You may have recently seen news articles about extreme grooming of pubic hair not being linked to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a teen who went blind from eating only junk food, and a hybrid Mediterranean-keto diet's effects on the gut microbiome of patients with Alzheimer's. Here's why you didn't see them on Medscape Medical News.
"Extreme Grooming" Not Linked to STIs
Back in 2016, a study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, made headlines with the finding that self-reported STIs were more common among people who reported "extreme grooming" — removing all pubic hair more than 11 times in 1 year — in a survey of more than 7500 Americans. Researchers at the Ohio State University, in Columbus, this week say otherwise. In their study of nearly 250 women who sought STI testing and completed questionnaires, they found no association between extreme grooming — defined as removing all pubic hair at least weekly in the past year or at least six times in the past 30 days — and chlamydia or gonorrhea infections.
It's great to see researchers and journals publishing and media outlets covering negative trials. And this study has some advantages over previous ones, such as confirming STIs with a test rather than relying on participant reports.
