Better Sex Through Science
By Dr. Sari Locker
Maxim December 2006
As a professional sexologist, I’ve had the benefit of learning about sex through sex research. Science can be a great instructor, so pay close attention to the following studies. They might just make you a better lover.
Women Like to Watch, Too
There's an old myth that only men are visually aroused. When Brain Research, a scientific journal, examined the brainwave activity of people viewing erotic and non-erotic pictures, they found that women’s neuroelectrical impulses were just as strong as men’s when viewing sexy images. So now what? If she’s definitely aroused by what she sees, try spicing up your sex life by giving her some eye candy. Strip for her! Of course, some of you will probably try to cite this research to get your girlfriends to watch porn with you. If she's into it, choose videos that illustrate her fantasies and feature people she could find attractive. According to science, it could turn her on, too.
The G-Spot Isn’t Always Your Best Bet
Surely you’ve heard that stimulating the G-spot may give a woman sexual pleasure—that’s been a prevailing conception since German physician Ernst Grafenberg discovered this elusive zone in 1893. But this may not be entirely true: One study showed that while the anatomical G-spot area is always there, it doesn’t always have a higher concentration of nerve endings, and therefore may not give a woman any sensation at all. How can this make you a better lover? The trial and error effect. If you want to explore whether she has sensation in her G-spot, rub the upper inner wall of her vagina. If she responds with oohs and ahhs, then she may be sensitive there. If not, you’ll know to move on to her C-spot—the clitoris—instead. All women are capable of having orgasms from their clitoris!
During Sex You Don’t Feel Much Pain
Whether it’s a broken leg or the sting of being spanked, you won’t be feeling too much pain during sex. Research has shown that when you are sexually aroused, your pain receptors don’t respond as strongly as they usually do. What this means to your sex life: 1) If you’re already injured before climbing into bed, be careful because you won’t know if you’re hurting yourself worse. 2) If your girlfriend is a scratcher, watch out—you might wake up with bloody marks that you never even felt during sex. 3) If you are into spanking, you’ll have to ask her to hit you extra hard.
Semen May Make Women Less Depressed
In a scientific study of college women, publised in Archives of Sexual Behavior, those who had direct exposure to semen because they did not use condoms had lower rates of depression than those who used condoms. This study ruled out other explanations and expressed the possibility that when it semen absorbed into the vagina, it may counteract depression. The huge problem with this study, however, is that women who contract sexually transmitted infections or who have an unintended pregnancy may have a much higher rate of depression than other women. So even though it’s interesting, you cannot use it to try to persuade a woman to not use a condom. Use condoms to help prevent sexually transmitted infections..
Bondage may be more popular than you think.
Do you think of bondage as a kinky, fringe behavior that any “normal” person would never venture into? Well, the fact is that there’s a good chance that even your boring next-door neighbor, your best friend of 10 years, or even your girlfriend may be into it. A study found that twenty percent of people worldwide report using masks or blindfolds during sex, and 11 percent of men and 17 percent of women report attempting bondage in a more serious way, such as consensually binding a partner’s hand and feet during sex. What does this mean? If this is something you want to try, it doesn’t hurt to ask—the ties that bind might just set you free.
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