Interesting Facts About Sex
Every week, www.pillowchats.com explores some fascinating findings researchers discovered about sex. Here are this week's intersting findings.
Those who think that oral sex is a safe alternative to actual sexual intercourse are in for a wake-up call. Maura Gillison at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore discovered that people who have had one to five oral sex partners in their lifetime had approximately doubled their risk of throat cancer compared with those who have never engaged in this activity - and those with more than five oral sex partners had a 250% increased risk. Researchers believe this is because oral sex may transmit the human papilloma virus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer. The test was conducted by taking saliva samples from the throats of 100 patients diagnosed with cancer and 200 samples from healthy people. Even more recently (July 2009), the American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer, Otis Brawley, MD, said that as many as half of the oropharyngeal cancers diagnosed today appear to be caused by an HPV infection. Unlike other forms of STD, the HPV virus is undetectable without a thorough test from the gynocologist. So be careful and you just might want to use a condom!
The May 2008 issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine conducted a survey of sex therapists and concluded that the ideal time for sexual intercourse is 3-13 minutes, EXCLUDING foreplay. One to two minutes is considered too short, 3-7 minutes is acceptable and 7-13 minutes is dubbed as ideal. Also, for guys who think they are hunks and can last much longer than 13 minutes, it just means that they have never slept with a woman with a stop watch. A 4-week study of 1,500 couples with stop watches indicated that the average time was 7.3 minutes. Having intercourse that lasts longer than 13 minutes may also be more painful than pleasurable for both men and women. Contrary to adult videos, most people do not have very exciting sex lives and it does not go on forever.
Dr. Gordon Gallup, a professor at the State University of New York at Albany, says that women with higher estrogen levels have higher pitched voices, which makes them more desirable to men. The study was conducted by asking 10 men to rate the attractiveness of 10 female voices. Some clips came from the same woman at different times during their menstrual cycles. During ovulation, women are most fertile, their voices have higher pitches and become significantly more attractive to men. Does that mean women who whine are thought to be more appealing? If so, I guess I should whine more.
Sex is fun, but safe practice is always a good idea.
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