Avoid these Common Condom Mistakes
For being such an inexpensive item, condoms pack a powerful punch. They protect its users against many sexually transmitted diseases as well as guarding against pregnancy. In the heat of the moment, however, many couples do not stop during foreplay and pull out the condom instructions from the box to ensure they are using the condoms properly. So, for those condom users who are not currently engaged in sexual activity, here is a brief rundown of some condom no-no’s for you to peruse.
• A very good friend of mine met her husband in college and she recalled the first time they were about to have sex. Being a responsible man, he pulled the condom he kept in his wallet out as they were about to leap from third base and slide into home. He opened up the condom wrapper and the package was empty. The condom had expired years earlier and had disintegrated into a powder. Lesson learned? Never use condoms that have expired (they may no longer exist, as in this case) as they become weaker with age and more prone to breakage.
• If you are planning a night of unbridled passion and plan to have sex at least four times, pack at least four condoms. Add to that number any other kind of sex you plan to have, including oral or anal. Never use the same condom multiple times. If, for instance, you are using a condom and have just engaged in oral sex and are planning on moving to vaginal sex, dispose of the used condom and start with a new condom before engaging in the vaginal sex. Along the same lines, if one single sex act is continuing beyond thirty minutes, it would be an excellent idea to put on a fresh condom to avoid the condom breaking.
• While double-bagging your groceries may be an excellent idea to avoid your groceries from spilling all over your back seat, you will want to avoid double-bagging your condoms. Use only one condom at a time. The extra friction caused by rubber rubbing against rubber is sure to result in breakage.
• Never expose your condoms to anything that could cause it to potentially tear, rip or break. Some things you will want to keep away from a condom include, but are not limited to, the following: hot cars on summer days, pointy fingernails, sharp teeth, scissors or box cutters, fresh stubble, chainsaws, etc, etc.
• Once the sexual act is complete and the man has ejaculated into the condom, never let the penis go flaccid inside or the condom is likely to leak or slip off exposing those same fluids you were trying to protect. Also, never pull out without holding firmly onto the condom at the base of the shaft. This will also prevent unnecessary leakage.
• As tempting as it may be to only wear the condom towards the end of the sexual activity right before ejaculation, resist the temptation. Never let genitalia touch before you are protected with a condom.
• When friction becomes a problem with condom use, turn to a water-based lubricant for aid. Never resort to using petroleum jelly, lotions or oils as these products can cause latex to weaken and break.
• Never put on a condom so tight that there is no space for the semen to accumulate after ejaculation. When rolling a condom on, be sure to leave an air-free space at the tip.
Reference: A condom is a device most commonly used during sexual intercourse. It is put on a man’s erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner. Condoms are used to prevent pregnancy and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs—such as gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV). Because condoms are waterproof, elastic, and durable, they are also used in a variety of secondary applications. These range from creating waterproof microphones to protecting rifle barrels from clogging.
Most condoms are made from latex, but some are made from other materials. A female condom is also available. As a method of contraception, male condoms have the advantage of being inexpensive, easy to use, having few side-effects, and of offering protection against sexually transmitted diseases. With proper knowledge and application technique—and use at every act of intercourse—users of male condoms experience a 2% per-year pregnancy rate.
Condoms have been used for over 500 years. In the early twentieth century, with the invention of disposible latex condoms, they became one of the most popular methods of contraception. While widely accepted in modern times, condoms have generated some controversy. Improper disposal of condoms contributes to litter problems, and the Roman Catholic Church generally opposes condom use.
Astronauts test sex in space - but did the earth move?
US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.
Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.
“The issue of sex in space is a serious one,” he says. “The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity.”
He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere.
Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. “Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version.”
Only four positions were found possible without “mechanical assistance”. The other six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag.
Mr Kohler says: “One of the principal findings was that the classic so-called missionary position, which is so easy on earth when gravity pushes one downwards, is simply not possible.”
Wikipedia Reference: Sex in space is distinguished mainly by the absence of gravity (unless artificial gravity is created in the space ship) which leads to some difficulties surrounding the performing of most sexual activities. Because no certain sexual intercourse in space is known to have occurred, the topic is hotly disputed to clarify its potential impact on human beings in the isolated, confined, and hazardous environment of space. However, the ongoing discussions often include several speculations (e.g., about the STS-47 mission, on which married astronauts Mark C. Lee and Jan Davis flew), and even hoaxes, such as Document 12-571-3570.
It is assumed that the nervous and vestibular systems may fail to develop properly in individuals growing up in a low or zero gravity environment, and that this would have implications for space-born humans making the trip to Earth though the possibility of human pregnancy under spacecraft conditions is currently uncertain.
Though NASA generally avoids the topic, it has examined animal and plant reproduction in several experiments.
Science fiction and popular science writer Isaac Asimov made conjectures in writing about what sex would be like in the weightless environment of space, in 1973. He anticipated some of the benefits of engaging in sex in an environment of microgravity.
A leading Soviet research facility in the field of space medicine, The Institute of Biomedical Problems, has been involved for decades in the sex-related studies of living species in space. The Institute’s interest in topic began in the early 1960s, when it noticed a difference in behavior between two dogs that had flown in space, Veterok and Ugolyok. Ugolyok, unlike Veterok, maintained quite a healthy libido during his longer-than-average life span.
A 1976 article reported that an exposure of Wistar rats to 22 days of weightlessness and other space flight factors induced no morphological changes in the spermatogenic tissue or disorders in the spermatogenic process of the rats, and the offspring of the male “space rats” was normal in all aspects.
Regarding human sex, Dr. Anna Goncharova said that if crew members are just colleagues and friends, one should never impose on them any intimate relations for the sake of their psycho-emotional stability. It was rumored that the unhappy marriage of Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Andrian Nikolayev was in part instigated by the pressure of the IBP.
Zero-gravity sex is a common topic in science-fiction.
In his book Honeymoon in Space published in 1901 George Griffith described a phallic spaceship with “curtains of ribbed steel” going deeper and deeper through the Solar System while the young maid exclaims how she wants to see more and more.
In the James Bond film Moonraker, James Bond (played by Roger Moore), and the token Bond girl, Dr. Holly Goodhead, have sex in the cargo bay of the Moonraker 5 Space Shuttle in one scene.
The comedy Moving Violations (1985) suggests the main characters, played by actors John Murray and Jennifer Tilly, have an intimate encounter in a weightlessness simulator.
The Sci-fi horror Supernova (2000) featured sex between several of the characters in zero-gravity areas of the Medical Ship.
Private Media Group filmed a brief scene the space-themed pornographic film The Uranus Experiment in a Russian aircraft flying a parabolic track (similar to NASA’s Vomit Comet). The Uranus Experiment features around 20 seconds of actors Sylvia Saint and Nick Lang (who portray astronauts living on a space station) having sex in freefall. The scene was controversially nominated for a Nebula Award, but did not win.
WASHINGTON - After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It’s more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.
College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex — they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and “it feels good,” according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.
Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: “I was attracted to the person.”
Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.
“It’s refuted a lot of gender stereotypes … that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love,” said University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study’s co-author. “That’s not what I came up with in my findings.”
Forget thinking that men are from Mars and women from Venus, “the more we look, the more we find similarity,” said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. Goldstein, who wasn’t part of Meston’s study, said the Texas research made a lot of sense and adds to growing evidence that the vaunted differences in the genders may only be among people with sexual problems.
Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women — ranging in age from 17 to 52 — to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from “It’s fun” which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to “I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease” which ranked on the bottom by women.
Once they came up with that long list, Meston and Buss asked 1,549 college students taking psychology classes to rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale on how they applied to their experiences.
“None of the gender differences are all that great,” Meston said. “Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner.”
But this is among college students, when Meston conceded “hormones run rampant.” She predicted huge differences when older groups of people are studied.
Since her study came out Tuesday, people are coming up with new reasons to have sex.
“Originally, I thought that we exhaustively compiled the list, but now I found that there should be some added,” Meston said.
Why Humans Have Sex
Cindy M. Meston . David M. Buss
Abstract: Historically, the reasons people have sex have
been assumed to be few in number and simple in nature–to
reproduce, to experience pleasure, or to relieve sexual
tension. Several theoretical perspectives suggest that motives
for engaging in sexual intercourse may be larger in
number and psychologically complex in nature. Study 1
used a nomination procedure that identified 237 expressed
reasons for having sex, ranging from the mundane (e.g., ‘‘I
wanted to experience physical pleasure’’) to the spiritual
(e.g., ‘‘I wanted to get closer to God’’), from altruistic (e.g.,
‘‘I wanted the person to feel good about himself/herself’’)
to vengeful (e.g., ‘‘I wanted to get back at my partner for
having cheated on me’’). Study 2 asked participants
(N = 1,549) to evaluate the degree to which each of the 237
reasons had led them to have sexual intercourse. Factor
analyses yielded four large factors and 13 subfactors,
producing a hierarchical taxonomy. The Physical reasons
subfactors included Stress Reduction, Pleasure, Physical
Desirability, and Experience Seeking. The Goal Attainment
subfactors included Resources, Social Status, Revenge, and
Utilitarian. The Emotional subfactors included Love and
Commitment and Expression. The three Insecurity subfactors
included Self-Esteem Boost, Duty/Pressure, and Mate
Guarding. Significant gender differences supported several
previously advanced theories. Individual differences in
expressed reasons for having sex were coherently linked
with personality traits and with individual differences in
sexual strategies. Discussion focused on the complexity of
sexual motivation and directions for future research.
For the full text look here: http://tinyurl.com/ypzwvr
