It’s March, which means we’re back again to recognize Endometriosis Awareness Month! Endometriosis Awareness Month takes place across the globe every March, with a mission to raise the profile of endometriosis. Last March we covered the basics – what is endometriosis, who can ‘have’ endometriosis, the underpinnings of why we only have information on certain populations of people with endometriosis, and how to receive a diagnosis – if you’re interested in seeing this, you can find our blog from last March HERE. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then. Endometriosis is still underrecogniz ..read more

A key component to a sexual relationship is the physical element of intimacy, however, that is not always possible due to physical distance if partners live far from each other. Technological advancements over the past several decades perhaps made it easier for people to be in Long Distance Relationships (LDRs). It has been found that 58% of LDRs are successful, and most of the time, factors such as communication, jealousy, and trust determine the success rates of LDRs (Schmall, 2018). Do the downsides to LDRs outweigh the positives, though? Are LDRs really all that difficult? This blog will e ..read more

Have you ever wondered why Leonardo DiCaprio only dates women under 25? Or what Sir Mix-a-Lot and his many fans like? (It’s big butts and he cannot lie.) Or how people on the Netflix show Love Is Blind can feel attracted to a person to the point of pursuing a marriage, before ever seeing one another’s physical appearances? These examples simply scratch the surface of the many potential partner characteristics (in this case; age, physical appearance, and emotional connection) that may be deemed sexually arousing, yet the list does not end here. Sexual arousal is a complex physiological and psyc ..read more

Social media has become the cornerstone of connection to others and to information for many people. Some people and organizations invest a lot of time building their social media “brand” to provide followers with consistency and familiarity as well as to set themselves apart in unique ways from other accounts. It can be quite inconvenient, and perhaps in some cases, devastating, for an organization or person to have their account hacked. That is exactly what happened to our original Instagram account (@sexlab.ca) in May 2022. As a sexual health research lab, we use social media to share infor ..read more

So, we all understand what people mean when they say that they are feeling sexually aroused, right? It means they are feeling “turned on”, “horny”, “hot”, and so on. It means that they feel ready to engage sexually, whether or not sexual behaviour by themselves or with others (consensually, of course) is imminent. Some people hold on to these feelings without behaving sexually, called “simmering” by some sexual health experts (Castleman, 2018), and others may use these feelings as a signal to engage sexually. There are infinite variations of how people experience and manifest their sexual arou ..read more

You probably won’t find audio pornography on the front page of Pornhub, but for many consumers of sexual media, audio is a refreshing (and perhaps needed) way to get turned on! Engaging with audio in a sexual way can come in many forms, from listening to a recorded erotic story, to tuning in to ASMR, or to enjoying the backing audio of conventional visual porn. Perhaps its versatility is one of the reasons why, according to numerous news outlets (Vice, The Guardian), audio porn is becoming a booming business, and its popularity is only increasing. Although sexual audios have existed in the pas ..read more

“Blue balls” is a term used to describe scrotal pain (pain in “the balls”) following heightened sexual arousal that did not result in ejaculation (Challet et al., 2000). But what is “blue balls” really? Many would be surprised to learn that there has been next to no research surrounding the prevalence or cause of this condition. The first and only case report published to date about a patient with “blue balls” was by Dr. Jonathan Chalett in 2000, in which a 14-year-old boy reported sharp scrotal pain following engagement in sexual activity without ejaculation; the patient had no other symptoms ..read more

It’s March, which means it is officially Endometriosis Awareness Month! Endometriosis Awareness Month takes place across the globe every March, with a mission to raise the profile of endometriosis. I know what you’re probably thinking – Endometri-What? Let’s break it down: Endometriosis is a painful, chronic inflammatory condition, which is characterised by the presence of tissue similar to the lining of the uterus growing outside of the uterus, often on the pelvic organs and tissues (Carbone et al., 2021; O’Hara et al., 2021). Endometriosis is commonly characterized by life-altering pain (Cul ..read more

Swipe left, Super Like, send a rose. Many of us are familiar with these terms. Dating apps are more popular than ever, especially since the pandemic. Tinder reported that its busiest year was 2020, and Hinge tripled its revenue from 2019-2020 (Jamal, 2021). Dating apps give us access to a large pool of people that we might not otherwise be able to meet. Whether you’re looking for a casual hookup, a new friend, or a relationship, apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and Grindr are becoming the increasingly common answer. With all the benefits, why isn’t everyone on dating apps? Well, it turns out t ..read more