You’ve probably heard some weird sexual health facts in your time. The school corridors are packed with secret whispers and old wives tales about how to prevent pregnancy or STDs – the large majority of which are complete and utter rubbish. However, there are some crazy facts about sex that indeed are true – although you’ll wish they weren’t. From the good to the bad and the downright ugly – OK, there isn’t a lot of good in there – we’ve assembled some weird and wonderful facts about sexual wellness for your enjoyment, and possible disgust. If anyone spies you reading this article from over your shoulder, it might be a good idea to say you are revising for a pub quiz. Otherwise, your nearest and dearest might be concerned as to why you’re reading up on ferret sex and semen ink – you’ll soon see what we mean. These facts are taken from the book 1,227 Quite Interesting Facts, a collection of difficult to believe yet entirely true miscellanea, assembled by the creators of quiz show QI.
1. Babybel: The next time you’re assembling your IKEA bed frame, make sure it’s nice and sturdy; one in ten European babies is conceived in an IKEA bed.
2. Waspish Behaviour: While Alfred Kinsey is known as the author of Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948), a lesser-known – and slightly creepier – fact is that he had a collection of five million wasps. If you think that was weird, Kinsey had a pretty strange party trick; he could insert a toothbrush into his penis, bristle-end first.
3. James Ponged: British spies actually used to use using semen as invisible ink. However, they had to stop because it began to smell if it wasn’t fresh.
4. IPenis: There is 37.5 MB of DNA information in a single sperm. One ejaculation represents a data transfer of 15,875 GB, which is the equivalent of the combined capacity of 62 MacBook Pro laptops. Moreover, a single human male produces enough sperm in two weeks to impregnate every fertile woman on the planet.
5. Barfly: If a male fruitfly is rejected by his lady fruitfly friend, he drinks significantly more alcohol than those that have had a successful encounter.
6. Dry Spell: If a female ferret doesn’t have sex for a year, she’ll keel over and die. Talk about needing to get laid.
7. Love and Other Drugs: Seven Viagra tablets are sold every second.
8. What a Mouthful: In German, the word for “contraceptive” is Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel. Not being funny, but by the time you’ve finished saying it, it’s too late.
9. Love on the Brain: Until 1973, homosexuality was listed as a mental illness by The American Psychiatric Association.
10. Pope Fiction: In the 15th century, the best-selling work of fiction was erotic novel The Tale of the Two Lovers, the author of which later became Pope Pius II.
11. Cyprus Curse: In Cyprus, archaeologists recently found a 7th century curse inscribed on a lead tablet that said, “May your penis hurt when you make love.” Nobody knows who made the curse, or why, but we don’t want to meet the person who wrote it.
12. Backfired: While match.com has helped thousands of couples find love, the creator may be regretting ever setting up the dating site. The founder of match.com, Gary Kremen, lost his girlfriend to a man she met on match.com. Ouch.
13. The Sexth Sense: Gymnophoria is the sense that someone is mentally undressing you.
14. The Whipple Tickle: The “G-spot” was nearly called the Whipple Tickle. This was in honour of Professor Beverley Whipple, who coined the expression that we know today.