studies

These days, the old saying "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage" seems to have it all wrong. By the age of 25, 55 percent of women have cohabited with a partner outside of marriage. And while 40 percent of first premarital cohabitations lead to marriage within three years, 20 percent of women experience pregnancy within the first year of cohabitation. This is all according to a new study by the National Center for Health Statistics, which analyzed a nationally representative sample of women age 15-44 between 2006 and 2010 and discovered that cohabitation is more popular than ever. Here is a breakdown of the most illuminating findings:

• The average length of cohabitation is getting longer: 22 months vs. 13 months in 1995.
• 48 percent of women cohabited with a partner as a first union, compared to only 34 percent in 1995.
• 70 percent of women with less than a high school diploma cohabited, while only 47 percent of women with a college degree or higher did.
• 40 percent of first premarital cohabitations led to marriage in three years, 32 percent remained as is, and 27 percent broke up.
• About 20 percent of women became pregnant in the first year of their first premarital cohabitation, and half of the births were unintended.
• US-born Hispanic women were the most likely (65 percent) to cohabit by age 25. Among other races, the probabilities were 57 percent among white women, 53 percent among foreign-born Hispanic women, 51 percent among black women, and only 19 percent among Asian women.

Do these stats match up to your experiences?

We're happy to present this excerpt from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project.

You hear people say it all the time: men should "naturally" be more rational and less sensitive, whereas women's "natural" brain structures wire them for language and empathy. But what if these differences aren't so cut and dry (or even that drastic)? Consider some of these studies:

Related: Five Important Things Women Don't Know About Men

1. Between infancy and first grade, boys express their emotions more passionately than girls.

Boys are taught to keep a stiff upper lip, but Harvard med school researchers found that young boys smiled, cried, and laughed more to researchers than girls did. By elementary school, boys become less likely to express sadness or distress, perhaps because of the influence of parenting and culture.

2. Worldwide, boys aren't any better at math than girls.

Math scores in 86 countries show that K-12 boys don't significantly do better at math than girls, either in general or at elite levels. And the "math gap" in the US has been closing over time. In the 1970s, the ratio of boys to girls with high math scores on their SATs was 13:1. By the 1990s, it was 3:1.

3. Young men are more emotionally vulnerable to troubles in their relationships than young women are.

   Florida State researchers found that men between the ages of 18 and 23 were much more likely be emotionally affected by relationship woes than women. The study authors wrote, "For young men, their romantic partners are often their primary source of intimacy," whereas women feel more encouraged to confide deeply with family and friends. Contrary to what every frat joke tells you, men aren't just naturally detached.

4. Men are less-rational investors than women.

A study of 35,000 households in MIT's Journal of Economics found that men traded stocks with irrational confidence in their judgment. Single men traded less rationally than married men, and married men traded less rationally than single women.

5. Men aren't worse than women at reading emotional cues.

When asked to correctly identify emotions of people in video clips, men were no less capable of reading nuances in emotions than women were. (Interestingly, parents were much better emotional detectives than nonparents.) So men can read moods, but whether they do anything about this emotional information may be a matter of cultural upbringing, which can change.

Read the rest of the story: 8 Studies That Debunk Gender Stereotypes.

• 10 Not-OK Things Straight People Say to Their Gay Friends
• Why Everyone Should Get Divorced Before Marriage
• 10 Things I Find Sexy in a Woman (That Have Nothing to Do With Looks)
• Leveling Up: The Most Attractive Aspect of a Man

It's no surprise that there are benefits to sex, but now a new study has come out saying that sex can do something else: cure migraines. Published in Cephalalgia, the journal of the International Headache Society, the study found that more than half of migraine-suffering participants who had sex experienced an improvement in symptoms, and 20 percent were completely cured of their headache. According to the researchers, it's all about the endorphins released during sex:

"Our results show that sexual activity during a migraine attack might relieve or even stop an attack in some cases, and that sexual activity in the presence of headache is not an unusual behavior. Sex can abort migraine and cluster headache attacks, and sexual activity is used by some patients as acute headache treatment."

But headaches aren't the only thing sex cures; here are six more:

• Cramps: Having sex can help with period pain. Orgasms cause the uterine muscles to contract and release brain chemicals that act as a natural pain reliever, immediately relieving menstrual cramps.
• Colds: Regular sex has also been shown to have immune-boosting effects that can cure the common cold. Intercourse raises immunoglobulin A, an antibody that fights the cold virus.
• Morning sickness: Oral sex can cure morning sickness? Yes, according to Gordon Gallup, a psychologist at SUNY-Albany. He says that the best way to cure morning sickness during pregnancy is with semen from the person who got you pregnant. Gallup believes that a woman's body rejects the father's semen, causing sickness, so if you build up a tolerance by ingesting it, you can prevent the stomach problems.
• Insomnia: After sex, your body releases the hormone oxytocin, aka the "cuddle hormone," which makes you sleepy. And women produce more oxytocin than men.
• Hiccups: Dr. Francis M. Fesmire came up with two cures for hiccups, "digital rectal massage" and orgasms. He said, "An orgasm results in incredible stimulation of the vagus nerve. From now on, I will be recommending sex — culminating with orgasm — as the cure-all for intractable hiccups."
• Depression: Sex has been proven to help mental health thanks to numerous studies. James Coan, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, says, "When you have sex, you release feel-good hormones, including oxytocin and endorphins." And a recent study found that oral sex can help, too, since semen contains chemicals that elevate mood, increase affection, and contain antidepressants.

When you're happy, your smile comes out in full force. But did you know it also works the other way around — smiling can actually make you feel better?

One study published in Psychological Science found smiling after a stressful task resulted in a bigger reduction of heart rate and a faster physiological stress recovery in participants, reports the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps after a hard day's work, practicing a smile is a good way to uplift your mood.

On the other hand, Debbie Downers be warned: research found frowning resulted in higher remission rates in people who were depressed. Your facial expression may play a big role in your mood, so be mindful of your smiles and frowns.

When you're dealing with someone who's really taxing you at work, the best thing you can do for yourself is to ignore them.

According to a study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, ignoring nasty people is the most effective way of quieting them rather than talking to them or trying to persuade them. Not only does it work better, but you'll also suffer less negative effects from dealing with them. The people in the study who engaged in discussions with offensive people did poorly on aptitude tests compared to the people who just ignored the nastiness. Of course, it's different in every situation, but for the most part, trying not to react to an obnoxious person may be healthier than stewing in anger.