Let's Talk Sex (Page 16)

Contrary to cultural assumptions, modern women are far more open to slipping into bed with someone they just met than modern men. This interesting revelation comes out of new research conducted by UK-based dating website Parship.com, which found that while 50 percent of participating men said they’d feel turned off if a woman wanted to have sex on the first date, only 39 percent of women expressed this...

Reader Question: I met this guy online. We had one date and it went amazingly. After, he came back to my place, and we talked, kissed, laughed and eventually had sex. He stayed the night and gave me this really long kiss when he left in the morning. However, ever since then, he has been fairly aloof and unresponsive. I flat out asked him if he wanted to see me again and if we could go on another date. He said...

While good looks tend to get all the press, smell may actually play a bigger role in relationships. That’s according to a new study published in the Journal of Biological Psychology. The study focused on individuals who were born without any sense of smell, finding they fared worse in their dating lives than the average individual capable of smell. Research showed an individual with anosmia, the inability to...

Can talking about sex more openly and more frequently with your partner during sex lead to a healthier, happier and more satisfying sex life? A new study coming out of Cleveland State University suggests that is the case. Researcher Elizabeth Babin set out to discover “why people are communicating and why they’re not communicating” with their partners about their shared sex lives. Babin surveyed 207 people, 119...

While they may not represent the ideal relationship structure, a “friends with benefits” relationship may promote safer sex than traditional monogamous relationships - at least as far as condom use goes. A recent online survey, conducted by Harvard researcher Justin Lehmiller, questioned 376 people on their dating and sex lives, approximately half of whom were in traditional monogamous relationships and the other...

According to a new study, a couple’s sex life is likely to suffer when they’re attempting to conceive a child through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The study from Indiana University evaluated a broad range of data to reach its conclusions. First, researchers conducted an online questionnaire with 270 women. Next, they questioned 127 men and women currently utilizing IVF. Finally, they spoke with 70 healthcare...

The Damaged Goods Hypothesis (the DGH) has been thrown into question by a recent study suggesting women who perform professionally in pornos have higher self-esteem across a number of different qualities than the average woman. DGH states that women who perform in porn do so because they have “higher rates of childhood sexual abuse, psychological problems, and drug use compared to the typical woman.” However, the...

Can Facebook and other social media sites be used to promote positive habits, such as safe sex? An academic study aimed to find out, with surprising results. Conducted by University of Colorado School of Public Health professor Sheanna Bull, the study looked at the behavior of 800 high school and college students. For two months, some of those students were assigned to receive regular updates within their Facebook...

Technology has become the modern day Cupid, providing singles with access to thousands of prospective mates. But technology also plays a big role in the sex lives of many Americans. Even though texting, Facebook, Twitter and email keep people connected constantly, they lack the ability to nurture intimacy, the most important ingredient in a romantic relationship. In some cases, technology spurs rapid digital...

A research study conducted by University of West Scotland researcher Stuart Brody found that the majority of women state the size of their partner’s penis makes no difference in the bedroom. The study was conducted earlier this year and drew its data from responses given by 323 women, most of whom were Scottish University students. Brody asked the women to remember recent sexual experiences and rate how important...

How soon you have sex with a potential partner may have consequences down the line. At least that’s the news coming from a new study conducted and released through research funded by Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life and Family Studies Center. The study looked at the sex and dating patterns of 2,035 heterosexual couples with an average age of 36 years old and who were currently married (for the...

What’s the easiest way to determine a stranger’s sexuality? A new study suggests the secret to learning what turns a person on lies in their eyes. While the scientific community has long speculated an individual’s eye dilation indicates their arousal, the first large-scale experiment testing this hypothesis has only just been performed and released. One of the study’s researchers, Ritch Savin-Williams of Cornell,...

It seems to be the biggest dilemma in dating today. With no hard-and-fast social rules, men and women are on their own to determine when is the best time to introduce a physical component to their budding love relationship. The good news is that we are living in a time where a groundswell of data is exploding from university social science departments. And that research is demonstrating that, while there are no...

It’s common sense that an individual’s parents play a huge part in determining the behavior of the grown adult. But new research indicates an individual’s relationship with their father plays an important role in a teen’s development and lifestyle choices, especially when it comes to sexual behavior. New York University and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention teamed up to conduct the research. The...

College campuses are popularly seen as hotbeds for no-strings-attached hookups, yet a new study suggests most sex occurring on campuses still occurs between two people in a relationship. The longitudinal study was conducted by researchers affiliated with Brown University and was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Lead by researcher Robyn Fielder, 483 first-year females at Syracuse University...

Free sex seems to be happening everywhere — free that is, if the romp isn’t with a married man and leaves a text trail. But it does seem like some women are living out the lives of the characters in “Sex and the City” — trying to think like men when it comes to relationships and hooking up. But there’s one big elephant in the living room: Most women weren’t biologically wired to hook up, and culture doesn’t trump...

Bondage and spanking are highly common bedroom activities in Britain, according to a new survey. The survey came from More! magazine, and it was the largest survey the publication ever undertook, accumulating responses from 2,340 women between the ages of 18 and 24, all of whom answered candid questions about their erotic lives. More! considers these responses a true sampling of the sexual experiences of their...

It’s an interesting question, but the real answer depends on your partner — and on you. Let me start out by saying that sex, like the relationship as a whole, has to involve roughly equal amounts of giving and taking from both sides. You both have to put just as much into it, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the same things. As a woman, you most likely know what it’s like to feel like you are putting more...

Is there a connection between the age you lose your virginity and the chances you’ll have a happy, satisfying relationship later in life? According to a recent study, a connection does exist, but the actual conclusions may surprise you. The University of Texas study determined individuals who lose their virginity at a later age are less likely to marry and may have fewer romantic partners as a whole, but when these...

There are a few golden rules when it comes to gettin’ busy when you have roommates — that is, unless it’s your roommate you’re gettin’ busy with. All kidding aside, what’s a girl to do when her libido is fully charged and she’s got a man willing and able, but that pesky chick she lives with is always home? The following are some tips, tricks and tactics to having sex when you live with roommates. 1. The noise...

We all know that, unlike women, men do not have a “biological clock” when it comes to making babies. However, the drive tends to, well, fall down on the job once we reach a certain age. We may no longer have an interest in making babies, but every man still wants to go through the motions. Throughout all of human history until a decade or so ago, senior men looked at the loss of potency as the end of their sexual...

When do you have sex for the first time with a new partner? This is a question that comes up, please excuse the pun, all so frequently. You've met a guy, gotten to know each other, chatted on the phone, exchanged emails, and perhaps even shared a drink together. You’ve decided to have an official date, so does this date end up with the two of you between the covers? You do like him and that sexual itch could...

Reader Question: I'm a 19-year-old female and still a virgin. I'm really worried about this. I feel like just losing it to anybody, but at the same time, I want to do it with someone I care about. I have guys who are interested in me, but I don’t feel the same way. I have done everything but intercourse and feel weird for still being a virgin. -Beth (London) Dr. Wendy Walsh's Answer: Kudos to you! It’s quite a...

An erection requires a delicate balance of blood flow and blood pressure, along with the interaction of neural and endocrine factors that are beyond my expertise to understand or explain. Suffice it to say that his ability to perform is driven by a stimulant — you. Alcohol is a depressant that negates your stimulating effect. It doesn’t decrease his desire to make love to you, but it may lower his blood pressure...

Even the most confident man is just one bad sexual performance or criticism away from devastation. He may be bummed out by rejection when he’s meeting women, but he’s devastated when he thinks his sexual performance does not meet a woman’s standards. Of course, every woman has the right to expect the kind of sex she deserves and to train her bronco in the methods that give her the greatest pleasure. But it’s a...

Today’s easy access to pornography is a far cry from seamy video stores on the outskirts of town of yesteryear. Men today need only a smartphone and a little privacy to satisfy their cravings for sexual stimuli. In fact, when researchers studying porn at the University of Montreal attempted to find a control group of men in their 20s who had never consumed pornography, they were unable to find even one...

Author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer Ian Fleming once said, "Men want a woman whom they can turn on and off like a light switch." Fleming is the creator of spy James Bond and "Bond Girls" like Honey Ryder, Domino, Jill Masterson, Vivienne Michel, Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo and, my personal favorite, Pussy Galore. If there is anyone who knows about turning a woman on, it’s James Bond....

What a crazy title for this blog. Any normal person would automatically assume that aside from mixing a cocktail of sperm and egg in a fertility clinic, if a woman were to become impregnated by a specific man, she must have had sex with him. Right? But, sigh, reproductive life is not that cut and dry. In the new book "Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? And Other Reflections on Being Human," psychologist Jesse...

The sex lives of Americans is ever changing according to psychologist Mark Regnerus Ph.D., whose provocative "Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate and Think about Marrying" makes that clear. Today, more than 90 percent of Americans have sex before they say "I do." Maybe we’re becoming more liberal with our sex lives, or maybe the sex lives of the red and blue don’t differ as much as we think...

If you didn’t know what sexting was before Anthony Weiner tweeted a picture of his, um, wiener to a young woman, you probably do now. Simply stated, sexting is sexual texting. It usually consists of words or images sent between cell phones, but social media like Twitter and instant messaging or email could also be employed. No one has much problem with a few lusty remarks between adults in a mature relationship,...