Alex* remembers clearly the last time she had sex with her boyfriend. He’d just got a promotion, and for the first time in months had managed to quiet the anxiety and stress that usually stopped him focusing on sex.

It was the third time Alex* had tried to put the condom on and failed. Despite being aroused and aware that this was probably his only chance to have sex with the woman he’d met earlier that evening, he couldn’t stay erect.

“When I came back, my father couldn’t even look at me. This is someone who cared for me since I was a baby. For him to reject me... it shattered me.”

At the height of his involvement in London’s chemsex scene, James Wharton, 32, would come home to his flat in south London from his well-paid job in the City, log on to Grindr or flick through his Whatsapp, messaging contacts to invite them over to spend the weekend taking drugs and having sex.

Like lots of women, Sarah*, 27, often talks to her girlfriends about sex – how much they’re getting, the surprises, the let-downs, the tips. But, also like lots of women, she’s lost count of the number of stories shared about sex that has left them uncomfortable.

It’s Wednesday morning in early December and I’m lying on my back in a Pilates studio, desperately trying to contort my body into a bridge shape. There’s a rubber ball clenched between my thighs and a Miniature Schnauzer, called Grace, placed on my stomach.

Frida Farrell hung up the phone to her boyfriend. It was a dry, summer’s evening in 2002 and the 24-year-old was planning to walk home from London’s Oxford Circus to her studio flat in Primrose Hill, a journey that would take about 40 minutes on foot.

One missed pill, one broken condom, one unprotected fumble. We spend our younger lives desperately trying not to get pregnant – to avoid becoming a teenage parenting statistic, or wrecking our early careers.

The first time Michael* gambled he was 11 years old. In the corner of a cafe near his home in north London, sat a fruit machine. Michael headed there one day with a school friend, and put 30p in the slot - the change from his lunch money. He won five pounds, bought himself an ice cream to celebrate, and began returning every week.

Julie Wallace, 51, wasn’t aware of the London Bridge terror attack until one of her girlfriends, Jodie, got in touch on a Sunday morning to ask if her 21-year-old daughter Sara Zelenak was safe.

“Do you think we’re crazy?” asks Libby, a 32 year-old marketing manager. I watch the blood pool on her forehead while she chats holidays, hangovers and upcoming birthday plans from her horizontal position on the Harley Street bed.

When Ruchira Sharma was 15 years old, she was diagnosed with an eating disorder.

The coronavirus lockdown is difficult for everyone to comprehend but for those with dementia it can be impossible.

Boris Johnson has been warned that a domestic abuse bill originally brought forward by Theresa May is now at risk of falling off the government agenda because of the proroguing (suspension) of parliament.

Dave* was a fresher in his first year of university. He had been getting on with a girl who was 19, like him, and lived just across the corridor in halls.

Sarah*, 27, and her boyfriend, Tom*, 26 have been together for a year. There’s no major issue in their relationship, but for the past four months they’ve been going to couples counselling.

Lauren Evans is a victim of ‘revenge porn’, a term she hates. “The definition of revenge is someone doing something to you because you’ve done something to them – it implies the victim must have done something to deserve this.”

Dr Naomi Sutton will never forget the day a patient ejaculated all over her hands in her Rotherham clinic. The sexual health consultant was examining the man on a bed, when he suddenly said: “Oh god I’m going to wee!”

When Alex Kelly, 23, and his girlfriend of nearly five years moved into their new flat they choose a place with two bedrooms. Not for the comfort of guests. For the comfort of each other.

Joshua Davidson doesn’t remember exactly the first time he stumbled across the anti-masturbation community. He thinks he was 17, maybe 18 – definitely during his time as a sixth-form student.