You know, I'm still close friends with Audra, so if you feel like you'd benefit from a conversation with someone who has been in this spot, I'm happy to ask her to come by the boards for you, just LMK.

Whether it's in an article or in a post, when we are accounting for pregnancy risks that can occur with a given activity, we account for all of the factors that can be involved. But trace amounts of semen on fingers, even if that is part of manual sex, just isn't a way pregnancy can happen, for a fe...

Hi there, Lyle. You know, when another kind of abuse has occurred/is part of a relationship, like sexual abuse or physical abuse, it's also usually a given that emotional abuse is involved. With sexual abuse in particular, emotional abuse is usually a component of that abuse in and of itself. Trying...

Hey there, Max. While asymmetry is what's most normal in human bodies, sometimes folks like yourself find that the asymmetry of some part of the body is profound, to the degree that it makes you feel lopsided in a big way. I'm sorry that it's been making it tougher for you to accept your body. There...

It's okay.

Did those pieces answer your questions for you?

I do want to just poke in and ask if what you mean in this post is simply that it feels good to let yourself fully feel and have feelings of pain, sadness or depression. We can often get the message in the world that if and when we are having those feelings, we need to work to get rid of them, to fe...

Hey there, SillyMcGoof. I want to remind you of something I've asked before that's also part of the user agreement. Can you please use the search function for the site before posting? The boards aren't meant to replace the whole site and all the information on it, just to support it. If you put &quo...

I'm so sorry to hear all of this, and I really empathize with your struggle as her friend who wants so badly to help. Would you mind sharing with me where you're both at in Ireland? I'd like to try and find some in-person resources that would probably be the best help for your friend (and ideally no...

I do want to make sure that there is room in all this for you to be who you are as a person, and room for your sexuality. It's one thing to try and expand our horizons some for our own pleasure or mutual benefit: it's another when we feel like we have to try so hard to do something because someone e...

Because you're boiling the water, that just isn't something you have to worry about. Just like boiling takes care of any bacteria on your cup, it does the same for the pot you're boiling it in. And UTIs happen when and if bacteria enters the urinary tract, not the vagina, and they aren't connected. ...

You so don't need a new pot or reserve a pot only for this use! Your cup and what was in it won't do anything to your pot, and the same is true in reverse. And cleaning the pot before and after works with this the same way it does with anything else you put in a pot.

Hey there. You know, it's never going to be accurate with things as diverse as human sexuality or the experience of pleasure to do a thing where you figure something is a given way for almost everyone, then radically different for you. I don't think it's helpful, either, because having an unrealisti...

I'm positive it's not an orgasm and my body just kinda has a small seizure if I keep touching myself after it happens. Unless you have a seizure disorder, this probably isn't a seizure. However, if you are feeling what you imagine a seizure feels like, it is very possible that this IS an orgasm for...

We can't ever tell someone what the chances are a pregnancy will occur separate from effectiveness rates of any method or methods of contraception that were used. That's because knowing when and if someone will or won't become pregnant from any one given incident is just something where information ...

Hi there, Lyle. I hope I can add to the help for you here. So, if and when you were to run into or see this guy, I'd say your main, and usually best, option is just to leave wherever you are that you do see him. Since it sounds like this would likely be limited to family events, is just excusing you...

You know, the thing is, what most educated doctors will tell you is that two years of the exact same pattern is what's unusual, not variation. The idea that with periods, or periods/bleeding with Depo someone will have the exact same things year after year after year doesn't square with reality. In ...

Why the distress? Our bodies are gonna do what they are gonna do (and won't what they won't) pretty much for our whole lives. I don't think thinking of ejaculating or any other sexual response as an achievement is a good way to approach sex and sexual response. I'd say it's more often a recipe for d...

They are, to the best of my knowledge, safe and made with the understanding that they will be used genitally, unlike, say, a lot of soaps. However, just like we'd tell people not to use flavored condoms for vaginal sex who know they (or their partners) are particularly sensitive to sugars, we'd sugg...

Hi there, and welcome to the boards. There's nothing weird about these questions. Our hormones can't really be "crazy" and they generally are only one of the reasons we might want to be sexual with ourselves or with anyone else. But no one needs a reason or cause to masturbate: it's someth...

Hi there. So, the way to learn what feels good for us is with a lot of practice. Only having masturbated two times is often a lot like only having practiced playing the piano two times: you're brand, brand new to it, are at the very beginning of finding anything out, you are only now just starting t...

Hey there, aesop. Generally, what "lesbian" means to most people is someone who themselves identifies as a woman who primarily finds themselves attracted to other people who do. With you being transmasculine, and your only current partner also being transmasculine, that doesn't feel like a...

I'm happy to start a conversation with you about how to make sound choices when there's risk involved. Though it sounds more to me like where you're having a hard time is twofold: it sounds like you're not picking up on when someone is being a creep (like sexualizing someone via a post about their s...

It’d be pretty unusual for someone your age to be diagnosed with sexual compulsivity. How about you check in with him and get the facts and background about this (like, when was he diagnosed? What behavior was that based on? How long has he been seeing the therapist who made this diagnosis?) and the...

Hey there, F4iirrry. I do just want to drop a note that "hypersexual" (and it's opposite "hyposexual") are effectively terms for clinical diagnoses. Hypersexual usually refers to compulsive sexual behaviour. Are you saying your boyfriend has this diagnosis? If so, I think it's im...

One last important thing: what you do NOT want to do is to try things with masturbation in the headspace of I NEED THIS TO WORK! In other words, when anyone goes into any kind of sex, including masturbation, focused on outcomes -- orgasm, increasing sensation or pleasure -- rather than just letting ...