Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Condoms and STDs: fact sheet for public health personnel. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/docs/Condoms_and_STDS.pdf

This icon signals behaviors that could cause trouble, either for you or someone else, and tells you when to look before you leap to stay clear of pitfalls to your relationships. Where to Go From HereAs well as giving you all you need to know about how to make your sex life happy, safe, and rewarding, this edition of Sex for Dummies has been updated to include discussions of recent changes and issues surrounding sexual topics — such as transgender rights and the #metoo movement — to provide a modern, 360-degree view of how our diverse sexualities impact and enrich the world around us.

Just like the penis, the clitoris has a high concentration of nerve endings (4, 5). By touching and massaging these erogenous zones, signals in the body flood the nerves. This can send pleasurable feelings all over the body. Understanding your and your partner’s anatomy is important so that you both experience the highest amount of pleasure during sex. One assumption I can make is that if you’re capable of reading this book, you’re a sexual being. Some other assumptions I’ve made include American college of obstetricians and gynecologists. Vaginitis. FAQ028. Sep 2017. Available from: https://www.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/Vaginitis#why If you’re not sure where you want to go, you may want to start with Part I. It gives you all the basic info you need to understand sex and points to places where you can find more detailed information.

Make the most of afterplay

Many of you have questions about your sexual functioning that you’re too embarrassed to ask your doctor. You still need to talk to your doctor, but you can find some answers about premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, low libido, and elusive orgasms here. I also have some advice on how you can find time to have sex and ways to rejuvenate your sex life after you and your spouse have been together many, many years.

So the mechanics of sex makes babies, but the main reason that people engage in sex is for the sensory experience, the wide range of physical and emotional pleasures that a person can derive from sexual activity. You may think that these pleasures would be enough to draw people into having sex, but in fact this sensory experience has two sides, like the proverbial itch that needs to be scratched. If you don’t have sex for a period of time, and that period can be a matter of hours for some young adults to weeks for an older person, a little voice inside you tells you that the time for sex has arrived. You become aroused, or horny in the vernacular, meaning that as more and more time goes by, your desire for sex increases. Now, you can satisfy those desires without having sex with another person, called masturbation, which I cover in Chapter 14, but the preferable method of scratching this itch is to have sex with another person. Because the real center of all this pleasure takes place in the brain, it’s important to understand the process because here’s a case where the more you know, the better the results can be. Understanding the Ins and Outs of the Sexual Response Cycle When you practice tantra, you and your partner learn to be physically aware and spiritually present, feeding each other energy that continues to grow well after you’ve finishing having sex. Try not to overwhelm your partner with information. Instead, explain to them what you enjoy about your sex life and how you could enhance the experience.

After the conversation has, uh, reached a climax, how do you end it?

Of course, your sex life can receive a negative impact in ways other than the normal aging process. The longer we live, the greater the odds that fate will throw us a curve or two. The onset of one disease or another can change the way you have sex. But again, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your sex life is over, only that some adjustments will be needed. Want to know what those adjustments are? Turn to Chapter 18. With so many people all around us, it becomes almost inevitable that someone seeking love will find someone else with whom to share that love. Yes, love can be blind and sometimes you choose the wrong person, but more often than not, if love doesn’t last it’s because the two people didn’t know about the care that love needs. And part of the glue that holds love together is sex, and so the more you know about sex, the greater success you’ll have in love. I give you suggestions on finding a partner in Chapter 4, and if you’re in a long-term relationship and want to add some excitement to your sex life, I wrote Chapters 12 and 22 for you. For lust and the fun of it all Both the sperm and the egg are very special cells; they have only half of the genetic material ( chromosomes) that other cells have. All cells need chromosomes to provide the instructions on how to divide and create an individual.

There are many ways you can implement tantric principles when you’re alone. But remember, the end game isn’t always masturbation — you can work up to solo play or decided not to go there at all. MeditationAs a result of these studies, Masters and Johnson came up with four distinct phases for human sexual response. Later, Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan, under whom I trained, created her own model, which included elements of Masters and Johnson’s phases as well as one of her own. Fertilization occurs when the chromosomes and genes from both the sperm and the egg combine to form one single cell, called a zygote. As a result, instead of an identical copy of one of the parents (a clone), fertilization creates a unique individual that shares features of both parents. So now you know the reason you have your father’s nose and your mother’s feet: At least once in their lives, your parents mingled their genetic material. Discussing STIs more openly with peers and telling your partners is not only necessary for your sexual health, but also important for fighting stigmas and breaking societal and cultural taboos. bullet You’re reasonable enough not to engage in risky behavior after the dangers have been pointed out to you.