Paging Dr. Gupta

In recent months, my mother has become enamored with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the charismatic associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. His accomplishments are numerous and I could not possibly list all of them (you can read about him in detail here!) but I'm quite sure my mother, as well as most of America, knows Dr. Gupta as CNN's chief medical correspondent.

I learned of my mother's growing admiration for Dr. Gupta when one day, out of the blue, she sent me an e-mail with no message, no context, just a single long link:

BPA may reduce sperm count

Allow me to reiterate the fact that this email was just a solitary link. No message explaining her thoughts, no words listing her worries, just a link. I found it very bizarre, but knowing my worry-wart mother it seemed like her usual behavior. I decided to ignore it and move on with my life. Little did I know that Dr. Gupta would soon give my mother something else to worry about. Not too long afterwards, I received another e-mail in my inbox with no message, no context, just another long link.

Men and sex: Survival of the quickest

Now I became alarmed, not because of the content of my mother's links (in fact, the article on premature ejaculation would probably be very reassuring for any gentlemen out there who may have had to deal with the issue) nor because of the frequency of her worries, but rather the recurring theme of her worries. My mother seemed to be very worried about my sex life or more specifically, my penis. This time I was unwilling to let the matter rest.

Me: Why did you send this to me?

Mom: Oh you know, I'm just worried about your health.

Me: ... Worried about a specific aspect of my health for any specific reasons?

Mom: Oh, I just saw these articles and I became worried.

The conversation was hardly enlightening, but I have never once talked to my parents about relationships, dating, or sex and I wasn't about to start now so I decided not to pursue the conversation any further. I thought that mother would be too awkward to approach the topic again, but I thought wrong.

FDA warns consumers to avoid sexual enhancement pills 

Mother, is there something that you're worried about?