During junior high and even earlier, we learned a lot about how our bodies function.
Unfortunately, lots of it was wrong, wrong, wrong! In our society, sex has always been a bit of a problem.
It embarrassed our parents.
It shocked our teachers.
And it confused us kids.
Violent war movies were considered more acceptable for kids to watch than movies featuring a simulation of sex.
As for human conception...
well, some of us had sex in our teens, thinking that we could only get pregnant by kissing! No wonder we still get uptight and anxious about how we get pregnant! I want to share with you a story that I still look back on with a smile.
When I was twelve, I started having periods.
I knew all about periods - not from a book or from my mother, but from my friends, a giggling group of 12-year-olds who each looked forward to getting her period as a sort of junior high status symbol.
I hate to think about how much I didn't know at that time, but my friends and I were sure we knew everything! After being given a tampon by a pigtailed buddy, I went home and told my mother about this great event.
She went to her bedroom (to her hope chest, perhaps?) and brought back a strange contraption made of thin elastic straps; a huge, puffy sanitary pad; and a copy of a book entitled "Facts of Life and Love for Teenagers.
"' The thing I still remember from that book is the fact that teenagers should not linger in bed in the morning...
even on Saturdays...
because they might be tempted to do unseemly things to their bodies.
For years, I had no idea what that meant.
But I digress.
Let's take a look at what really goes on with this mysterious process of conception.
A woman's cycle - it seems we've been hearing about that since we had our first periods.
Primarily, it meant worrying about tampons versus sanitary napkins - and whether we were going to find awful red stains on our white jeans.
To me, secretly, it meant the power of women to carry and deliver a baby, something only females could do.
But the necessary parts were all hidden from us girls...
and by the time we were women, most of us had no idea what we looked like "down there.
" If you looked into a mirror (bear with me here), you'd see the glistening pink vaginal walls.
At the top of the vagina is the bottom of the uterus, where a baby develops until birth.
The cervix has a small opening that allows sperm cells to swim up the vagina into the uterus and then into the Fallopian tube.
That's where one hardy sperm cell penetrates the lone egg cell...
and conception takes place.
Let's say that you're having sex on afternoon (it beats watching war movies).
The erect penis has prepared for sex by releasing a slippery, clear fluid.
This insures survival of the sperm.
It's also a lubricant, to make entry of the penis into the vagina easier.
Of course, the vagina, during arousal, has also become well-lubricated with a clear fluid.
So - easy entry, a build-up to orgasm, and then relaxation, maybe even sleep.
Sound like fun? Well, of course it does, but when we're overly concerned about conception...
or about a project at work, or whose family gets us for Thanksgiving, we've put stress right in the middle of the process.
And stress and tension diminish the thrill of sex.