The American Urological Associations Annual Meeting is upon us, 3rd - 6th May 2019 and will focus on new developments and advancements in the field of urology and sexual medicine research over the last year. The Editor-in-Chief of IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal, in the spirit of this important event, is pleased to showcase the work of many researchers in this field, which align with the critical themes of this exciting congress.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a highly prevalent and disturbing medical problem. It does not only affect the quality of sexual life- it has a much broader impact on males, affecting self-esteem, self- confidence, self-image of poor masculinity, and altogether decreases quality of life. Today, the field of ED is lacking a treatment modality that would have a perspective for restoring erectile function, and hopefully for curing ED. In this respect, Shock Wave therapy is certainly moving in the right direction and moving us forward in the search for a solution for ED. In this new special issue we offer a comprehensive look at the debatable topics discussed in the literature and provide new data that fills in many of the gaps.

See what scientists world-wide have been citing, reading and sharing. In this Web Collection we highlight a selection of articles from 2017 and 2018 which top the list of the journal's most cited, most read and most shared (including press coverage and Twitter). They showcase the breadth of scope and coverage that IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal consistently delivers to its readers.

Sexuality used to be a taboo in many cultures and people who suffer from sexual problems were embarrassed to report their sexual complaints to their physicians, most of whom were also embarrassed to discuss these issues with their patients. The launch of sildenafil (Viagra) in 1998 revolutionized our understanding on male sexual problems and men became more open to talk about their sexuality. On the other hand, female sexual disorders remain to be elusive and there are limited data on this topic due to the complex nature of female sexuality.

With its increasing prevalence in every continent diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common chronic disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Today, there is huge interest within the scientific community to ameliorate the complications caused by diabetes and its various treatments. Although, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney failure, retinopathy and peripheral neuropathy have been widely investigated, physicians also recognize that there are sexual problems prevalent in diabetic men and women. Unfortunately, some of the diabetologist still underestimate the sexual health issues of diabetic patients, which is associated with significant decrease in patients' quality of life. However, health care professionals must remember that for some having a good sexual performance and happy relationship is much more important than regulating their blood sugar or reducing their HbA1C levels.

At the European Society of Sexual Medicine (ESSM) annual meeting in November 2007, Eli Lilly and Company sponsored a symposium entitled ‘Cardiac sexology: can we save a patient's life and his love life?’ The aim of this meeting was not only to give participants valuable information about the etiologic links between erectile dysfunction (ED) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), but also to provide a glance into a future that I would like to call ‘Cardiac Sexology’ and how this might affect clinical practice.

This work was supported by a grant from Palatin Technologies, Inc.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, organized the very first conference on the association between sexual dysfunction and heart diseases, entitled 'Sex and the Heart', which was held April 23, 2005 at the Galveston Convention Center at the Texas gulf coast.

The Forum on Men's Health in ED is an initiative of the Spanish Association of Andrology (ASESA) in cooperation with the Spanish Association of Urology (AEU), and includes the participation of nine scientific societies, as well as the Madrid Official Association of Pharmacists.