Regardless of whether they continue, romantic relationships teach romantic competency

“Romantic competency”, a term Venus came across in her reading recently, is the skill required to develop healthy romantic relationships, and starts for most of us as teenagers. Working on the hypothesis that relationship skills would improve with exposure to more relationships, allowing individuals to build on their experiences over time, researchers conducted a qualitative, interview-based, longitudinal study involving over 400 American teenagers. For both those whose relationships endured and those whose relationships ended, all experiences resulted in learning important adult relationship skills. These included romantic agency (the ability to regulate emotionally intense experiences including conflict), coherence (the ability to integrate both positive and negative aspects of relationships) and social maturity.

J Adolesc Res 2017;32:155–182. doi: 10.1177/0743558415605166

PCOS sufferers are not at increased risk of sexual problems

Given that polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is associated with hormonal dysregulation, one might wonder whether women with the syndrome might also suffer sexual problems. A lack of suitable studies means we don't know much about sexual functioning in women with PCOS. However, a recent population-based study of 63 women with confirmed PCOS and 216 healthy controls showed no significant differences between …