1. Your Body Feels Ready

When you have sex for the first time, it is a very important decision. Whether you decide to wait for marriage or not, it is all up to you, but you have to make sure that your body feels ready. This is one of the top tips to tell if you are ready for sex or not. You never, ever want to rush into it or to feel pressured to do it. Sex is intimate, it is scary in the beginning and it should not ever be something you just jump into without thinking.

2. You Feel Emotionally Ready

Sex is also something that is super emotional. If you aren't ready emotionally to have sex, don't do it. Instead, wait so that you know you won't regret it. Having sex for the first time is difficult, you are giving yourself fully to someone and you want to be prepared emotionally for that!

3. You Know Your Partner

Before you start having sex, you don't want it to just be with someone you haven't known long. You want to know your partner inside and out. This is going to be super important for the first time that you have sex. After all, you don't want to be with someone that you don't know or that doesn't know you.

4. You Aren't Giving into Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is something that can be really high when you are in middle school, high school or even college, and you should never give into it when it comes to sex. You want your first time to be really special and it can really damage you later in life if you just do it to do it.

5. You Want It for Yourself

Do you want to have sex? Is it something that you want to move forward with? When you're having sex for the first time, it should be because you want it and your partner wants it. It should be something that is mutual, not something full of pressure or something that both of you are just doing because everyone else is doing it.

6. You Are Prepared with Protection

When you finally do decide to have sex, you've got to have protection. Condoms as well as birth control are both a must, that way you won't have to worry about a pregnancy or STDs (if your partner is not a virgin). You should be the one that is prepared, don't depend on anyone else!

7. There is Respect

Finally, in your relationship, is there a mutual respect between the two of you? Does he or she respect you and you respect him or her? That has to be there in order for the sex to not just be great, but for both of you to really understand what you want. I respect my girlfriend so much and the first time we did it, there was this level of respect there – it was beautiful.

Now that you have a basis of what to watch out for when you are ready to have sex, take these tips to heart! Remember, sex is so important in a relationship, but it is also not something that should be rushed. Have you been considering having sex?