
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993                   TAG: 9308220028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TORONTO                                LENGTH: Short

MASTERS AND JOHNSON PLAN SEX HOT LINE

The Masters and Johnson Institute plans to open a 24-hour hot line to dispense information about sex, one of its founders said Saturday.

"We're going to try to get basic sex education to the public," said pioneering sex researcher Dr. William Masters. "It's going to be, I hope, a tremendous service."

The institute, based in St. Louis, has started training professionals to take calls on a nationwide 900 number, perhaps starting in mid-October, he said.

The hot line will not offer therapy, Masters said. But he said just providing information should help.

"So much of sexual disorder and dysfunction is on the basis of ignorance," he said. "So much of the dysfunction can be reversed with adequate knowledge."

Masters, 77, and Virginia Johnson, 68, divorced in March after 22 years of marriage. They continue to operate the institute together.

by CNB