6 Things Your Sex Life Can Give Thanks for This Year

Thanksgiving: That time of year when we stop and think of all the things we have to be grateful for. This year, I’ve decided to look at some of the things our sex lives have to be thankful for. Check out these six sexy happenings that will have you feeling grateful ... and maybe even a little orgasmic. And be sure to tell us what you're grateful for in the comments!

The Gates Foundation Condom Challenge

In March, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued a challenge - build a better condom and the foundation would fund it to the tune of $100,000. This month 11 projects received grants - folks are hard at work building condoms that are less likely to break, condoms you can’t feel and condoms that you can put on with ease. Making safer sex better sex is definitely something to be thankful for!

Fun Factory’s Stronic Line

The sex toy industry is enormous, but it can often feel like - as my 8th grade teacher was fond of saying (incessantly) - "there’s nothing new under the sun." Then, Fun Factory did something totally different. The Stronic Eins pulsator hit the market in February, and it did something we had never seen before in a toy - thrusting. Many of us (myself included) made this face. Fun Factory has since expanded the line with two more models - the Zwei and the Drei. Several online retailers have also added "Pulsators" as a category. Fun Factory did what I didn’t think was possible: It created a new (and awesome) kind of sex toy. For that I am thankful!

Co-Pay Free Birth Control

Under the Affordable Care Act many insured women became able to receive their birth control without a prescription. Truth be told, this actually went into effect August 1, 2012, but as most folks had to wait for their insurance plans to get with the program, it didn’t really kick in for many people until this year. This is huge. Not only is the financial help wonderful (and for many people, very necessary), so is the recognition of the importance of contraception in the lives of women. As Planned Parenthood says "Thanks birth control!"

The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure

If you have a prostate, you might just owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Charlie Glickman and Aislinn Emirzian. Their book, "The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure," does an amazing job of telling folks everything (and I mean everything) they need to know about prostate play and addressing the issues that penetration brings up for so many people. This book really is the "ultimate" guide in every sense of the word. It’s so much more than a how-to sex book; it’s a for-real game changer. Lots of folks should be giving thanks for this one!