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.

How should parents handle it when a child walks in on them in the middle of sexual intercourse? First, don’t worry too much about the time your child accidentally catches you making love. This situation happens to plenty of couples, and, if you don’t make a big deal of it, the child probably won’t realize what was going on, and there will be no consequences whatsoever.

Female orgasms tend to come in more varieties than male orgasms. Because of that, women’s orgasms have been an issue of contention ever since the days of Sigmund Freud in the early 1900s. Women have reported experiencing the following types of orgasms: Clitoral orgasms: These orgasms are triggered by stimulation of the clitoris, either before, during, or after intercourse.

The anus has a lot of nerve endings, so anal sex can be pleasurable to both the man and the woman. That said, it also comes with a lot of risk. If you want a healthy sex life, you absolutely must know how to have anal sex safely. It’s true that no one has ever gotten pregnant from anal sex—but many, many people have contracted sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) this way.

What's commonly called a permanent erection is an erection that won’t go away within four hours; the medical term for this condition is priapism. In priapism, blood becomes trapped in the penis and cannot flow out. A permanent erection isn't a sign of masculinity, but of a true medical problem. Anyone who has an erection that won’t go away even after orgasm/ejaculation should seek medical treatment or head to the emergency right away.

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.

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.

What is sex, exactly? In other words, what "counts" as having sex? And when do you stop being a virgin? Sexual relations cover activities beyond intercourse: They also include outercourse, oral sex, and anal sex. So what are the differences and how do they impact virginity? One thing that all forms of sex (outercourse, oral sex, anal sex, and intercourse) have in common is that they involve two people giving each other the pleasure that comes from having an orgasm.