| Dear Josey,
I suffer from premature ejaculation. My girlfriend is trying to help me and found a device online called a Super Kegel Exerciser. Is it helpful for men? I do not want to damage my PC muscles, only strengthen them. How many times should a man exercise his PC muscles per week?
Dear Exercising,
Your very helpful girlfriend has steered you in the right direction… sort of. Strengthening your Kegel, or pubococcygeus (PC), muscle will help improve control. Shelling out good money for contraptions like the Super Kegel Exerciser, however, is a bit like buying a Thigh Master or whatever other contraption is collecting dust bunnies under your bed. The thing that will get the most exercise from this kind of contraption is your wallet.
"Many men achieve more ejaculatory control from exercising their Kegels, but it's unnecessary to use a special contraption," agrees Shelley Taylor, president of Venus Envy in Halifax and Ottawa (venusenvy.ca). Taylor suggests giving your PC muscle – the muscle you use to stop your pee midstream – a squeeze a dozen times a day or so. She also advises men who come before they want to (notice, she doesn’t say prematurely, eliminating the idea that there’s a "correct" amount of time to last), to also try using a cock ring during sex or to practice holding off coming while masturbating.
And, unless you’re bench-pressing a small car with your crotch, you’re unlikely to damage your PC muscles by exercising them, though some research suggests that, like any other muscle, you can strain them. Taylor says it’s important to fully release the muscles after squeezing so they don’t tighten up. Even my favourite male anatomy expert, Dr. Yosh Taguchi in Montreal, says there is no potential danger in exercising your Kegels. He encourages it, especially in male patients who are recovering from prostate surgery as a way to speed up recovery and enhance urine control.
Dear Josey,
I’ve seen quite a number of porn clips that show females ejaculating during anal sex. Is this possible? I thought a female squirts only when her G-spot is stimulated.
Dear Rear,
Having never squirted as a result of bum sex, I took your question to the queen of all things bum sex – columnist, author and pornographer Tristan Taormino.
Taormino says she’s seen lots of women ejaculate during anal penetration.
"One of my favourite porn starlets (now retired) who became known for it was Alisha Klass. Klass did many an anal scene in Seymore Butts’s movies in which she squirted like crazy," she says. "Many women experience indirect G-spot stimulation during anal penetration, and this stimulation can lead to ejaculation. I can't speak for all porn movies or all performers (since there are fakers out there), but performers like Flower Tucci, Cytherea and others are genuine ejaculators."
There you go, straight from the horse’s bum, I mean mouth.
But even if you don’t squirt, plain old orgasm during anal can be a special treat, says Taormino. "When I work my clit while my ass is being fucked, and I come, the orgasm definitely feels different than if I was just having clit stimulation," she explains. "It feels stronger, more intense, more like a full-body orgasm, rather than one primarily centred between my legs."
Check out Tristan Taormino’s just-released House of Ass video as well as the second edition of her book The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, this one with an actual ass on it. Apparently, when the first edition came out in 1998, the publishers insisted the cover only feature text and the word "anal" be in the lightest colour. We’ve come a long way, baby, in part thanks to wonderful enthusiass-ts like Tristan (puckerup.com).
Dear Josey,
I have an embarrassing problem that’s wreaking havoc on my sex life. And when I say wreaking, I mean reeking. My vagina smells and nothing I do eliminates the fishy odour. I also have a lot of discharge and thought I might be experiencing a yeast infection, but yeast infection treatments have been unsuccessful. Any help?
Dear Odour,
Vaginas are practically their own ecosystem, with pH levels trying to stay in balance while good and bad bacteria battle it out like an episode of Survivor. According to Dr. Renee Blumenfeld, a Toronto-based GP, bad bacteria sometimes wins and can cause a little-talked about bacterial infection known as Bacterial Vaginosus, that causes discharge and leaves you smelling like the catch of the day.
Blumenfeld says overgrowth of nasty bacteria can be caused by physiological changes during your menstrual cycle, birth control pills and swimming in chlorinated water. And get this – even sex, or any other activity that leaves you hot and sweaty, can throw your pH balance out of whack.
Unchecked, BV can cause infections of the uterus and fallopian tubes and premature delivery in pregnant women, warns Blumenfeld.
BVs (unlike yeast infections) do make you smell, but unlike yeast infections, they don’t usually make you feel like taking steel wool to your muff. But because yeast infection ads are everywhere and treatments are available over the counter, most women go this route rather than visit a doctor to inquire about their smelly crotch. There are oral prescriptions to treat BV, says Blumenfeld. Meantime, here’s a novel idea: Pop your vadge a vitamin. Apparently Vitamin C makes your vagina more acidic and more good-bacteria friendly. Now before you go shoving a Vitamin C tablet up there, don’t. It’ll burn. And taking them orally won’t help, either. Today Daily pH vaginal vitamin tablets and Today Balance Restore vaginal vitamins are new products available over the counter and might restore pH order down there, says Blumenfeld. According to the company’s literature, "A vitamin a day keeps the ‘gyn-ee’ away." And it beats feeding it an apple a day. For more info, call the company’s toll-free number: 1-888-343-4499. |
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