CNN has posted an Associated Press (AP) article about Christina Applegate’s public statements about her battle with breast cancer, her decision to have a double mastectomy (even though cancer was found in only one breast), her plans for reconstructive surgery, her love of life and her humor.

Some key quotes:

On the choice to have a double mastectomy: 
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it… so this was the choice I made, and it was a tough one."

On her forthcoming breast reconstruction:
"I’m going to have cute boobs till I’m 90, so there’s that," she joked in the interview, "I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."

And on the ups and downs on her experience:
"Sometimes, you know, I cry, and sometimes I scream, and I get really angry, and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes," she said. "And I think that’s — it’s all part of healing, and anyone who’s going through it out there, it’s OK to cry. It’s OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."

and

"I’ve laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I’ll face challenges, but you can’t get any darker than where I’ve been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, ‘I have to get out there and make this a positive.’ "

Read the full article here.

[Image via this site.]

You can learn more about breast cancer from the National Cancer Institute, here on their web site.

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First, I’m not a fan of the phrase "love addiction" (it’s really a popular media term for a clinically recognized pattern of when someone gets into multiple love relationships - and is sort of hooked on the feelings, highs and dramas related to falling in love - and it becomes a distressing or maladaptive pattern for them). But I am trying not to get too much into semantics here and instead just accept Alanis Morissette’s quote for what it is - which is to say that she apparently feels that she found herself always committing to men - one after another - and this got her into a pattern that didn’t work for her. So she decided that for one year, she would only date casually. And by "date", she means that this dating included "lots of sex".

More and more it seems that women celebrities are becoming comfortable (well, is it comfort? attention-drawing? I guess it’s unclear) talking about their sexual behavior in the media - and particularly non-traditional sex roles. Whereas Britney Spears once drew media attention talking about a traditional sex role (e.g., being abstinent until marriage; something that apparently turned out not to be true), a few years ago Angelina Jolie drew media attention by talking about how she was having lovers, but no serious relationships, until she found someone to parent with (who, as we all know now, turned out to be Brad Pitt). And now Alanis Morissette describes her casual sex and how it has been helpful for her. Read the full (and short) article here.

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This was a particularly interesting question, in my opinion, that we received at Kinsey Confidential. In situations where women and men haven’t learned a lot about their bodies, they sometimes make assumptions about what something "means". We all do this! We try to make sense of reasons why we have pimples, why our noses run, why our hair turns gray earlier than we hoped it would, and such. In the case of genitals, our culture carries a lot of shame around sexuality and sometimes people make assumptions about normal genital function, thinking that it means something other than it does. In this case, a male reader was wondering if his girlfriend’s vaginal size was a sign that she had cheated on him with someone else.

Here is his question:
"My girlfriend and I have been sexually active for months and she has always felt the same, tightness wise, to me. I hadn’t seen her for two weeks and when I returned it seems her vagina has gotten wider. Is there any way for this to have happened without her cheating on me?"

You can listen to my response on our Kinsey Confidential podcast here:

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Many people have questions about sex and how it relates to a woman’s period, including her menstrual cramps (not all women have bothersome menstrual cramps, but many do). Recently at Kinsey Confidential, we received this question from a listener:

Can sexual intercourse help to alleviate menstrual cramps?

You can listen to our response on our Kinsey Confidential podcast, created in partnership with WFIU at Indiana University and National Public Radio (NPR).

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Ever wondered about delaying - rather than speeding up - a woman’s orgasm? Well, recently at Kinsey Confidential, we received this question:

"My girlfriend achieves orgasm very quickly - within thirty seconds. Is it possible to delay her orgasm with pills or other techniques?"

Curious about my response? Listen to our podcast here:

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