Sexual Activities

What are Sexual Activities? “

Sex is a way of showing difference between male/boy and female/girl while sexual activities involves various activities that one engages in, either alone or with a partner to experience sexual pleasure or for reproduction. Remember, you can become sexually excited without having sexual intercourse, you can choose to abstain from sex until you are ready. There are different types of sexual activities which includes vaginal sex, oral sex, kissing, masturbation etc.

Types of sexual activities

Vaginal sex:

Vaginal sexual intercourse occurs when a male’s erect penis or an object such as sex toys goes inside the female’s vagina. If you are a girl and have never had sex before, vaginal sex can hurt a bit the first time you engage in it. This is because your hymen – a piece of tissue inside your vagina – can stretch and tear the first time you have sex. You may or may not bleed a little. Though it is possible that you already experienced this stretching earlier in life from something else, like exercise or riding a bike. Although it is very rare, a girl may be born without a hymen. Also If there is not enough lubrication or the vagina is not wet enough, it can hurt both for the boy and the girl. If you don’t feel ready to have sex – emotionally or physically, sex might hurt as well.

Oral sex:

Oral sex, also referred to as “”blow job””, involves using your mouth to suck or lick another person’s penis or vagina. A girl cannot get pregnant from oral sex, but oral sex without protection puts both you and your partner at risk for STIs. safer is always better. So for safer oral sex, use a condom to cover the penis, or a dental dam, cut-open condom to cover the vagina or anus.

Anal sex:

Anal sex means penis-in-anus intercourse. Anal sex can hurt if you are not relaxed and don’t use a lubricant. The anus is not always wet like the vagina, so you really need to use lubricant for anal sex to make it feel better and keep the condom from breaking. However, if you don’t like anal sex or don’t want to try it, don’t let anyone force you into doing it. Sex should feel good, be safe and comfortable for you and your partner. A girl can’t get pregnant from anal sex, but there is a big chance of getting STIs including HIV, from unprotected anal sex. So it is important to always use condoms AND lubricant during anal sex to reduce the risk of STIs.

Use of Sex toys (e.g. vibrators):

Sex toys are objects used to increase sexual pleasure like dildo and vibrators. Some people like to use sex toys as part of their sexual activity. To avoid passing on STIs, put a fresh condom on the sex toy, if you and your partner share the same sex toys or do not share sex toys at all. You should ensure to always clean the sex toys with warm soapy water after using them before you keep them properly.

Masturbation:

Masturbation is when you touch a part of your own body especially your sexual organs to become aroused. The body parts touched for pleasure could include the clitoris, breasts, nipples, vagina, penis or anus. Different people find different things exciting. Getting to know your own body through masturbation can be a good way to find out about your sexual feelings and desires. Masturbation is not bad for you. It is your choice whether you do it or not. Mutual masturbation is when you and your partner touch each other’s sexual organs. This practice is safe however there is risk of pregnancy or STIs if you are rubbing your genitals together without protection.

Other types of sexual activities

There are some sexual activities that does not involve penetration of the vagina, mouth or anus with the penis or objects: Some of them include foreplay like touching of the sexual parts of the body and kissing which is done when people use their mouth or lips for pleasure, either by touching each other’s lips, or other parts of the body apart from the genital organs with their lips. A popular type of kissing is known as French kissing, this is when you put your mouth together with that of your partner and you both use your lips and tongues for pleasure. These activities can be regarded as a safer sex practices, but if a man has semen on his fingers and it gets into the vagina there may be a risk of pregnancy or an STI, if the man has it. (If you are having any form of sexual activity please check here to know more about your risk level).

What is safer sex?

Safer sex is anything we do when we engage in sexual activities to lower the risk of getting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) or giving others STIs. While no sexual activity is 100% safe – because you can even catch herpes from kissing someone that has it. Since not all STIs show visible symptoms, people don’t always know when they have them. Pregnancy could also occur. However there are some ways to have safer sex.

Ways to have safer sex

For vaginal sex, use condoms correctly every time you have sex
For anal sex, use condoms and lubricant correctly every time you have sex
For oral sex, use a condom to cover the penis or a dam, cut-open condom, to cover the vulva or anus.
Not all kinds of sex have the same risks. Vaginal and anal sex without condom are the most risky, oral sex is also risky. (Check here to know more and find out about your level of risk).