sexual response

It’s pretty difficult when we let our self-worth get tied up in whether or not we “satisfy” a partner (especially based on criteria like orgasm). Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is explain what happened to your partner and be as honest as you can (which it sounds like you have been). What…

It sure is. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, yourself – with your boyfriend or when you masturbate alone – it probably will at some point. Orgasm is a full body event that gets our circulation pumping and our nervous system all fired up. After orgasm, in the resolution phase of the sexual…

I get the feeling you (and your friend) are misunderstanding some things about your anatomy. Here is our article on the female genital anatomy, and you may find keeping the window open so you can see the illustrations helpful while I try and explain things better for you. For starters, there isn’t…

Sounds like it’s just time to mix it up a bit. There isn’t a lot we can say about sexuality that is generally applicable to everyone – save that we’re all awfully diverse – but one thing we do know is that habit or routines tend to be a buzzkill for a lot of people when it comes to sex. So, if we…

I can tell you with no reservations that masturbation did not and cannot: • Cause hair loss • Cause any sort of stammering or other speech impairments • Have any effect whatsoever on your fertility Really, it won’t. It can’t. If it could, more than 95% of the population would be bald, infertile and…

Absolutely! Understand that orgasm isn’t really a genital event: rather, it’s a whole body event, one that takes place primarily in your nervous system and cardiovascular system, but which we feel effects of in our genitals as well, and which genital sex often causes. So, your heart rate goes up…

That’s pretty normal as partners get more comfortable having sex together, so you should let him know that doesn’t mean anything is wrong. But if he’s not satisfied with that, the trick generally is just to mix it up: to mix in way more activities than intercourse, and to focus on his whole body…

I’m going to suggest you look at reciprocity in sex – the idea that one person gives something, so the other should get something of equal value back – in a different way than you might be used to. (Excerpted and adapted from S.E.X., the Scarleteen book.)

Having sex with someone else is really intimate, and we’re all vulnerable in that space, and double for both when we have strong feelings for the person we’re with. So, in order to make our own best choices – including in terms of our emotional safety – we need to understand that. Does this person…

There are certain physical, hormonal and psychological mechanics that come into play when it comes to human sexual response, and understanding those is essential to lay the foundation for understanding how sex works for ourselves and for our partners. Once we understand how our bodies work when it comes to sexual response, we’ve won half the battle of learning how to enjoy that and incorporate it as a healthy part of our lives, both alone and with others.