Encourage teens to discuss relationships, experts say

BY Carolyn Crist</a Healthcare providers and parents should begin talking to adolescents in middle school about healthy romantic and sexual relationships and mutual respect for others, a doctors’ group urges. Obstetrician-gynecologists, in particular, should screen their patients routinely for intimate partner violence and sexual coercion and be prepared to discuss it, the Committee on Adolescent …

The early-20th century German trans-rights activist who was decades ahead of his time

By Elizabeth Heineman The Trump administration continues its assault on transgender rights. In July 2017, Trump sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military. Then, this past October, The New York Times obtained a memo indicating that the administration was considering narrowly defining gender “as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at …

How to Have the Sex Talk During and After Cancer

One expert shares advice for opening the line of communication between patients and health care providers, as well as their partners. BY Katie Kosko Sex and intimacy after cancer can often become an afterthought. Many people are focused on fighting their disease, but don’t realize that sexual health matters, too. And it’s not a challenge …

How Evangelical Purity Culture Can Lead to a Lifetime of Sexual Shame

Former born-again Christian Linda Kay Klein combines personal reflections with years of research to trace the psychological effects of purity culture on women in her new memoir, “Pure.” by Stephanie Dubick For millions of girls growing up in evangelical Christianity, sexuality is a sin. Girls are sexual “stumbling blocks,” they’re told—a danger to the relationship …

3 Experts on What’s Missing From the Consent Discussion

By Kasandra Brabaw In 1990, a group of women gathered at Antioch College to talk about the growing problem of rape on their campus, drafting the very first version of the school’s Sexual Offense Prevention Policy (SOPP). In doing so, they created what we now know as affirmative consent, decades before anyone else began using …

New Studies Show That Marijuana Enhances And Increases Sex

by Sara Brittany Somerset Recent scientific studies substantiate what many marijuana users have claimed all along — that it enhances sexual relations. Currently, almost all research into the effects of the cannabis plant is prohibited by the U.S. government due to its classification as a Schedule I substance. However, 31 states and the District of Columbia …

So You Want More Sex but Don’t Want to Hurt Your Partner’s Feelings…

By Courtney Kocak If you’ve been in a sexually intimate relationship for longer than a year, chances are you’ve experienced being in the mood when your partner isn’t—or vice versa. Having unequal libidos, at least occasionally, is a super-common long-term relationship issue. My boyfriend and I just celebrated our two-year anniversary. It’s the best relationship …