Disclaimer: I am not a professional! If you want to find a professional sex educator please look at my "Resources" page. If you have any questions, feel free to ask on my ask site: FYsexeducationquestions, though check out my FAQ first!
Hey all the tumblr peeps taking the coursera contraception course!
I made a forum thread for us, it’s on the introduction section.
Everyone introduce yourselves, and lets see how many of us are classmates!
Switching contraceptives can result in an unintended pregnancy if not done correctly
This news can be found on Monday’s New York Times health blog earlier this week.
The article discusses various problems that occur when a woman no longer finds one method of birth control suitable and switches to another method. Without strategically switching birth control methods, the switch might actually result in a gap wherein a woman is capable of becoming pregnant.
Read the full article above, but go to the Reproductive Health Access Project for more details and advice on how to switch methods.
The article doesn’t seem to work, but reblogging for the birth control switching advise.
Fixed the link, so it should work now!
Really important info!
(via feministfeels)
Getting it On: The Covert History of the American Condom
Throughout history, people have used everything from seaweed to sheep intestines in order to prevent pregnancy, when all they really wanted to do was get laid. In the United States, it wasn’t until World War II that condoms were finally embraced as the pleasure devices they really are.
FYI: there is NO minimum age for buying condoms!
An anon asked:
This might sound like a strange question but, do you need to be a certain age to purchase a vibrator? ‘cause i know for condoms you have to be 17, the age of consent, but is there one for vibrators?
No no no! You don’t need to be a certain age to buy condoms, it doesn’t matter if you’re under the age of consent or not! I’ve never heard of a shop imposing a limit, and although I suppose some might, I’m not even sure that would be legal. Anyway, there is definitely no age limit law on buying condoms like there is for alchol, for example.
As for vibrators, there’s no legal age limit, but some sex stores / websites have an 18+ door policy. But nobody’s gonna card you at the checkout!
Waiting for side effects to go away
Someone asked us:I am on a new set of birth control pills. My symptoms are tiredness, anxiety, moodiness (LOTS of crying!!), and a very low sex drive. I feel if I ask to change pills then my health care provider will say, “Your body needs time to adjust to the new pills.” Is this true? Will a few months solve all of my symptoms? And would a lower dosage help ease (or eliminate) my symptoms?
It’s true – it generally does take about three months for your body to adjust to a new birth control pill. During those first few months, side effects can be especially intense, and you might get spotting or irregular periods while your cycle (like the rest of you) syncs with the hormones.
So it’s possible that your health care provider will suggest that you wait out these first few months and then take stock of what’s going on with your side effects. If you’re still feeling like this pill isn’t a good fit for you after that, talk to your health care provider about switching — she can help you find a brand that works for you. (Keep in mind that each time you switch or re-start the pill, you’ll likely be advised to wait those three months for your body to adjust.)
But if your side effects are really uncomfortable, unpleasant, or interfering with your life, you should talk to your health care provider about what you can do right now. You don’t need to tough out symptoms that are making you miserable.
-Nina at Planned Parenthood
(via whoneedssexed)
I need sex ed because my Catholic school told us that the birth control pill would make us infertile and give us breast cancer, and that we shouldn’t take it, even for medical reasons.
Free sample of SKYN from LifeStyles!
Because hell yeah free condoms!
Just click the link, like the page, and fill in your info!
https://www.facebook.com/LifeStylesUSA?sk=app_232508516838313
Free latex-free condoms!! Get them while you can!
Someone asked us:I’ve been on low dose birth control for a couple months now to regulate my period. My boyfriend and I have been talking about having sex sometime soon. Is this birth control an adequate way to protect myself? Or is a stronger dose safer?
Birth control pills are 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when they’re taken correctly. This is true for all birth control pills – even those that are labeled as “low-dose” or “low-hormone.” If a birth control pill didn’t contain enough hormones to actually prevent pregnancy, it wouldn’t be on the market. As long as you’re taking birth control correctly, you can feel confident that it’s working to prevent pregnancy.
So why are some pills called “low-dose”? When the pill was first invented, it contained way more hormones than necessary to prevent pregnancy — up to 1,000 times more. Since then, scientists have figured out how to improve the pill’s formula, and there are lots of different kinds of birth control pills with different levels of hormones on the market. And they’re all effective at preventing pregnancy.
But no birth control pills provide protection against STDs — for that, condoms are your best bet. You can use both condoms and birth control pills together for increased protection against pregnancy and STDs.
-Nina at Planned Parenthood
(via sexinformative)
Get FREE Condoms! The Great American Condom Campaign Applications are Open!
Its that time of year again! Applications are currently open to make your campus a Great American Condom Campaign Safe Site. Never heard of the program? According to their website:
“The Great American Condom Campaign is a youth-led grassroots movement to make the U.S. a sexually healthy nation. Each year, GACC members give out 1,000,000 Trojan Brand condoms on college campuses across the United States, educate their peers about sexual health, and organize to improve the policies that affect young people’s health and lives.”
I’ve been participating in this program for the last year, (you can reapply for condoms twice a year) and the condoms you receive are wonderful and incredibly popular with students around the campus. You get a variety of 500 Trojan condoms to distribute as you see fit. Last year, the large majority of our condoms were given away through a campus-wide dorm storm that put a bag of condoms, information, stickers, and lube on every dorm room door on campus. It was a huge success, and I definitely encourage everyone to try a similar event on their campus!
Want to apply? You must be a college student between the ages of 18 and 29 to apply. Applications will close on September 1, 2012. All successful Fall Semester 2012 SafeSite applicants will be notified by October 1, 2012.
Why “Free Birth Control” is Not Free
Unquestionably, due to the efforts of religious and political fundamentalists at the state and federal level to deny women access to reproductive health care of virtually every kind, the benefit that has gotten the most media attention is the one involving contraception without a co-pay. Many media outlets (see ABC, NBC, Grist, Shape.com) and some columnists, including our colleague Amanda Marcotte, have described the new birth control benefit as making contraception “free,” most frequently, for example, stating that now women will have access to birth control for free.
This is not the case, and it is misleading—and politically dangerous—to say so.
To get birth control without a co-pay means you have an insurance policy. No one can walk into any pharmacy today and get the pill without a prescription, which in any case first entails a visit to a doctor’s office. No one without insurance can walk into a doctor’s office and get an IUD for for free, nor any kind of contraception, unless they pay out of pocket or meet the means test for and are covered by Medicaid, an increasingly difficult enterprise in itself but the subject of a different article. Ten percent of women in the United States who work full time are currently uninsured and without coverage, they do not have access to “free” birth control. Nor do other women without insurance, or those whose plans are, for logistical reasons or because they were grand-fathered, not yet compliant with the ACA on preventive care. None of these women have “free” birth control now, and they will not later even if they get insurance. (See the National Women’s Law Center Guide on what to do if you have questions about your insurance plan and contraception without co-pay.)
Why? Because if you have insurance, you pay for it, either by virtue of your labor or out of your own pocket, or, depending on the situation, both.
Read it all at RH Reality Check here.
not all women, not only women
