Sabine Walter

An anonymous writer put it this way: "Friends in your life are like pillars on your porch. Sometimes they hold you up and sometimes they lean on you. Sometimes it's just enough to know they're standing by." ©Seventyfour / Adobe StockWriter Elisabeth Foley points out that friendship doubles your joy and divides your grief, and that the most beautiful discovery that true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.

If a couple tries to conceive but can’t seem to do it, one of the first things that doctors look for is a problem with the man’s sperm. Sperm compose about 5 to 10 percent of semen, and are the only part of the semen that can cause pregnancy. If a man is infertile, there is a problem with his sperm — often a low sperm count or low motility.

Premature ejaculation is a common but stressful concern, and not just among young men. A premature ejaculator can’t keep himself from ejaculating (or “coming”) before he wants to. The cause is not physical, but mental. In other words, it’s not the man’s penis that is “malfunctioning,” but his brain. The upside is that a man can learn how to control his orgasms and avoid premature ejaculation with time and discipline.

Many people have the erroneous notion that oral sex is completely safe because no one ever became pregnant through oral sex. But oral sex isn't entirely safe when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). With more people engaging in oral sex, more people are catching STDs through oral sex. It is absolutely essential, if you want a healthy sex life, that you know how to have oral sex safely — for you and your partner.

Stereotypes and conventional wisdom are sometimes hard to ignore, especially when about sex. Movies and TV, our friends and peers, and a variety of other things give everyone some pretty unrealistic expectations about sex. Here are a few, and why they're not important. If I haven't had sex by the time I'm 18, I'm a loser When you're 85 years old and you look back at your life, the age at which you first had sex will be absolutely irrelevant.

The sexual response cycle is, essentially, a clinical version of how a human body responds during sex. By examining thousands of examples, scientists are able to carefully describe the events that happen in the lead-up, actual experience, and follow-up of the sexual act. If you truly want to know what exactly is going on when two people have sex, the physical side is all explained through the sexual response cycle: Sexual Desire Phase: The Sexual Desire Phase, sometimes called the libido, precedes actual physical or psychological stimulation.

Knowing how a penis functions can provide useful insight into sex and the human body — whether you want to understand the penis and male anatomy better or learning about it for the first time. Basically, a penis is composed of three structures, which are made of a spongelike material that can fill with blood: The two corpus cavernosa contain the central arteries and lie on the top half of the penis.

Having regular prostate exams are important as a man ages. The prostate gland — located below the bladder — can become enlarged and cause increased frequent urination. This problem, called benign prostatic hypertrophy, is bothersome but not dangerous. Prostate cancer, on the other hand, can be quite dangerous if it isn’t discovered and treated in time.

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as lasting too long during sex. Retarded ejaculation (or male orgasmic disorder) is a condition in which a man can’t make himself ejaculate. Whether in a man or woman, the inability to orgasm can make sexual intercourse frustrating or even undesirable. Finding the cause is the key to learning how to fix retarded ejaculation.