Sex facts

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There is no reliably safe day

Sperm outlive the assumption the calendar method rests on.

There is no reliably safe day

Sperm can survive in the female reproductive tract for up to five days. That alone breaks the arithmetic: intercourse well before ovulation can still result in pregnancy, and it does. Pregnancy during menstruation is uncommon but entirely possible, particularly for people with shorter cycles.

The larger problem is that ovulation is not punctual. A study following 213 women found that fewer than a third ovulated between days 13 and 15, and that on every single cycle day from day 6 to day 21 at least some women were in their fertile window. Even women who described their cycles as regular showed substantial variation.

Sources

Wilcox et al., BMJ (2000); Trussell, Contraception (2011)

Related facts

No food has ever been shown to be an aphrodisiac

Oysters, chocolate, chilli — all of it fails under a placebo control.

Men do not think about sex every seven seconds

That would be 8,000 times a day. The measured figure is 19.

Nobody can tell by looking

The examination that is supposed to reveal virginity reveals nothing.
The sex-toy guide

A shop has two hundred of them. One of them is right for you.

Seven questions: who it is for, what sounds appealing, how quiet it has to be, what it may cost. Out comes one type — with what to look for, what it costs, and what nobody prints on the box.

  • Sixteen types, from a bullet vibrator to a blindfold
  • No brands, no shop, nothing for sale here
  • Two minutes, and nothing is saved
Start the seven questions For the two of you

Find out what you both want — without either of you saying it first.

You each answer twenty questions on your own, and neither of you ever sees the other’s answers. Only what you both said yes or maybe to comes back. A no and a maybe look identical from outside, so saying no costs nothing — which is what makes the answers honest.

  • Six sets of twenty questions — three by depth, three by subject
  • An evening you can actually plan, built from what you agreed on
  • No account, no names, and it deletes itself after a few days
Open Let’s talk about sex

General information, not medical advice. Anything persistent or painful belongs with a doctor, who has heard it before.