I have small genitals, no sex drive and can't smell... meet the men who didn't go through puberty because of this little-known syndrome that affects thousands
He has Kallmann syndrome – a condition where puberty is delayed or absent, due to a problem with the release of sex hormones. Those affected have small genitals and no sex drive; they also have a reduced or total loss of smell.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis' hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns
Plastics are a 'grave, growing and under-recognised danger' to human and planetary health, a new expert review has warned. The world is in a 'plastics crisis', it concluded, which is causing disease and death from infancy to old age and is responsible for at least $1.5tn (£1.1tn) a year in health-related damages. The driver of the crisis is a huge acceleration of plastic production, which has increased by more than 200 times since 1950 and is set to almost triple again to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060. While plastic has many important uses, the most rapid increase has been in the production of single-use plastics, such as drinks bottles and fast-food containers. As a result, plastic pollution has also soared, with 8bn tonnes now polluting the entire planet, the review said, from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest ocean trench. Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. Plastics endangered people and the planet at every stage, the review said, from the extraction of the fossil fuels they were made from, to production, use and disposal. This results in air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals and infiltration of the body with microplastics. Plastic pollution can even boost disease-carrying mosquitoes, as water captured in littered plastic provides good breeding sites. The review, published in the leading medical journal the Lancet, was released before the sixth and probably final round of negotiations between countries to agree a legally binding global plastics treaty to tackle the crisis. The talks have been dogged by a deep disagreement between more than 100 countries that back a cap on plastic production and petrostates such as Saudi Arabia that oppose the proposal. The Guardian recently revealed how petrostates and plastic industry lobbyists are derailing the negotiations. 'We know a great deal about the range and severity of the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution,' said Prof Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and epidemiologist at Boston College in the US, and lead author of the new report. He said it was imperative the plastics treaty included measures to protect human and planetary health. 'The impacts fall most heavily on vulnerable populations, especially infants and children,' he said. 'They result in huge economic costs to society. It is incumbent on us to act in response.' Petrostates and the plastics industry have argued the focus should be on recycling plastic, not cutting production. But, unlike paper, glass, steel and aluminium, chemically complex plastics cannot be readily recycled. The report said: 'It is now clear that the world cannot recycle its way out of the plastic pollution crisis.' More than 98% of plastics are made from fossil oil, gas and coal. The energy-intensive production process drives the climate crisis by releasing the equivalent of 2bn tonnes of CO2 a year – more than the emissions of Russia, the world's fourth biggest polluter. Plastic production also produces air pollution, while more than half of unmanaged plastic waste was burned in the open air, further increasing dirty air, the report noted. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion More than 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics, including fillers, dyes, flame retardants and stabilisers. Many plastic chemicals were linked to health effects at all stages of human life, the report said, but there was a lack of transparency about which chemicals were present in plastics. The analysis found that foetuses, infants and young children were highly susceptible to the harms associated with plastics, with exposure associated with increased risks of miscarriage, premature and stillbirth, birth defects, impaired lung growth, childhood cancer and fertility problems later in life. Plastic waste often breaks down into micro- and nano-plastics which enter the human body via water, food and breathing. The particles have been found in blood, brains, breast milk, placentas, semen and bone marrow. Their impact on human health is largely unknown as yet, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks and the researchers said a precautionary approach was needed. Plastic is often seen as a cheap material but the scientists argue it is expensive when the cost of health damages are included. One estimate of the health damage from just three plastic chemicals – PBDE, BPA and DEHP – in 38 countries was $1.5tn a year. The new analysis is the start of a series of reports that will regularly track the impact of plastics. Margaret Spring, a senior lawyer and one of the report's co-authors, said: 'The reports will offer decision-makers around the world a robust and independent data source to inform the development of effective policies addressing plastic pollution at all levels.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
DR MAX PEMBERTON: This is the REAL reason why there's been an explosion in cases of ADHD - and why we should all be scared of the consequences
As a doctor I'm often asked for my view on the soaring number of people seeking treatment for ADHD. Figures have trebled in the past decade and waiting lists for NHS assessments are so long it will take eight years to clear the backlog. To be blunt, yes, I do believe ADHD is being wildly overdiagnosed. I also worry that the surge in cases is starting to have a damaging impact on the day-to-day lives of everyone.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Gonorrhoea vaccine roll-out begins across the UK
Gonorrhoea vaccines will be widely available from today in sexual health clinics across the UK, in a bid to tackle record-breaking levels of jabs will first be offered to those at highest risk - mostly gay and bisexual men who have a history of multiple sexual partners or sexually transmitted England say the roll out is a world-first, and predict it could prevent as many as 100,000 cases, potentially saving the NHS almost £8m over the next Terrence Higgins Trust, who campaigned for the vaccine to be introduced in the UK, told the BBC it was "a huge win" for sexual health. Gonorrhoea is a bacterial infection that is transmitted through unprotected can include pain, unusual discharge, inflammation of the genitals and infertility, but in some cases it can have no symptoms at NHS says it can be avoided by the proper use of condoms and by accepting the vaccine if are becoming increasingly worried about the number of infections, and hope the vaccine, which is 30-40% effective, will also help slow the growing number of antibiotic-resistant vaccine, known as the 4CMenB vaccine, was designed for preventing meningitis B in babies, but the bacteria that causes the two diseases are so closely related that the jab is also effective against were more than 85,000 cases of gonorrhoea in 2023 - the highest since records began almost 100 years of those diagnosed was Joey Knock, who says the infection gave him diarrhoea, made him feel "wiped out" and led to him taking time off work to told BBC News: "I discussed it with my friends and I definitely had worse symptoms [than them] with it."I felt really bad, I couldn't keep food down and I just felt totally run down." Because he has many sexual partners, the 35-year-old decided to pay a private pharmacy for a course of gonorrhoea vaccinations in February 2024 before travelling abroad to a paid £220 and says he's glad he did it."It helps knowing that I'm taking control of my sexual health and doing what I can to stay safe and practise safer sex and be much less worried about the severity of the symptoms," he says he uses the protection the vaccine offers him alongside other methods of safer sex, including taking PrEP, a drug which helps prevent HIV, and DoxyPep - antibiotics taken after sex to prevent bacterial STIs, a treatment not widely available on the says he also occasionally uses condoms - but sees the vaccine as an extra tool to keep him safe in situations where he or his partner doesn't want to use being vaccinated, Joey has been re-infected with gonorrhoea but says the symptoms were much less told the BBC: "I've been able to get on with my day and it has just become something much more manageable, and getting tested regularly and knowing my body really helps too." Matthew, a 63-year-old from East Scotland, was diagnosed with gonorrhoea 10 years ago and had a reaction known as reactive arthritis - extreme pain in your joints caused by your body's reaction to an told the BBC that the experience, which has caused lasting damage to some of his fingers and toes, was so painful it's left him fearful of becoming re-infected and has impacted his mental says: "I'm constantly looking for symptoms and I'm constantly aware of it, and I feel a bit like I used to do in the 1980s when I was constantly fretting about HIV."I'd get some sort of cough and think 'oh my god, what's happening?'"He is hoping to be one of the first people to get a vaccine in order to give himself and his sexual partners more protection."You're not just protecting yourself, you're protecting your partners."I think it will also relieve some of the burden on sexual health services, it's getting difficult to get appointments so if it can work to reduce the incidence of STIs I think it's really worth it."Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, a leading sexual health charity, told the BBC the vaccine was a "remarkable addition to our toolkit on sexual health".Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS national director for primary care and community services, said it was important "everyone eligible takes up the offer through sexual health services" in order to "keep each other safe"."It's a real step forward for sexual health," she who may be eligible for the vaccine are being asked to contact their local sexual health clinic for more information.
