Why Sex Is Beneficial To Social And Mental Health; Research Shows

By Dante Noe Raquel II [T]he act of intimate sex has been evolving over millions of years as an apparatus to deliver sperm to eggs and initiate pregnancy. Currently, we look at the social and mental aspects of health benefits that are a importance of consenting sexual relationships, or the pursuit of them. Sex Brings …

Talking With Both Daughters and Sons About Sex

By LISA DAMOUR Parents play a key role in shaping sexual decision-making among adolescents — especially for girls. A 2016 review of more than three decades of research found that teenagers who communicated with their parents about sex used safer sexual practices. Likewise, new research from Dutch investigators who studied nearly 3,000 teenagers found that …

New study finds girls feel unprepared for puberty

[G]irls from low-income families in the U.S. are unprepared for puberty and have largely negative experiences of this transition, according to researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their latest paper on the puberty experiences of African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic girls living mostly in …

Caught in the modesty bind: Why women feel shy to consult doctors for their sexual well-being

By Aditi Mallick “I was 17, when I first got sexually intimate with my boyfriend,” says Kriya (name changed), a 23-year-old IT professional from Hyderabad, while speaking to The News Minute. “Later we were very scared, as it was the first time for both of us,” she recalls. She missed her periods that month. The …

Women with HIV, after years of isolation, coming out of shadows

By Erin Allday Anita Schools wakes at dawn most days, though she usually lazes in bed, watching videos on her phone, until she has to get up to take the HIV meds that keep her alive. The morning solitude ends abruptly when her granddaughter bursts in and they curl up, bonding over graham crackers. Schools, …

Mouthwash Helps Kill Gonorrhea Germs in Mouth, Throat: Study

Listerine’s maker has long made the claim, and new Australian research seems to confirm it by Robert Preidt [A] commercial brand of mouthwash can help control gonorrhea bacteria in the mouth, and daily use may offer a cheap and easy way to reduce the spread of the sexually transmitted disease, a small study from Australia …

The Vulnerable Group Sex Ed Completely Ignores & Why That’s So Dangerous

By Hallie Levine [W]hen Katie, 36, was identified as having an intellectual disability as a young child after scoring below 70 on an IQ test, her parents were told that she would never learn to read and would spend her days in a sheltered workshop. Today she is a single mum to an 8-year-old son, …

What I Need My Daughter To Know About Consent, Even Though It’s Difficult To Talk About

By Candace Ganger The job of raising children entails a comprehensive, albeit exhausting, list of responsibilities. The duty is a privilege but the pressure to “get it right” weighs heavily on me, particularly when it comes to sex. Considering my own salty experiences, consent isn’t just an important topic, it’s the most important topic — …

Girls Gone Wild: Why Straight Girls Engage In Same-Gender Sexual Experiences

By Jamie Budnick “Straight girls kissing” has become something of a curious and controversial cultural phenomenon over the last 15 years. Madonna and Britney Spears famously locked lips in front of millions during the 2003 Video Music Awards, with Scarlett Johansson and Sandra Bullock following suit seven years later at the MTV Movie Awards. In …

How did evolution change our sexual organs? It’s time to learn the history of sex

By Philippe Brenot Porn images are everywhere but we need better ways to teach children about love, intimacy and yes, masturbation [A]t the start of this third millennium, sex seems to be all around us – within easy reach, on our screens, constantly talked about in the media. What used to be concealed, shameful and …

This Long-Lost Study On Victorian Sex Teaches A Very Modern Lesson

By Sara Coughlin What comes to mind when you picture Victorian-era sex? Corsets? Marriages of convenience and social bartering? Repression? Maybe, like, a lot of repression? Turns out, how we view that time in sexual history might be more than a little warped. We can start to get a better idea of what women of …