Tea breaks with colleagues more appealing than time with spouse?

Tea breaks with a colleague may sometimes sound more appealing than spending time with your spouse, but it may be at the cost of your relationship. Couples are "seriously jeopardising" their relationships by putting work ahead of their personal lives, a new report has found.

In a survey of 1000 workers conducted by researchers in Scotland, almost half admitted they put more time and effort into their relationships with office colleagues than with their partners.

The "critical hour" between finishing work and having dinner the most significant bonding times between couples. But it threatened since socialising with workmates can appear more attractive.

Dr. Roger Henderson, the report's author, said, "Be aware that this is a sacrifice of vital relationship-building time at home. You may regard your personal relationship as solid, but personal relationships need constant nurturing, so make sure you show the same concern at home."

That's headache: Some women are allergic to sex

Wuile a lot of women may feign headaches to avoid sex, some may just be allergic to the act, a study claims. But doctors are finding how women can overcome this allergy through regular sex, with treatments derived from semen, reports LiveScience.

"It's really a very rare condition, but it does happen," allergist and immunologist David Resnick at New York Presbyterian Hospital said. Semen allergy symptoms can include itching, burning and swelling in the genitals.

In the most severe cases, hives or swelling might appear elsewhere on the body and the woman might experience difficulty breathing.

"Typically symptoms occur within 30 minutes of intercourse, but in rare cases it may be hours or even days later," Resnick explained.

One study from the University of Cincinnati of 1,073 women who sought information on semen allergy concerning their symptoms found 130 had the allergy. In some women, the reaction occurs only with one partner while others are allergic to all partners.

Women are not in all cases allergic to semen itself, but to chemicals in the semen from food, beverages or medications the man has had, ranging from pencillin to compounds in walnuts.

However, "this is rare, even more than semen allergy, itself," Resnick said.

Resnick said about half of all women with semen allergy have other allergies as well. Most women with the allergy are between age 20 and 30, and 41% experience symptoms the first time they have sex. "In most cases, symptoms gradually worsen and occur sooner with subsequent exposures," ha said.

Shy Guys are Attractive to Women

Roguishness may have a certain appeal and charisma but when it comes to getting the girl, nice guys really do finish first. Scientists have shown that nice guys, often dismissed as being wimps, shy and lacking in excitement, are actually more attractive to women than macho men.

Psychologist and professor Mark Van Vugt set up a series of experiments designes to test the pros and cons of being nice. Volunteers were given a fictional sum of money and asked to make donations. Some contributions were made public, while others were kept confidential. Members of the group were also asked what they thought of the others and to rate them in terms of status and leadership potential.

The results showed that people gave away more money when their donations were made public. He believes that while the selfless may lose out in the short term, using up time, energy and even money, to help others works in the long run.

This is because their kindness raises them in others' estimations, giving them a higher social status and more opportunities - both in work and in love.

Mood moments: Women aroused as quickly as men

Here's another chapter in the battle of the sexes. Infrared cameras reveal that women become aroused as quickly as men.

In previous research, sexual arousal was generally detected with instruments that require genital contact and manipulation. One might argue that can spoil the mood.

Thermal imaging technology, which uses cameras that detect heat given off by different objects, is a relatively non-invasive way of measuring the time it takes a person to reach peak arousal.

So researchers focused the cameras on the genitals of test subjects while the subjects watched footage of pornography, travel shows and horror clips. This provided measurements of heat from both the sexually aroused and from whatever arousal or lack of it was spurred by the other programming.

"Comparing sexual arousal between men and women, we see that there is no difference in the amount of time it takes healthy young men and women to reach peak arousal," said Irv Binik, a McGill University psychology professor and founder and director of the Sex and Couple Therapy Service of Royal Victoria Hospital.

Binik and colleagues were able to detect temperature changes to within l00th of a degree. Both women and men started showing arousal within 30 seconds. Men reached peak arousal in about 665 seconds, while it took the women 743 seconds, a difference that researchers say is statistically negligible. The researchers hope that this knowledge will help diagnose and treat sexual dysfunction in women.

The findings will be published in the January issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine. While the battle for equality between genders has always been on, this new finding may just put some old myths at rest and add another feather in the cap of feminists. However, the men may not mind this one.