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One of the biggest facets of a healthy sex life with someone is being sure that we respect when they do NOT want to have sex, and that they do the same with us. Healthy sex has a whole lot to do with both partners only having sex when that is what each truly wants to be doing. When it comes to…

The Golden Girls were chronic masturbators. All right, maybe there’s no definitive evidence, but it’s certainly plausible. Masturbation is a healthy practice, with countless benefits like stress reduction and skin rejuvenation — but female masturbation is still a hush-hush topic. Ph.D. sexologist…

On the youth sex-education website Scarleteen.com, dozens of teenage girls can be found commiserating about their labia. “i REALLY h8 mine! They hang really REALLY low and r SO long!” reads one comment. Meanwhile, on MakeMeHeal.com, a consumer site that sells special bras and other gear for women…

I absolutely DESPISE the term “foreplay.” Let me tell you why. That term states or suggests – structurally, it means “before sex” – that vaginal intercourse is capital-S sex and that every other kind of sex either isn’t sex, or should only exist to help prime the pump, as it were, for vaginal…

What you’re discovering is one of the many ways in which virginity as a concept often doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Let me be plain: if you two pursue sexual pleasure together, however you choose to do it, whatever your bodies are like, I think you’re having sex; you’ll have had some kind of…

Sara continues: …At first I was reading all sorts of tantra books and preparing myself for wonderful sexual experiences, but then the guys around me started taking advantage of my blossoming sexuality, and my first mostly committed relationship was to a guy who told me years later that he had been…

This happens. I know that probably sounds cliché, but you need to understand that no matter how old you are, how much sleep you have had, how much you want to have sex, how turned on you are, your penis is neither a machine nor an obedient soldier. It’s a part of your body, like any other, and just…

Do you love Scarleteen and sex and relationships education? Do you have around 8 hours a week you can commit to us? Do you have a burning desire to help provide some of the most accessible, inclusive, and absolute BEST sex education available online? If this sounds like you, we’d love to consider…

We get asked this question a lot. A whole lot. The trouble is, there’s just no way to give you and others the sort of answer I suspect you are looking for. But I certainly can tell you why I can’t do that. Sex – of any kind, whether we’re talking about intercourse, oral sex, manual sex…

Bravo to you for loving the way your girlfriend looks and seeing her beauty, both inner and outer! The truth of the matter is that many women are uncomfortable with their bodies and this starts at an amazingly young age. We (of all genders, though women are often targeted) are bombarded with media…

(Anonymous’ question continued) Especially, when I consider anal sex because, well, why would they want to do that, other than increase their own pleasure. The problem is, I actually enjoy anal, I just… these days, I hate the idea of letting anyone have it. So, basically I’m being ridiculously…

What you need to determine, before anything else, is if you are, in fact, pregnant. To know that, what you need to do is to take a pregnancy test. You can purchase a test to take at home at most groceries or pharmacies, and home tests are very accurate. You just want to be sure that you really read…

My experience with sex-negativity and ignorance in the medical world. Adventures in having an ovarian cyst, coming out in the ER, enduring bad gynecological exams, healing my relationship with my anus and finally finding a good doctor.

An ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy where an ovum (egg) has been fertilized, but instead of then implanting in the uterus where it needs to in order to develop properly, it instead has implanted somewhere else, most commonly in a fallopian tube, but sometimes in the ovary, cervix or even – in…

If a healthy sex life is very important to you, I’d suggest you start by being sure you’re approaching sex with a partner in a way that is realistic. One essential aspect of healthy sexuality for ourselves and our partners is having our ideas about sexuality based in reality, and being sure our…

Let’s take a few minutes and break everything down into separate thoughts. First and foremost, you need to consider readiness. How do you feel about sex becoming a part of your relationship right now and especially for you personally about starting to have sex? Do you feel that at this point in your…

A lot of times we think about abuse, whether it’s physical or emotional, as something that goes on behind closed doors, and it’s hard to change that frame of mind when, in reality, nobody sees the vast majority of abuse that occurs. Like many of the ST Staff, I’ve seen my share of abuse as the victim, not the witness. So it seems somewhat surprising that I was so shocked to see it, in full daylight, on a busy downtown street this past weekend.

Frankly, if I had a partner – at any age – who, from the onset, was trying to talk his way out of cooperating with managing risks, risks that I would bear the greatest burden of, I wouldn’t just insist on a condom. I would insist on not being sexual with that person at all. I – and you – deserve…

The short and easy answer: not everyone will feel so compelled as to moan during sex, so there’s nothing wrong with you. A lack of moaning does not mean that you’re not enjoying yourself, just as the presence of moaning does not mean that you are enjoying yourself. So now that we’ve knocked out the…

Masturbation is natural and in no way unhealthy for people of any gender if and when it is what someone wants for themselves. It’s also not something that’s just okay or healthy for guys, or more healthy or okay for men than for women. It’s something that the majority of most people do and report…

If you want to have any kind of sex with another woman, even together, than it’s not honest to say you don’t want another woman. You obviously do, in this way. As well, another partner is a person: not a sex toy, not an object, not some new “thing.” So, for everyone’s sake – particularly for that…

Love is Respect is the national resource to disrupt and prevent unhealthy relationships and intimate partner violence by empowering young people through inclusive and equitable education, support, and resources. Love is Respect offers 24/7 information, support, and advocacy to young people between…

Cigarettes are bad for you, but they’re still sold all over the place. I was at the store just the other day and saw a frozen breakfast meal that contained 115% of your sodium intake for the day! There’s no way that can be good for you, but it’s still on the shelves. In fact, for many years in the…

Consent is an active process and agreement, and it cannot be coerced. The absence of no does not mean yes. No matter how well you think that you know your partner, you should never assume that you know her thoughts in that instant about sex and what she may want or not want to do. She should also…

Please understand that anal sex is sex. It is no more or less sex than vaginal intercourse is, just like oral sex is sex and manual sex (fingering or handjobs) are sex: that’s why all those terms end with the word “sex.” So, if you do not want to have sex until marriage, then don’t have sex until…