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Sex and rumors go together like milk and cookies—ridiculously well. Sex is one of those rare topics that we stay curious about no matter how much knowledge and experience we've already racked up. So when someone at a party says that sex can cure a headache or that oysters make you horny, eyebrows go up and the word gets around.

The only problem is figuring out which gossip is true (sex can cure a headache by increasing circulation) and what's false (oysters, unless you count the placebo effect). We asked sexuality experts to weigh in on the most common carnal rumors out there. Prepare to be surprised.

Only a third of us hit the high note during intercourse.
FACT. Intercourse doesn’t always stimulate the magic button for many women. And if your partner ejaculates quickly, you probably won't have enough time for an intercourse-based orgasm, says Irwin Goldstein, M.D., urologist and the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. But studies on what matters to women in bed show that topping out, through intercourse or any other way, is actually at the bottom of the list. "In terms of pure sensation, really great sex is about the prolonged pleasure," says Joy Davidson, Ph.D., a New York sex therapist and author of Fearless Sex. "And there are other ways to orgasm."

We hit our sexual peak at 28, guys at 18.
FICTION. Yes, sex hormones in the body max out around those years. So what? "It has absolutely no correlation to the enjoyment, the activity, the frequency of sex," says Lee P. Shulman, M.D., a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. In your late 30s, changing hormones can result in less lubrication and less relaxation in the vaginal tissues during arousal. But sex therapists say that as we grow older and more experienced, what we eventually lack in hormones, we make up for in confidence. So, say it out loud: "A little to the left. Right...there."

Men would skip foreplay if we let them.
FICTION. This would suggest that men don’t like running their hands along the curve of our hip, making out in the stairwell, or oral sex. That the only thing that matters to them is getting to orgasm as quickly as possible. In fact, in a 2005 Men's Health survey, only 3 percent of men polled wanted to cut back on foreplay. Even the word foreplay has fallen out of favor with sex therapists. "I wouldn't call it 'fore' anything," Dr. Davidson says. "The best part of sex is the play." And you can start the game anytime.