All those whispers and secrets you remember from when you were a kid develop into myths. Why? Because there is so much secrecy about sex around children.

Did anyone ever tell you that masturbating will make you grow hair on your palms? (Did I catch you looking at your palms? Probably not. Because now you know it’s not true.) Or that you can’t get pregnant if you jump up and down after sex. (Not true!) Anyone who believes these types of myths isn’t really in control of his or her sexuality and probably isn’t enjoying sex very much. How could you relax with these kinds of notions swimming around in your head!

Luckily, most of those simple myths are forgotten once people reach adulthood. However, there are more deep-rooted myths that too many adults still believe. Take a look at these popular misconceptions to decide for yourself if your beliefs are in need of adjustment. All of the following myths are incorrect!

- Sex is dirty, sinful, and unpleasant
People usually blame religion for teaching that sex is bad, wrong, or sinful. But in fact, you can have strong religious beliefs and still have sex for pleasure. I once heard a priest say the following to get this point across: If God hadn’t wanted people to have sex, God wouldn’t have made it feel so good.

- Ejaculation depletes a man’s energy
This myth dates as far back as India in the 600s. People believed that the more a man ejaculated, the more he would have to replenish the energy supply, and the more of his precious energies he would lose. Of course this isn’t true, as it is a fact that semen production is effortless for a man.

Vigorous sex might make you tired, just like any vigorous activity. But great sex can give you added energy. For every man who feels like going to sleep after sex, just as many are invigorated and want to go run 10 miles… or have sex again.

- Sexual pleasure does not last throughout your life
After a lecture I gave at a college, a 20-year-old girl came up to me afterward. “How many orgasms do I have,” she asked. I asked her to clarify what she meant by the question, and she told me that she had always thought that a woman only has the ability to have a fixed number of orgasms in her entire life. She thought it had something to do with the number of eggs a women carried in her ovaries. I corrected her, and helped her understand that orgasms come from a woman’s brain and nerve endings, are not related to her ovum, and, most importantly, that she can have an unlimited number of orgasms, anytime for as long as she lives. Your sexual pleasure will last as long as you live.

- Men always want to have sex and cannot be monogamous
According to evolutionary biology, male species have millions of sperm for the reason of spreading them around to fertilize as many eggs as possible. But this is not relevant for men in contemporary society. Men do not need to spread their “seed” to as many different women as possible. They can settle down with one woman happily, forever. Men can be faithful, as long as they choose to be faithful. Saying “all men cheat” is like saying that no man has self-control, and no man can respect his commitment to his relationship. That is not true. Not all men betray and lie to women. Any man can choose to be with only one woman forever.

- Women should not ask for sex and should not love having sex
A woman who wants sex might worry that she will be called a slut or thought of as a whore if she comes right out and asks for it. After all, when you were growing up, isn’t that what you heard girls called if they were the ones who “got around.” But ask yourself, what is wrong with a woman enjoying sex? If you don’t know the answer, I’ll tell you: nothing. Sex is here for you to enjoy—for men and women.