Rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea across Canada have jumped, according to the latest figures compiled by CBC News, which comes amid a new surge in syphilis.

CBC News asked each provincial and territorial government for up-to-date figures for the three most common sexually transmitted infections that are nationally reported due to their public health importance: chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.

The figures show there were more than 126,700 chlamydia infections and 28,300 cases of gonorrhea diagnosed in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available.

The number of syphilis cases in Canada actually dipped for the first time in a decade during that same year — to about 4,300. But public health officials worry that decline may be short-lived, given recent increases reported in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Dear How to Do It,

I am so lost, and I just don’t know what to do. Some background: I was married and divorced young (he cheated). We had three children, who are now grown with children of their own. Following my divorce, I was in a long-term relationship with someone. It was abusive and ultimately ended with him cheating on me with my best friend.

After that relationship ended, I started dating someone I knew since we were kids. We have always had a close relationship and kept in touch via phone about twice a year to catch up. He became my husband. We dated for five years and have been married for 7½ years (I was 41 when we married; he was 39). About a year and a half after we married, sex just stopped. He was never really the aggressor in the relationship, and I was OK with that. But then it stopped altogether. At first, we talked about it. He went to the doctor, reluctantly. The doctor tested his testosterone and said it was normal. Still nothing. I’ve tried everything you can possibly think of: dates, sexy lingerie, space, time, not pressuring. You name it; I’ve done it. The thing is, there is no intimacy at all in our relationship. We don’t touch, literally. We don’t cuddle. He kisses me once goodbye and once hello when he leaves or comes home. I believe porn was an issue at first; I found some on his phone, and I know he was “taking care” of himself. We instilled a rule of no electronics in the bathroom, but I am sure he is still using his phone in there when I am not home. I’ve pleaded to go to counseling, but he refuses. I went to counseling for about a year by myself, and it did nothing but reaffirm my feelings. I told him I feel like we are roommates; he said that was silly. I told him I was thinking about moving into our spare room, and he asked me not to. He is very prideful and worries a lot about what other people think.

Everything else in our life is wonderful: kids, grandkids, our home, where we live. I love it. But this is something that just has me so torn. Some days I think I can live without it. But most days I am so lost. I feel myself getting worse: getting snappy at everything, my dogs, him, and anyone around us. I go to my daughter’s house occasionally and spend of few days with my grandchildren, and I realize we are in trouble because I don’t miss him. I feel crushed. We are both Christians, and I am very involved in church and church activities. He refuses to become involved with anything. I don’t believe he is having an affair—he is never home late, never goes out when he isn’t working, and isn’t weird with his phone. I cry most days lately because of this situation. I cry because I am so disheartened that another relationship could possibly end, and I don’t want that. I do love my husband. But I wonder if he truly loves me or if he was in love with the idea of me for all these years before we got together, and now I am not living up to his expectations. Please help me—I don’t know what else to do.

—Untouchable

Sex is one of life's deepest pleasures. But as much as most people love a good romp between the sheets, let's be honest: There are things we really dislike about it, too.

With this in mind, the sex toy company Lovehoney decided to survey 3,000 adults about what they hate the most in the bedroom. The responses could feel eerily familiar...or they might truly surprise you.

The most common thing women hate about getting it on? Feeling self-conscious during the deed, with 30% of respondents giving this answer. Men, on the other hand, said their top sex dislike is when it's over too quickly, with 34% checking this box.

Girls aren't alone in hitting puberty earlier -- boys are, too, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics. And boys' body mass index as children might play a role.

Researchers looked through school health records and assessed trends in height and growth for 4,090 boys born in Sweden from 1947 to 1996. Boys born later in that 50-year time period hit puberty sooner. For every decade born later, boys reached peak height velocity, or PHV -- the study's marker for puberty -- 1.5 months earlier.

The age at PHV became progressively younger for boys born later, dropping from about 14.2 years in 1947 to 13.7 years in 1996.

Cover up, men! You’re distracting women...

Shocking neuroscience news this week, as a rousing new study discovers women have sex drives. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany analyzed brain-imaging findings from a wide body of research and found that the “the neuronal response to visual sexual stimuli … is independent of biological sex”. In other words, women and men get just as horny when they look at erotic imagery. These revelations were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dear How to Do It,

An occasional time-waster of mine is to go into random text-only chat rooms and spin a fantasy for a willing woman. It’s fun and creative and everyone has a low-commitment good time (I hope). Recently, someone online asked if I would do a “losing her virginity” scene with her. I said sure, and I took her through a very sweet and consent-filled fantasy where she got to direct the action and feel like a star. At the end of it, she confided in me that she is actually 16 and really a virgin and also, would I want to meet up to do this for real? I of course said that I didn’t think this was a great idea but that she would make a great partner for someone someday. (I am well over 16.) But now I’m conflicted and totally gun-shy about going back online. I know, of course, that whoever is on the other side of the chat could be a boy/girl or a nonbinary/furry person of any age or orientation, but this definitely made me uneasy. Did I do a wrong thing? Is there a better way to proceed? Or should I just be happy she had a nice experience in her own home with a faraway guy who hopefully gave her a template for how it could go when she finally finds herself ready to have sex?

A Georgia man died in the Dominican Republic in March, adding to the list of U.S. tourists who have passed away in the Caribbean vacation destination this year.

In a statement sent Tuesday, the State Department confirmed to USA TODAY that an American citizen died there in March.

ABC News and Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV 2 report Tracy Jerome Jester Jr., 31, of Forsyth, Georgia, died on March 17 while vacationing with his sister, according to his mother, Melody Moore.

Moore told ABC she spoke to her son the night before he died and that he noted he drank a soda that tasted odd. The next day, her daughter called to say he was vomiting and complaining he couldn’t breathe.

Though it would be just swell to own an adorable corgi named Waffles, there are several reasons why I elect not to have a dog right now. Namely, I am not even 1 percent responsible enough for that. I can barely find the time to take care of myself, let alone set aside some Kibbles ‘n Bits, reserve a dog walker if I want to be out past 6 p.m., take necessary precautions to ensure the pup isn’t in the room (and, thus, irreparably scarred) every time I want to have sex, or, if the pet does walk in on it, make sure they don’t try to get in on the action.

Oh, don’t act like this hasn’t happened to you, pet owners. Every friend of mine who boldly shares a studio or one-bedroom apartment with their fur baby has at least one story about how it walked in on sex. What I’ve never learned, though, is intel on whether they kept going at it. Which brings up an interesting question: Is it…bad, or unadvisable for any reason if you have sex in the same room as your pet?

When I told my husband about the time I almost slept with a woman before we met, he got an intrigued look in his eyes, probably imagining threesomes in our future. And sure, we might try that someday — but I'm less interested in whether the possibility turns him on than what it means for me. At 32, with only straight relationship experience and less than a year of marriage under my belt, I've grown resistant to the idea of clinging to a certain sexual identity for the rest of my life. The prospect leaves me with a specific kind of FOMO: a fear of missing out on the sex I haven’t had, but might still want to. Though my husband and I are currently happy in our hetero, monogamous marriage, how could we know if that format will continue to meet our needs for the next several decades? (It seems presumptuous to pretend to know what my vagina will want at, say, age 64.)

I’m part of a wave of women seeing their sexuality through a new lens, one that renders it increasingly fluid and shame-free as we shed culturally imposed roles and explore new kinks and curiosities. But what if you’re already married when you do that internal accounting? Rather than begrudgingly accept a limited sex life as a condition of long-term partnership, a rising number of women are acting on a feeling of FOMO about sexual experiences we might not have had before (or after) marriage.

In the wake of Tumblr banning porn and the increasing censorship of pornography as well as suggestive material online, many began to flock to Twitter as an outlet to share and consume pornographic content. But this week, a report from XBIZ pointed out that the service’s newly updated Terms of Service could put an end to communities that include porn stars, other sex workers and “alt accounts.” The social media platform, however, has no plans to restrict such content.

“We recently updated our rules to better demonstrate what is and is not allowed on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told Out in an email statement about the changes. “The updates were made to provide more clarity, not to reflect changes in our policies or enforcement practices.”

In a section of their Terms of Service titled “Sensitive Media Policy,” updated on March 2019, Twitter has, among other things, introduced a few new guidelines. Sensitive media, for the company, includes media that depicts graphic violence, adult content, violent sexual content, and gratuitous gore. This content is not allowed to be shared in profile photos or header imagery. As for “graphic violence and consensually produced adult content,” it can be shared within tweets but it will be marked as sensitive and will be available behind a warning. But one new section in particular stood out to many.

Let's be real: Moaning during sex can be really hot — there's a reason that actors in big feature films usually do it while getting down to business. Moaning is an action that's associated with sexual pleasure, but when you really think about it — moaning can be quite curious. What do I mean by this? This nonverbal reaction isn't necessarily something we're instructed to do, and while some may find that it comes naturally when they experience something that feels good, you may actually be wondering: Why do people moan during sex? The reason is pretty intriguing and more multi-faceted than you might expect.

If you get your sex education from porn (which, in case no one ever told you, you shouldn’t), you might assume that loud, wild, passionate moans come naturally to everyone, especially women. But if you instead feel unsure of how to express yourself in bed, you’re far from unusual. Especially since many of us have our first sexual experiences masturbating, when we have no reason (and often don’t want) to make a peep, it can take effort to figure out how to communicate with a partner, and that may or may not involve moaning.

“Unlike in porn, sex does not always result in uncontrollably loud and powerful orgasms,” certified relationship expert and mental health specialist Adina Mahalli, MSW, tells Bustle. “Instead of focusing on what you should do, feel, or sound like, try letting go and living in the moment. The best way to express yourself in bed is to let things happen naturally. Having sex requires a significant degree of vulnerability, but if you become just a bit more vulnerable, you'll find that it transforms the experience. Once you lower your defenses, you'll see that your verbal and body language will start narrating your sexual experience in ways you've never imagined.”

If your partner's passion for adult entertainment is messing with your self-esteem, you might be questioning their integrity, but it is possible to watch porn and still enjoy a healthy relationship. Certified sex coach, sexologist, educator and writer Gigi Engle looks at the pros and cons of pornography and how to make it work for you:

Is it normal to watch porn?

The results are in: she only wanted to try that hot new restaurant.

A new study published Friday in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology journal found that a quarter to a third of heterosexual women have gone on a date with a guy they weren’t interested in — just for a free meal.

“Foodie calls,” can happen when money’s tight, the grocery store is out of a favorite frozen meal, or a must-try entree is just too extravagant to justify — when the tab comes out of your own bank account.

You can tell a lot by taking a close look at your penis. Sometimes you look at it and everything seems perfectly normal. Other times it can feel fraught with danger, covered in lumps, spots, nodules, and protuberances that all look like evidence of your certain doom. We’re here to help you separate the facts from the panic attacks.