBD. If you identify as LGBTQ+, you might wonder how all of this may affect you — your physical health, of course, but also your sexual health and pleasure. Below are a few things to understand and consider.
What is inflammatory bowel disease?
IBD is a condition that causes inflammation along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The two main types are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis:
IBD can cause diarrhea, bloody stool, weight loss, and abdominal pain, and is typically diagnosed with blood and stool tests, imaging, and colonoscopy. A diagnosis of IBD may increase the risk of developing anxiety or depression, and can also have an impact on sexual health. People with IBD may require long-term medical treatment or surgery for their condition.
The starting point: Talking to your doctor
Talking to your medical team about IBD and sexual health may not be easy. This may depend on how comfortable you feel disclosing your LGBTQ+ identity with your health care providers. Ideally, you should feel comfortable discussing sexuality with your medical team, including what types of sexual partners and activities you participate in and how IBD may affect this part of your life.
Be aware that health care providers may not be able to address all LGBTQ+-specific concerns. Optimal care for people with IBD who identify as LGBTQ+ is not fully understood. However, this is an active area of research.
How might medicines for IBD affect sexual health?
Many effective IBD medications subdue the immune system to decrease inflammation. These immunosuppressive medicines may raise your risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV, chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea.
What you can do: Discuss these concerns with your doctor so you can take appropriate protective measures. This might include:
How might surgery for IBD affect sexual health?
For some people with IBD, gut inflammation is severe enough to require surgery to remove part of the intestine. For example:
What you can do: Discuss your concerns with your gastroenterologist and colorectal surgeon.
If you engage in anal sex, you may be confused about whether it is safe to do so. While you may feel uncomfortable discussing this concern and others with your doctor, try to be as honest and open as you can. That way, you'll receive the best information on how to engage in safe and enjoyable sex after an IBD diagnosis or surgery.
What else to consider if you are transgender
People with IBD who are transgender may have additional concerns to address.
For example, there may be a risk for sexual side effects from gender-affirming surgery. These procedures may include vaginoplasty (surgical creation of a vagina) for transgender females, or phalloplasty (surgical creation of a penis) for transgender males. The safety of these procedures in people with IBD is not currently well understood.
What you can do: If you identify as transgender, ask your doctor if any gender-affirming surgeries you've had or medicines you take, such as hormones, might affect your IBD, recommended treatments, or sexual health.
If you're considering gender-affirming surgery, discuss your options with your medical team. Be aware that gender-affirming surgery may be more challenging, or may not be advisable, for people with complex or active IBD. It's important to discuss your specific risks with your doctor when pursuing gender-affirming care. Having access to a team of physicians, including a surgeon and a gastroenterologist, may improve outcomes.
The bottom line
Try to talk to your gastroenterologist about how your sexual practices and gender identity may affect — and be affected by — your IBD. A conversation like this may feel uncomfortable, but being candid about your symptoms and concerns will help you receive the best possible care.
Often, a multidisciplinary approach to care is helpful. Your health care providers, including your gastroenterologist and surgeon, may suggest seeing additional specialists.
Much remains unknown about sexual health and practices in LGBTQ+ people with IBD. While more research is needed, open communication on the impact of medications, surgery, and other aspects of living with IBD can do a lot to improve your quality of life.
Source: Harvard Health Publishing
What You Need To Know Ahead Of Broadcom's Earnings Report
Broadcom (AVGO) is Set To Repo...
Investopedia
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Broadcom (AVGO) is set to report earnings for the third quarter of 2024 after the closing bell on Thursday with artificial intelligence (AI) likely to take center stage.
Investors will watch for updates on the company's quarterly AI-related sales and outlook as well as a potential announcement about ChatGPT maker OpenAI becoming a new custom AI chip customer.
Analysts expect revenue to come in at $13.04 billion, up from $8.88 billion in the year-ago period, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Net income is projected to be $2.94 billion, down from a year earlier, when earnings were $3.3 billion. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) is expected to fall. The company this summer split its stock 10-for-1 stock.
Broadcom has benefited from the AI boom through offerings including custom AI chips for tech giants. Analysts expect the company's AI sales to grow to $3.25 billion, per consensus estimates compiled by Visible Alpha, more than triple the year-ago period, and representing sequential growth.
UBS analysts earlier this week identified Broadcom's AI-related segments, as well as the integration of VMware, a software firm that Broadcom acquired last year, "as the primary drivers of sequential growth."
Broadcom could lift its AI-related full-year revenue outlook. Last quarter, the company increased its outlook for the year to $11 billion from $10 billion, a figure that seems conservative given the analyst estimates for the third quarter.
Citi analysts said Thursday that they believe that Broadcom has secured Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI as a new AI custom chip customer and could announce the deal in its earnings report.
Broadcom has claimed its position in the AI space by helping Big Tech companies create custom chips to run AI workloads. Broadcom designs such chips for companies including Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google, Meta Platforms (META), and TikTok owner ByteDance.
Broadcom shares finished today up nearly 4%. The shares are up more than 40% this year through Friday's close.
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Instablog9ja
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Reality TV star Tacha Akide has left tongues wagging on social media after leaving a comment on rival and colleague, Mercy Eke‘s recent post.
Instablog9ja
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Andrew Wynne, a British national who was wanted by the Nigeria police for allegedly plotting to overthrow the President Bola Tinubu-led government, has broken his silence.
Speaking on Monday, September 2, in a statement titled “Protests, not treason,” he said: “The mass protests over #EndBadGovernance and #EndHunger frightened the government. However, the government turned to repression rather than addressing the people’s demands. Perhaps 40 people were m+rdered by the police and other security forces, thousands were arrested, and many remain in captivity.
In Abuja, the authorities have att@cked the so-called leaders and organisers of the protests. Ten people face ridiculous charges including treason, mutiny and levying war against the state.
The first person to be arrested in this case was Eleojo Opaluwa. He is a former colleague of Joe Ajaero, who works for NUEE, the electricians’ union, as an organiser in Abuja.
He is also the Vice Chair of the NLC in Kogi State. He has now been detained for over four weeks with no tangible evidence. His family was told that he had received a WhatsApp message from one of the other alleged leaders. This was after Eleojo had been detained.
The ten detainees have been accused of conspiracy to commit a range of serious crimes. However, they barely know each other. Five of them may have been members of a WhatsApp group set up to organise the protests in Abuja. [SWIPE]
Instablog9ja
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The Nigeria Police Force on Monday, September 2, declared a British national identified as Andrew Wynne, aka Andrew Povich or Drew Povey, wanted for allegedly plotting to overthrow the President Bola Tinubu-led government.
The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Muyuwa Adejobi in a statement said: “Following extensive intelligence gathering and collaboration with other security agencies, nine suspects have been apprehended, who received substantial financial backing from foreign sources to destabilize the country.
Preliminary findings suggest they orchestrated and funded vi%lent protests, disseminated false information, and engaged in other unlawful activities to create anarchy and justify their illegal plot to overthrow the democratically elected government.
Investigations have identified a foreign mercenary, Andrew Wynne (also known as Andrew Povich or Drew Povey), a British national, who built a network of sleeper cells to topple the government and plunge the nation into chaos.
He rented a space at Labour House, Abuja, for an ‘Iva Valley Bookshop’ and established ‘STARS of Nations Schools’ as a cover for his subversive activities.
Documentary evidence and confessions revealed that Andrew Wynne issued directives, monitored progress, and provided finance and operational guidance to achieve unconstitutional regime change in Nigeria.
He mobilized and deployed several billions of naira to his Nigerian collaborators, urging them to mobilize the public to vi%lently storm police facilities and military barracks, anticipating a bloodbath that would instigate international cond+mnation of the Nigerian government. [SWIPE]
Investopedia
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U.S. stocks advanced on Friday, capping off one of the most volatile stretches of trading in years.
The S&P 500 gained more than 2% in August and finished the month less than 0.5% below its record close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced more than 1% and the Nasdaq ticked up 0.7%. The indexes' gains represent a stunning rebound from turbulence earlier in the month.
Though, while stocks closed out August in the black, it was a bumpy ride to the end of the month and, under the hood, a lot has changed.
August got off to a shaky start, to say the least. The major indexes tumbled as soft manufacturing and jobs data raised concerns that the Federal Reserve had waited too long to start cutting rates and risked nudging the economy into recession. At the same time, a surprise rate hike from the Bank of Japan sparked the rapid unwinding of the yen carry trade, adding fuel to the U.S. equities sell-off. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) spiked to a 4-year high, and the S&P 500 shed more than 6% of its value, or nearly $3 trillion, in the month’s first three trading days alone.
Then, seemingly in the blink of an eye, the tide turned and stocks had their best week of the year as labor market concerns subsided and Wall Street mulled earnings reports, which showed corporate profits grew in the second quarter at their fastest rate since 2021.
But August's rally looked very different than what came before it. The Magnificent Seven, which led the market for most of the last year and a half, have failed to fully recover from their longest slump in years. Meanwhile, Consumer Staples, Real Estate, and Healthcare were, in that order, the S&P 500’s best-performing sectors in August as investors, anticipating interest rate cuts, flocked to rate-sensitive stocks and dividend payers.
September is historically a difficult month for stocks. Though past performance is no guarantee of future returns, and there are plenty of events coming up that could give stocks a boost.
Apple (AAPL) is expected to unveil the iPhone 16, equipped with its newest operating system capable of running generative AI, on September 9. And Wall Street is nearly guaranteed to get its long-awaited interest rate cuts when the Federal Reserve concludes its next policy meeting on September 18.
The question on everyone’s mind heading into that meeting will be how aggressively the Fed cuts interest rates. Fed funds futures trading data put the odds of a half percentage point cut at 30.5% on Friday morning, up significantly from about 13% a month ago. Though, Wall Street thinks the most likely outcome is a smaller quarter-point cut.
Along the way, Wall Street will parse August inflation data, due September 11, and the August jobs report on the 6th. Both will figure into the Fed's deliberations as it seeks to maintain progress on inflation without suffocating the labor market.
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