If you happen to overhear a group of people walking around town talking incessantly about sex this week, don’t be too alarmed.

They could just be one of more than 1,000 sex therapists, sex researchers or sexologists (yes, that’s a real profession) who are congregating in Sydney from today for the five-day World Congress for Sexual Health.

It is the first time in 18 congresses that it has been held in the southern hemisphere, and experts from all over the globe are gathering in Australia to, well, talk about sex, baby.

Gay and lesbian sexuality is high on the list of things to be discussed, with talks on topics like “Embodying Gay Men’s Erotic Desires in Chat Room Cyberspace”, “Pleasure and Risk: Unsafe Sex and Crystal Methamphetamine Use Among Gay Men in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia” and “Do We Need The Identity Concept Any More? Lesbian and Gay Identity Formation in the Twenty-First Century”.

Prominent speakers at the Congress include gay advocate Rodney Croome and ex-New Zealand MP Georgina Beyer [pictured, above right], the first transsexual in the world to be elected to Parliament and as a Mayor.

The theme of the five-day meeting of the world’s foremost sexual researchers is “Achieving Health, Pleasure and Respect” and the conference runs at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour from today until Thursday April 19.