The V-Word

I just started dating a new man and although I know that there aren’t really any hard and fast rules about how long you should wait to have sex,  I don’t know if you can tell me any kind of signs to look for that tells me that it’s too soon or for that matter too long to wait?  What kinds of precautions should you take before you open up your relationship to physical intimacy?

This is an...

“Sexual pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon.”   -Simone de Beauvoir

Driving my son and his friends in the car the other day from a basketball game I overheard the question that made me cringe decades ago, “ How far did you get?” said one to the other with an elbow to the ribs. I shouldn’t have let on that I was listening, but I felt obliged to tell them that...

I have been having pain on my vagina for a long time and have tried all the over the counter medicines for infections I could find. Nothing is helping and it hurts just to pee and wipe myself. Sometimes the burning is bad just when I sit for too long or wear jeans. I can’t even think about being sexual and my boyfriend thinks I am making it up and it is all in my head because you can’t really see...

I was recently talking to some of my son’s friends who are all graduating from High school and they were telling me that no one uses birth control anymore. The boys said condoms kill all the feelings and the girls believe that the rhythm method is effective and less toxic than the pill. I was shocked and had no idea that the safe sex talk has reverted to the plan B pill in their mind. Is this...

I’ve never had any luck with relationships. Most of the time I either get restless within a couple weeks or the guy is a jerk and treats me poorly. I’m tired of dating around and don’t get any real satisfaction from it. But I’ve been dating my current boyfriend for about four months and he’s really great. We do lots of fun things together, he’s supportive, kind, and actually cares about our...

My husband has been having some trouble maintaining an erection lately. We have never had this problem before and he assures me that he is not fooling around with another woman and that he still wants me. We don’t have sex very often anymore and I think it is because he is afraid it won’t work. He won’t go to the doctor about it either and says he is not going to use any of those drugs that are...

My teenage daughter has become sexually active recently and in a passing comment she told me that all her friends think that oral sex is the safest sex they could have and that they feel like it doesn’t even count as real sex. What are the health risks associated with oral sex and are there any precautions short of “just say no” that can make a difference?

It is true that many teenagers consider...

Question:

How many times per week does a couple have sex if they have a healthy sex life? I have been with my boyfriend for almost 6 years, and we have sex at least 3 times a week. He does not fel like that is enough… sometimes it is more than 3 times. I am not as sexually driven as he is. I am a woman, 41. I feel like what sex drive I do have, he is diminishing when he expects me to want to have...

Question:

My husband and I have been married 21 years and I have a low sex drive. However, he says that 2 or 3 times a month he wakes up to me masturbating. He says that sometimes I have very strong orgasms and I know this to be true as sometimes I wake up during the night or in the morning and my panties/sheets and/or hands have very obvious signs. Is it normal to do this in my sleep?

Answer:

Y...