17 weird sex facts you just can’t unlearn
Sex in itself is a pretty weird act, if you really think about it. Yes, it’s also pleasurable, natural, and a great way to connect with another human being, but that doesn’t stop us from occasionally thinking: How? How did this become a thing?
Considering that sex is a bit peculiar on its own, we got to thinking about all the things we don’t know about this act, about all the weird facts out there we’ve yet to discover. In the name of research, we set out to make up for this lack of sex knowledge. These are the weird facts we found (and yes, they make sex even weirder):
1. John Portmann’s novel History of Sin: Its Evolution Today and Beyond makes it known that the Aztecs banned virgins from eating avocados because they believed the fruit to be sexually powerful.
2. OBGYN Dr. Eden Fromberg reveals that high heels can affect a woman’s ability to orgasm – especially since many shoe brands design their heels’ arches to mimic the arch of a woman’s pelvis during an orgasm. This causes heels to affect the body’s pelvic floor, making it unable to flex further during sex.
3. The female orgasm may actually be designed to induce pregnancy. Registered nurse Amy Otis explains, “Theories suggest that muscular contractions associated with orgasms pull sperm from the vagina to the cervix, where it’s in better position to reach the egg.”
4. In her book Egyptian Medicine, Carol Reeves writes that crocodile dung was used as a primitive contraceptive back in ancient Egypt.
5. In 2010, a survey conducted in the United Kingdom found that one-third of the adult population has dealt with a sex-related injury. Examples include a pulled muscle, an injured back, and carpet burns.
6. A 2013 survey found that – out of 2,000 adults between the ages of 18 to 34 – one in five people use their smartphones during sex.
7. So… penises used to have spines. They don’t anymore because men have lost the DNA code that once made this possible.
8. Sexual health educator Dr. Debby Herbenick writes that a process known as “vaginal tenting” allows the vagina to reach 5-6 inches in length when one is aroused.
9. Chicago’s Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation found that the smell of pumpkin can increase blood flow to the penis.
10. During World War I, Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming (the first director of the British Secret Intelligence Service) discovered that semen could be used as invisible ink. However, they had to stop using this “ink” because it began to smell bad after some time passed.
11. It has been estimated that, out of every ten European babies, one was conceived on an Ikea bed.
12. Though it’s quite small, the clitoris contains roughly 8,000 nerve endings, which is double the nerve endings located in the head of the penis.
13. There were penis curses in ancient Greece. In 2008, archeologists discovered a lead tablet on the island’s south coast near Limassol. It reads: “May your penis hurt when you make love.”
14. It can take up to six days for a sperm and an egg to join. That means that sperm are just chilling in the female reproductive system for SIX WHOLE DAYS as they wait for fertilization to occur.
15. Sex can help you stay healthy. “Sexually active people may be exposed to many more infectious agents than sexually non-active people,” states immunologist Clifford Lowell. “The immune system would respond to these foreign antigens by producing and releasing more IgA [an antigen that defends the body against colds and the flu].”
16. The average speed of ejaculation is about 28mph (which is higher than many residential speed limits).
