sex

It’s typically assumed that sex and gender are the same. They’re not. What's gender all about, then? What is the range of gender and gender identity, and how does gender impact our lives and how we live them?

Virginity, in and of itself, is a societal concept not a medical one. Certainly there used to be the thought that as long as a woman had a hymen, she was a virgin (and unfortunately some people still subscribe to this belief). However, a hymen is just thin, flexible folds of mucous tissue that...

It seems to me that you're dismissing the fact that your girlfriend may have her own sexual desires, too. Now, whether or not you're who she wants to explore them with, or whether or not she feels like it's the right time in your relationship to do that is something else, but if you two like each...

When someone asks me a sex readiness question, one of the big things I look for is that the onset of sex in a relationship is about more than one person mostly or solely initiating. In other words, I hear you telling me that he says you can stop if you want to, and that tells me he's probably the...

The technical term for "blue balls" is vasocongestion. It really isn't about balls at all, and it happens to people of all genders. Here's the deal: when any of us gets very sexually aroused, one thing that happens is that our whole pelvic area tends to fill with blood. That's how penises get...

We get a LOT of questions like this, every single day, and have for as long as we've been online. Here are just a few more recent ones: I have been with my boyfriend for the last three years, and just last May we had sex for the first time. I was a virgin, he was not. We have had sex on a few...

Not having sex shouldn't cause anyone to have a nervous breakdown. And if you feel like your mental health hinges on being sexually active with a partner, that's not a good thing -- or healthy for you or a relationship -- and something you'd want to address with a mental health professional. Mind...

You can certainly do your best to help keep your immune system doing it's job to fight off anything you may have been exposed to, just by taking sound care of yourself: eating right, getting enough activity and rest, limiting or avoiding substances that can tax the immune system like caffeine...

It's very typical for condom use to contribute to longer lasting erections. Because they do reduce sensation somewhat -- especially if you're not putting a little lube inside, or using the thinnest condoms -- and because the ring at the bottom of a condom also constricts the base of the penis, that...

In a lot of ways, people are like puzzle pieces, emotionally, intellectually and physically. Any two different pieces don't always fit together, or fit together in the same way. Not all of our bodies and genitals are made alike. With penises, for instance, you not only have differences in size, you...