Prostate Health

Every November you’ll see men sporting mustaches in support of men’s health awareness called Movember. One of the important issues they often bring up is prostate health. Overall health and wellness affects your sexual health and wellness. In men, prostate health can be a major factor in their sex lives. As they get older the prostate can enlarge giving rise to a number of heath problems. These health problems can then cause issues that become sexual health problems. Let’s learn more about the prostate, where it is and how it works, and how it affects sexual health. Also, what can we do it improve prostate health.

What It Is and How It Works

The prostate is a gland found in male-bodied individuals. It’s located below the bladder, in front of the rectum, and surrounds the urethra. The urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder so the location of the prostate factors into certain health conditions. The gland is about the size of a walnut. It creates fluid that supports and nourishes sperm. During ejaculation, the prostate squeezes fluid through the urethra and the expelled fluid mixes with sperm coming from the testicles via the vasa differentia and seminal vesicle fluid to become semen. The prostate functions are regulated by testosterones. The milky white alkaline fluid, which houses the sperm, helps to neutralize the acidity of the vaginal track. It helps to prolong the life of the sperm and protect the genetic material they contain.

A Guide to Erotica

I’ve covered recommended non-fiction books on sexuality but there’s another genre that can also help your sex life, Erotica. Erotica, literature intended to arouse sexual desire, has been around for a long time. Humans have enjoyed reading and writing about sex in a variety of ways with a myriad of themes. It’s a way to explore fantasies by using the theater of the mind. Evidence of erotica dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. Today, erotica has been gaining momentum in mainstream acceptance and popularity. There is so much out there, though, that it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, or if chaff is your thing to find the one that appeals to you. Here are some recommendations of authors and genres, from the dawn of erotica to modern times, to help guide you in your quest for some delicious erotica

Classic Erotica

From the time humans began communicating with written text they seem to be writing about explicit sexual adventures. Early examples only exist in fragments but you can start with a 15th century erotic tale like The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. This book contains 100 tales of seven women and three men hiding in a villa outside Florence during the Black Death. The 16th century brought us The Heptameron by Margueritte De Navarre is a collection of erotic takes inspired by The Decameron. The 18th Century had a number of erotic novels; Fanny Hill – A Memoir of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Justine or The Misadventures of Virtue by Marquis De Sade. The 19th century gave us The Autobiography of a Flea by Anonymous, a story told from the viewpoint of a flea, The Romance of Lust by Anonymous which is four volumes about a young man’s sexual adventures, and Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoc who’s name was used to coin the phrase masochism.

20th Century Erotica

The 20th century managed to release the grip of the conservative and buttoned up Victorian era enabling readers to find more erotica than ever before. Early novels like D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover published in the late 20’s, Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller from the mid ‘30’s, Story of O by Pauline Reage, from the mid 50s’, Emmanuelle by Emmanuelle Arasan, in the late ‘60’s, Fear of Flying by Erica Jong in the early ‘70’s, Delta of Venus by Anais Nin and 9 ½ weeks by Elizabeth McNeil from the late 70’s pushed boundaries. The 80’s became saturated with content leaving no specific titles coming to the forefront. Perhaps Endless Love by Scott Spencer and the memorable BDSM trilogy The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Roquelaure (Anne Rice) in the early 80’s.