What does “have sex” mean? That’s what researchers wanted to know. Does having sex mean oral sex? Does it mean heavy petting? Or does it mean only acts where there is penetration? While it may not seem to be terribly important to understand what the term means among different groups of people, it actually is. When discussing topics that involve sexual health or abuse, everyone who is participating in the conversation and/or treatment/management, must be on the same page as to what “having sex” is.

To clarify this, or in the hopes of clarifying this, researchers from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University wanted to see what the definition of “having sex” was to most people. This question had originally been asked in 1999, sparked by the then- U.S. president’s comment that he had not had sex with a female intern, he had merely been the recipient of oral sex.

What the researchers discovered this time, after surveying 486 people (204 men) who ranged in age from 18 to 96 years, was that there was no agreement or consensus as to what the term really means. Surprisingly, there was even a group of men who didn’t believe that penile penetration of the vagina meant “having sex.”

In this survey, the researchers were more specific, asking the respondents about specific sexual behaviors and if orgasm was essential in defining “having sex.” The telephone survey began with the question “Would you say you ‘had sex’ with someone if the most intimate behavior you engaged in was …,” and this was followed by 14 examples. Read More – Did You “Have Sex” Today?

Move over gym teacher. Move over lifestyles teacher. And morals teacher can move over too. Because…. SPERMINATOR is in town and he’ll teach sex education as you’ve never seen it taught.
A new initiative in Ontario, Canada, aims to teach sex ed to teens in an interactive and fun manner. The comic book-like game,  Adventures in Sex City, tests the teens on how much they know about sexual health.
The landing page begins with a cartoonish image and the following text:
In the dark of night, Sex City is in a panic because of the terrible SPERMINATOR whose sole mission is to infect …read more

This one should get some blood boiling: a study out of Israel suggests that smokers have lower IQs (intelligence quotient) than do non-smokers. However, they say that it is the lower IQ that gets them smoking, not that smoking lowers the IQ.
Let’s see what the researchers did and how they came to that conclusion.
The study, published in the February issue of the journal Addiction, found that non-smokers scored seven points higher on IQ tests than did smokers and, as a result, no-smoking campaigns to teens should be geared towards kids with poorer IQ scores.
To come to this conclusion, the researchers …read more

I’m going to have to add a subsection to the Duh Files called the “Are you freaking serious?” file, because just when you’re sure you’ve heard everything, something else surprises you. New on the list: there’s a call to redesign hot dogs so children won’t choke on them.
To be fair, a child who is choking is a horrible, frightening thing and too many children do choke. Sadly, many parents and by-standers don’t know what to do because they’ve never learned first aid techniques. But we have gotten better about passing regulations as to how small children’s toys can be, how …read more

If you’ve not heard about Tiger Woods and his apology for his supposed sex addiction, then I’d like to know what cave you live in – because I want to be your neighbor. Enough about Tiger Woods – except here I am writing about him.  But, I’m not taking the same stand many people are. I don’t go for:

All athletes or celebrities do this
It’s a sex addiction, give the guy a break
He’s a role model who has fallen from grace

Why?
1- Not all athletes or celebrities “do this”
2- In my opinion, “sex addiction” is a cop out
3- Why is he a …read more

Many of us love to watch them: medical dramas. From Grey’s Anatomy to House now and Marcus Welby, MD, a generation or two ago, medical dramas are often a popular genre. Sometimes, these shows are quite helpful because, particularly these days, they may tackle health issues that were generally not discussed in public.
But, as a nurse and former first aid instructor, I often watch and catch something – shouting out “That’s NOT the way you do it. Unfortunately, my husband is the one who gets to hear that and he’s getting less and less amused every time I do it.
For …read more

Here’s another for the Duh Study File: “A study in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that sleepiness at the wheel and poor sleep quality significantly increase the risk of motor vehicle accidents in adolescents.” Who’d have thought?
Do these studies really do anything to educate the public? Do you really think a sleepy teen is going to read a piece about sleep teens and driving and think it applies to them? If parents haven’t clued in on this problem before, would this type of article really make a difference?
Researchers in Italy asked 339 licensed …read more

What says love more than a condom? A condom that carries a message a highlighting the impact of human overpopulation on the planet’s wildlife.
The 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms will be available all over the United States as 3,000 volunteers from the Center for Biological Diversity begin distributing them on Valentine’s Day.
The goal of the condoms is to raise awareness of the speed at which Earth is losing many species. These six types of packaging have catchy tag lines to attract your attention:

Polar bear: Wrap with care, save the polar bear
Jaguar: Wear a jimmy hat, save the …read more

Flowers? Done that. Chocolate? Diet. Dinner out? Restaurant is crowded. STD test? Hmmm… maybe
Stumped as to what to get for your sweetie this year for Valentine’s day? Here’s an idea for you. YouNeverReallyKnow.com is a new website dedicated to promoting sexual health and advice for people in relationships. They encourage regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and they have a special promotion in time for Valentine’s Day. They’re offering a discount for couples looking to Test2Gether. Test2Gether encourages couples, whether newly dating or not, to get tested for STDs together at a discounted rate.
In today’s society, people tend to …read more

Some of the younger readers here may not remember, but there was a time when many cities and towns in North America had playgrounds – parks where kids could go to play without being watched every moment. We’d scamper up metal slides, up the down part, with only one narrow bar meant to prevent a fall. We would sit (or stand) on those hard wooden slats that were our swings, with big heavy chains attaching them over head and we’d pump our legs to see how high we could swing, trying to jump off at the highest peaks.
There were monkey …read more