This is not about sex

A potentially life-saving vaccine against cervical cancer could be offered to all girls in their first year of secondary school. So will people please stop claiming that it's a green light to underage intercourse, says Kira Cochrane.

These medical moralisers might as well try banning sex

David Edgar: Denying surgery to drinkers and smokers goes against the ethos of the NHS: to provide care on the basis of need.

Sex change doctor guilty of misconduct

UK's best-known expert on transsexualism is found guilty of serious professional misconduct for rushing five patients into sex-changing treatments, but avoids being struck off.

Mistaken identity

On Monday, psychiatrist Russell Reid was censured for improperly authorising five sex changes. Claudia, whom Reid approved for gender reassignment 20 years ago, tells Julie Bindel how she was rushed into the operation - and quickly came to regret it.

Top sex change doctor faces damages claim

The UK's top expert on transsexualism is facing a possible multimillion pound claim for damages from six of his former patients who allege he provided them with 'rushed and negligent treatment'.

NHS patients denied dignity, says watchdog

· Scores of trusts failing to meet basic standards· Mixed-sex bathrooms still in widespread use

Hewitt admits failure on mixed-sex wards pledge

The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, admitted yesterday that thousands of NHS patients were being caused 'great distress' by the government's failure to honour its 1997 manifesto commitment to eliminate mixed-sex wards in England.

Mixed feelings

A spell in a hospital in England is likely to mean being placed on a ward with people of the opposite sex. But in Europe and the US this would be unthinkable. Joanna Lyall reports on a pledge the government has yet to keep.

What’s wrong with Gillian McKeith

For years, 'Dr' Gillian McKeith has used her title to sell TV shows, diet books and herbal sex pills. Now the Advertising Standards Authority has stepped in. Yet the real problem is not what she calls herself, but the mumbo-jumbo she dresses up as scientific fact, says Ben Goldacre.

Betrayal: the sex-hungry doctors who prey on patients

The doctor-patient relationship is built on trust. But for thousands of women it can turn into one of abuse. Now the government is to take action to end their misery.

My lifelong desire

Nick Wallis is 22 and has a life-limiting condition. With no girlfriend on the horizon, he feared he would never enjoy a full relationship. Here, he tells why he decided that the only way to experience sex was to pay for it ...

Better than sex – IVF clinic claims to beat nature at its own game

· Treatment has 30% success in target group· Risk reduced by avoiding heavy doses of hormones