Long term relationships are sexually satisfying

Photo by Ian MacKenzie

I love this new research out about couples in long term relationships and sexual satisfaction. Run by the Kinsey Institute, renown for "advancing sexual health and knowledge worldwide," it shows that not only do men enjoy kissing and cuddling but it's actually more important to them than to women, and sexual satisfaction is slightly more important to women. Men also reported being happier if they were healthy and they could make their partners orgasm. These findings seem contrary to popular opinion which makes the study especially interesting.

The study participants were men aged 40-70 and their female partners in relationships as short as 1 year, but on average 25 years long from 5 countries (United States, Japan, Germany, Spain, and Brazil). The more kissing and caressing a couple shared, the more likely they were to be sexually satisfied. And the longer the couple had been together, the happier they were.

These study results show that intimacy between couples leads to happiness and sexual satisfaction. Cuddling and caressing are sweet, intimate acts that people share with each other when they genuinely like each other. Think about it -- how often do you touch someone you don't like? Probably never or at least as little as possible. And the longer a couple is together, the more comfortable they are with each other, and the more comfortable you are with someone, the better the sex becomes because there's greater intimacy between the two of you. The study bears this out: women reported being more sexually satisfied the longer they'd been in their relationship.

This MSNBC article is a pretty cute write up on the study results: The jig is up — guys like to cuddle more. The Kinsey article: Couples report gender differences in relationship, sexual satisfaction over time, and the study results in PDF format.

Medication Abortion

Even if you are using birth control, accidents can happen and nothing but abstinence is 100% safe. An unwanted pregnancy may be one such accident. If you don't want to have or keep the baby, you may consider adoption or abortion. Your decision may be affected by your personal and religious beliefs, your knowledge of and experience in sexual matters, and information you have or will receive regarding your pregnancy. But no matter what, that decision is yours to make. In order to maximize your options, make sure you find out as soon as possible if you are pregnant or not.

There are two abortion options: medication or surgical. The medication option is the easiest and involves taking 2 pills over the course of 2-3 days, but needs to be done within 9 weeks of the first day of your last period. You will need to confirm your pregnancy at the clinic or with your health care provider in order to get a medication abortion.

Procedure: There are two pills to take, then a follow up visit with the doctor afterwards to ensure that the pregnancy has been terminated. If the medication abortion failed, then an surgical abortion will need to be done to complete the process. The medication abortion works 97 out of 100 times.

The first pill stops progesterone and causes your uterus to break down. The 2nd pill is taken within 3 days of the 1st and it causes the uterus to empty. The 2nd pill will probably cause cramping and bleeding that usually lasts for a few hours, and bleeding and spotting that can last up to 4 weeks.

For more complete information, please take a look at the Planned Parenthood webpage on medication abortions and make sure to review all the questions at the bottom and expand for the complete answers.