A lot of people are really scared of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). They’re the bogeyman of the bedroom; the sneaky bugs that are just waiting to get you every time you have sex. But the reality of most STIs is very different from what most sex ed and late-night Googling would have you believe.
Sex is all about feeling great—until it doesn’t feel great. Unfortunately, dyspareunia (pain during sex) is more common than you might think. In fact, it’s so common that 3 out of every 4 women experience it at some point in their lives. (Although some people enjoy experiencing pain during sex, that’s not the kind of pain we’re talking about. We’re talking about the kind that’s unwanted and a total mood-killer.)
Stress has a way of piling up, from little things like your commute and your annoying co-workers to bigger things like your finances and the never-ending news cycle. Unsurprisingly, all of these stressors can affect your mental health. But repeatedly feeling stressed out can also affect your physical health; it can contribute to heart disease and other health problems, for example. And (surprise!) your sex life is also in jeopardy if your stress goes unmanaged.
Whether you’re using sex toys with a partner or solo (to celebrate the fact that May is Masturbation Month), or both, you’ve probably wondered at some point whether they’re actually clean. Like clean-clean. We went straight to the source, the iconic sex educator and owner/founder of Spectrum Boutique, Zoë Ligon, to find out.*
When I was twenty years old, I met a bunch of feminists. They were strong and assertive, and they took no sh*t. They were loud and amazing, and they blew my mind. They were a lot like the feminists…