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As a sex educator, I don’t define sex as only being about penis-in-vagina intercourse, for a whole lot of reasons. If “sex” was the answer, the questions would be things like “What am I doing to try and feel good sexually or to express feeling good sexually? What am I doing that feels sexual to me (or to me and a partner)? What am I doing that feels like a way to express my sexuality, or my sexual desires and/or feelings about myself or others?”

At the beginning of week 14, I had my most recent appointment with my OB/GYN.

This doesn’t sound weird to me at all. Many of us have grown up getting a lot of direct and indirect messages that our own sexuality is the one thing we’re all just supposed to know how to do. We see variants of this question a lot, and I’d venture to say that there are many, many more people who…

Over the last few weeks, I have been sicker than sicker than sick. I managed to pick up whooping cough, which, combined with other health issues I already have, made my blood pressure dip to a very scary place, to boot. I had already been having some flare-ups from those other issues, so they made…

I’m not a doctor, but this sounds to me (as you say) like it could be an allergy to semen. But like I said, I’m not a doctor, and I can’t diagnose you over the internet, possibly from thousands of miles away. You say that you are on the pill now, so please consider going back to the healthcare…

It sounds like you’re really struggling with these expectations you have for yourself. Let’s see if we can’t help you feel a little better about yourself. First, let me see if I can’t put this in perspective a little by clearing up a misconception. The average time it takes someone with a penis to…

On the positive side, during the last week to week & a half, I’ve been feeling better. While I know it seems superficial, my biggest complaint right now is about clothing.

Based on everything I know and have learned working in sex and relationships for many years, people don’t tend to have or sustain healthy relationships when they do big things for or with partners they don’t also want to do and feel good about themselves. Taking out the garbage, doing the dishes…

Hey, thanks for your question. Lots and lots of guys worry about this kind of thing so it’s great that you’ve had the courage to ask a question about it. You’ve pretty much answered your question already, to be honest, but I’ll recap some of what you’ve said and fill in a couple of blanks here and…

The only sound way we can tell if someone has or hasn’t already had any kind of sex is by asking them and accepting their answer. Obviously, sometimes some kinds of sex can result in certain outcomes, like pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, which can also tell us if someone has engaged in…

There has been an increasing level of organisation and activity in the UK from politicians and pressure groups who are against comprehensive sex education, even lobbying against the basics like teaching body parts to primary school children and ever more increasingly speaking about abstinence. The tactics are versions of what US sex educators have been battling against for a while.

Physically, I’m feeling much the same as I was last week. Although the fetus is around an inch and a half long now, I don’t think my look has changed much yet. I have switched over to maternity pants because it is simply more comfortable. The nausea and tiredness are still there, as is the anxiety. But hopefully some of that should wane in the next few weeks. This week, I’ve been thinking more about the social implications of pregnancy and I’d like to talk a bit more about that.

I think one of the coolest things about sex is that it’s a lot like our taste in music. When it comes to music, we get to like what we like, and listen only to what we want to listen to when we get a choice. Obviously, in the grocery store or at a club what we hear not going to be up to us, but that…

My uterus is around the size of a grapefruit this week. I’ll admit, I find this rather amusing. When you look at sexual anatomy diagrams (which are generally shown non-pregnant anyway), the uterus usually looks pretty large. In reality, it’s about 3 inches and looks a bit like a pear. By 10 weeks…

Once, in a sleepless night of Netflix marathoning, someone said something on a show that stuck with me, despite the rest of the night being an unmemorable haze of insomnia. That was, “What’s so wonderful about being young is that there are no mistakes, only research.” As someone who works with young…

Lube can do some great things, it’s true. But you know what it can’t do? It can’t turn a lousy partner into a good one. It also can’t take pain away that’s being caused by a partner being a jerk. I’m so very sorry to hear about how your boyfriend treated you. But this isn’t about your body being a…

Earlier this year, I got invited to go to Australia to do some creative work, work that has nothing to do with sex education, and which I rarely get the chance to do any more. Before then, another university in Australia had pitched getting me out there to talk about the work I do in sex education…

I think I feel more pregnant this week. It’s amazing the impact that something the size of a grape can have on a person’s body & life. My not-morning-sickness has kicked itself up a notch. For the most part, I feel fine until early afternoon and then start to get really nauseated. This feeling often…

There seems to be the almost universal belief among North American parents (I’m sure this is a phenomena found elsewhere as well, but I’m just talking about what I’ve personally seen) that their kids, whether these are theoretical future children or actual kids, and whether they have yet to reach…

I’m pregnant. It looks like such a small sentence, but in reality it is not small at all. Pregnancy is a big deal. It changes lives, both during a pregnancy and afterward. Bodies change, relationships change, lives change. It can be exciting and terrifying all at the same time. So I start this with a small statement with big implications.

In Lebanon (or at least, in Beirut) the joke is that it is equally likely to see a woman in a mini skirt as it is to see a woman in a hijab. In Lebanon (or at least, in Beirut), European tourists feel at ease that the Lebanese still speak a post-colonial French, and let Beirut be called the Paris of the Middle East. In Lebanon (or at least, in Beirut), tourists and Lebanese alike flock to the beaches and the nightclubs, openly drinking alcohol, smoking hookahs, and belly dancing to both popular western and Arabic music, creating a strange moment that many see as cultural influence, and many others see as cultural infiltration. Still—despite the post-colonial familiarity and acceptability of Lebanese culture—Lebanese women remain in many ways decorative objects, openly ignored, slighted or discriminated against in legislation.

As some of you may know, I experienced two different sexual assaults when I wasn’t yet in my teens within just one year of one another. The second time I was assaulted, my experience ticked all of the boxes there currently are in our culture for what is so often – now, anyway, easily considered a “real” or “bonafide” sexual assault, or what Whoopi Goldberg, to my great disappointment, would call “rape-rape.” The first time around was different.

Handwashing, seriously? Yep, handwashing. Seriously. (Well, mostly seriously.) Here’s how to do it and why it’s so important to do.

A sweeping social history of heterosexuality from its origins in nineteenth-century Germany to the sex-scandal headlines of today.