"Wait, is it bad for my body to have sex on my period?" Listen, there is nothing shameful about asking questions about your body and sex life, but TONS of people end up turning to Google for answers. So we decided to talk to Dr. Lisa Masterson, a practicing Obstetrician and Gynecologist, and Dr. Kia Michel, a practicing Urologist, to ask them Google's MOST ASKED sex questions so we could get some solid information! Please note: These doctors answered these questions to the best of their ability without having any context. These answers still do not replace a doctor's medical advice. If you do have any of these problems, you should see a healthcare professional who can best assess your symptoms and individual health. 1. My vagina is swollen. What do I do? Dr. Lisa Masterson, Obstetrician and Gynecologist: "If the lips are swollen then that's definitely not a good thing because you're walking around with something that's uncomfortable and protruding. It could be a Bartholin's cyst or a Bartholin's abcess. Those things need to be drained by a doctor. If your vagina or the lips again are swollen, that is something you need to see your doctor about." Dr. Kia Michel, Urologist: "So the inflammation can come about because of trauma. Vigorous intercourse or penetration or even vigorous external rubbing." 2. Is my penis small? Dr. Masterson: "I know every guy has a thing about their penis, and really they want to know how a woman's going to react to it. We all see these pictures in the porn magazines, and that may be outside of what is typical. It's like breasts come in different shapes and sizes, so do penises." Dr. Michel: "Why is my penis small? That's one of the most commonly asked questions that we have. Turns out that most men are roughly about the same size in terms of length, which is about six inches. Most men fit within that average of roughly about six inches. So if you feel like you're small, you may not be as small as you think. You may be very very much normal." 3. Should you have sex on your period? Dr. Masterson: "Oh my god, women have such issues with having sex on their period, and it may be their partner. Some are squeamish, some don't want it to look like a crime scene afterwards. It can be the time where women have the most orgasms because they're well-lubricated, they're relaxed, all those hormones are let down, and people should welcome and be good with it, and then put down a lot of towels." Dr Michel: "If that's something you're comfortable with and your partner is, sure. You can still get pregnant so be careful. If you're going to do that you still need to use some form of protection (if you're not trying to get pregnant)." 4. My vagina is peeling. What does that mean? Dr. Masterson: "It might be discharge, it might be shedding layers. That's something you definitely want to see a doctor about. That could be a reaction to a lotion or a soap, sort of a toxic irritant, but it does need to be checked out because nobody wants to walk around with a peeling vagina." 5. Should you have sex if you have an UTI? Dr. Lisa Masterson: "So there's also something called honeymoon cystitis which is actually a bladder infection you may get on your honeymoon if you have sex for the first time, and I will tell you, because I had it, you cannot have sex. Any infections you want to get cleared up before you have intercourse." Dr. Michel: "For most women who have a urinary tract infection if you have intercourse it hurts a lot more, so wait. Nothing's that urgent. If you can just give yourself a few days of antibiotics, make sure the infection's completely rid of, you're in a much, much better place." 6. My penis is bleeding. Help? Dr. Michel: "What happened before the penis started bleeding? You can kinda break up the penis into several different segments. One is the urethra. If there's blood coming out of there then there's been some trauma to the urethra itself. If the urine itself is bloody you've got to make sure that there's something more serious that's not happening, and then there's the external penile skin. You're not going to have too many issues why the penis is bleeding apart from some form of trauma. Sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes with a partner, sometimes by a foreign object." 7. What if I had sex and my cherry didn't pop? Dr. Masterson: "I would imagine what you mean by that is that your hymen stayed intact, and typically it breaks during intercourse for the first time, but that doesn't necessarily have to be. The hymenal ring can actually even burst without intercourse. So, it doesn't really matter if it's there or not. It's okay as long as it's not causing you discomfort." Dr. Michel: "It's also possible that the partner was so small that that didn't occur, but that's very, very rare for that to happen." 8. I had sex and now I'm peeing blood. What's wrong? Dr. Michel: "Most likely you have a urinary tract infection which causes a lot of inflammation inside the bladder. Go to your physician very quickly, get your urine analysis, and your cultures done, and only thereafter take some antibiotics. That should help you quite a bit." 9. What happens if you have unprotected sex and forget to take the pill? Dr. Masterson: "You should call your doctor because there is the Plan B that you can take. And you can actually do this with your own pills and sort of double up, but call your doctor to have them tell you how to do it." Dr. Michel: "Depending on where you are in your last menstrual period, how many times you've actually missed the pill, it could still be an important factor." 10. I had sex and now my discharge smells. Dr. Masterson: "It could just be from sex. Sometimes there's a reaction between the semen and the vaginal fluids, and a lot of times that can cause a specific odor. It could just be from all that friction going on down there, and it could be something else. It could be that they gave you a bacterial infection. So it's just important to get checked out if you do have some odor that you're concerned about that doesn't go away." Dr. Michel: "There could be an infection in there. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomonas — those are the most common infections that we see in women that cause these types of changes." 11. I had sex and didn't feel anything? Dr. Masterson: "Maybe they didn't hit all your right buttons. Everybody has a button, and it may not be a button down there. It may be on the face, it may be by the ear. You just have to keep going at it, keep experimenting. You should feel something. The idea is that it should be enjoyable. It should be connection. If you don't actually feel anything, like say you cut your finger and you don't actually feel anything, you definitely want to talk to your doctor about that because maybe there's some nerve damage or something that's going on that needs to be corrected." Dr. Michel: "There's so many different factors that go into being able to achieve a good orgasm. Have you been drinking a lot? Have you taken any drugs? Have you done anything else that can potentially change your sensuality or your sensation?" Source
