Chapter Highlights for My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy - Safer Sex

Welcome to the next blog in the series - Chapter Highlights for My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy.

This blog is about chapter eight - Safer Sex.

Usually in sex ed when they talk about safe sex, it is all about condoms and bananas, or abstinence. Not only is it unrealistic, there is also no real exploration of what safer sex actually is or what it looks and feels like.

Safer sex is all about how to make good choices for your body and your mind. We aren’t focused on what we are trying to physically avoid (pregnancy and STIs). We are focused on consent, pleasure and keeping ourselves safe.

This chapter describes safer sex both as an individual and in partnered sex. Sex is explained, including intercourse and oral sex. We use pictures and succinct words to keep it easy to understand.

Contraception is introduced, first up is female contraception. The four main female contraceptives are explained - the pill, the depo-provera injection, implant and IUD. Each one is explained in Easy English with pictures to show what they look like and how they work.

Then we move onto condoms, both male and female. Again, pictures and Easy English is used to explain both male and female condoms. We learn how to use the condom, when to use either condom, how to remove the condom, where to dispose of the used condom and that any condom can only be used once.

Step by step instructions are used to show exactly how to put on/in a condom and how to remove the condom. Both for male and female bodies.

When we have finished learning about contraception, we learn about communication during sex.

Communication during sex is a vital part of safer sex. It ensures there is still consent, that you are both enjoying what is happening and you are both having your needs met. To do this, we learn to ask what makes our partner feel good and to tell or show our partner what feels good for us.

Thanks to the lack of sex education everyone has had, often porn becomes the default sex educator. Unfortunately, this often leads to an unpleasant sexual experience for all involved. To counteract this, we learn that during intercourse, it is important to not go too hard or fast and to check with our partner that they are enjoying it. Again, reinforcing that communication is vital to having a good sexual experience.

We finish off this chapter with an important reminder - that the goal of sex needs to be sexual pleasure and not orgasm. When we are focused on the end, we miss everything that occurs along the way.

When we are connected through our communication, our bodies are safe from STIs and pregnancy (when not desired), the pleasure that is experienced during sex can amplify the end, making the orgasm all the more pleasurable.

My life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy is available now to download onto a phone, iPad or tablet device.

Not only does it make comprehensive sexual health education easy, it also supports the reader to have privacy while learning.