Dear Readers:

I was halfway through an answer to a reader's very interesting question when said reader wrote back and asked me not to. Instead we're discussing fetishes and how they do or don't mesh well with regular partnered sex. The questioner had done everything a body could do to accommodate the partner's special interests, yet the fetish was proving a more powerful draw than the willing, accommodating live body, and the questioner was wondering if there was really room in the relationship for two humans and an object.Read more »

Dear Andrea:

Have you seen those commercial for the new K-Y product, with all the geysers going off and so on? They're funny, but does the product work — and why? I have orgasms, but not always, Besides, anything that could make it even more fun ...

Love,

Happy Shopper

Dear Shop:

It's hard to miss those prim little couples with their giant expulsions of boiling fluids. They are pretty funny. But are they accurate?Read more »

Dear Andrea:

My husband and I are in our early 40s. We have been together 15 years and married for nine. We have sex about once a week, which is all we can manage with two little kids, two full time jobs, and everything else.Read more »

Dear Readers:

This week's letter of greatest interest, a well-composed rant against my supposed blind devotion to Western medicine, ignorance of same, and lack of understanding of the holistic approach to complaints such as hyposexual desire disorder, is really, really long. Here is one of the good parts: Read more »

Dear Andrea: As long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with gyno play and playing doctor. I've grown more and more interested in the idea of cervical dilation/cervical insertions, but have been unable to find any literature on the subject. I understand that any cervical penetration has the possibility of causing cramps and/or other pain, but I am anxious and willing to experiment with this aspect of such play. Any advice?

Love, Stretch meRead more »

Dear Readers:

Ah, flibanserin, we hardly knew ye.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee voted 10 to 1 on June 18 that flibanserin, 100 mg (Girosa; Boehringer Ingelheim), was not significantly better than placebo for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). They also voted unanimously that the benefits did not compensate for its adverse effects. (Medscape, June 21)

Bah.Read more »

Dear Andrea:

I'm 41 and finally starting to wonder why sex has never been as big a deal for me as it seems to be for most people. Early on in a relationship it's pretty interesting, but that fades pretty fast (for me, not the guy) and then ... nothing. Am I dysfunctional? Or asexual? Is there a pill for this?

Love,

Dreary Doris

Dear Doris:

Sadly, no. I'm a big fan of the quick fix and if there were a pill I would be all over that sucker, but there is not.Read more »