Want to know what to expect at your first gynecologists' or reproductive health exam? We've got the lowdown for you here.

Freaking out because you think something must be wrong with your labia? Think again!

We get a lot of questions from teens who are wondering if they can prevent pregnancy after intercourse, whether the concern is due to a broken condom or from not using any method of contraception in the first place. Regardless of how it happened, there is something that can reduce the risk of pregnancy if used within 120 hours (or with an IUD, eight days) of your risk. That something is Emergency Contraception.

What's a "boyfriend" or what's a "girlfriend?" It all depends on what you and yours decide it's going to mean and what works best for you.

I'm writing this because someone told you that you can't understand or experience love at your age. If no one did yet, they probably will soon enough. I'm writing to tell you that if you've heard that, I just don't think it's true.

What are breasts made of? What's normal for nipples? Is something wrong with me if my breasts aren't sensitive? Can women who aren't pregnant lactate? Do I need a bra? Why aren't my boobs bigger? Sit back, take a load off and have a read for these answers and more.

You already know that no method of contraception is 100% effective to prevent pregnancy. You probably also know, however, that there are reliable methods which are very effective when used properly, and that if you use contraception correctly and consistently, pregnancy becomes a whole lot less likely. But did you know that by doubling up and using two methods, with almost any combination you use, you can get mighty close to that 100% with most combos?

The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is a means for women to observe the three primary fertility signals: cervical fluid, waking body temperature and cervix changes so that you can be as in-the-know as possible when it comes to your own fertility and menstrual cycle. Find out the basic how-to so you can make the mystery of your own fertility cycle become a lot less mysterious.

It’s typically assumed that sex and gender are the same. They’re not. What's gender all about, then? What is the range of gender and gender identity, and how does gender impact our lives and how we live them?

Your menstrual cycle and your reproductive system have held people in awe (or perpetual duh, depending on how you look at it) for thousands of years. Follow us through a tour of how it all works, how to best manage it and use it to empower yourself, and find out what it means now and has meant to others in the past.

Puberty is the process of physical changes and sexual maturation leading to sexual maturation as well as complete body growth. During puberty, your whole body goes through growth spurts until it has become physically mature in terms of bone mass and size, and the sexual organs and secondary sexual characteristics develop and mature. Chances are, if you're at this website, you have likely already started puberty.

If we're going to think of our genitals as big, any one of us, given the small range between them, we should think everyone's genitals are big. We also need to accept that it's ignorant or misinformed to think, presume or suggest that penises are big but vaginas are small, because we really are all about the same size. If thinking big is better for one sex, it's also got to be better for the other. So, if you or someone else is going to go on about some big penis, you'd best get just as excited about the idea of a big vagina, and make having a big ol'Vagowski just as cool. And if you're all hung up on the idea that the vagina be as small as it can possibly be, or is such a small thing, then you've got to accept that penises are small, too.

It's amazing that with something as safe, simple, affordable and revolutionary as emergency contraception that it STILL isn't being used by millions of women who could use it, and who would prefer to avoid an abortion or an unwanted pregnancy. In part, that's because so many doctors and clinics still do not inform and educate women about EC. Here's some EC clarity, on the house. Pass it on!

Let’s just say – just because we can – that we, all women, in every sexual scenario imaginable, are already past both the no and the yes. Let’s say that nothing even starts without that yes, and that when it is issued, it is firmer, stronger and more exuberant than we may be able to presently imagine it could be. Let’s write a new ideal sexual initiation script. One that's a lot more interesting.

What are the early symptoms of pregnancy and when do they start to happen? Why are symptoms not the smartest way to tell if you're pregnant, and how CAN you tell if you are? If you're losing your mind during a pregnancy scare, and finding symptoms everywhere you look, here's some on-target information and a dose of comfort to help you separate the real deal from the hype.

Menstrual suppression is becoming increasingly popular, and has been widely promoted for women. For some, especially women with reproductive health issues which are helped by suppressing periods, it's an obvious boon, and some using it electively also report it to be a blessing. But what about the health risks? What about the attitudes informing that choice which cheerlead suppression by maligning menstruation? What about the benefits, emotional and physical, our periods can offer us? An opinionated, no-holds-barred look at the whole works and a paean to the period, no matter what a woman chooses to do with it.

The problem with asking how someone else how to do something that's just for and about yourself is that you know better than anyone else. But we can certainly fill you in on some basics. Includes the skinny on masturbation and UTIs, bleeding during mastrubation and on finding masturbation just isn't doing the trick.

A big part of keeping yourself sexually healthy is maintaining your sexual and reproductive health in the first place, and paying attention to your sexual health daily so that you can get the jump on any problems that may crop up.

At least once every couple of days, a woman posts or writes into Scarleteen reporting that vaginal entry -- usually heterosexual intercourse or manual vaginal sex ("fingering"), and usually (but not always) with male partners -- is painful, uncomfortable, or unfulfilling for them. Whatever sort of vaginal entry we're talking about -- with fingers, a penis or a dildo, with partners of any gender -- not only doesn't have to be painful, it really shouldn't be. More than that, any kind of sex shouldn't be about a lack of pain, but about the presence of pleasure.

If we look at our sexuality one way, it looks a million times simpler than it actually is. If we look at it another way, it appears a million times more complicated. While it's important that we bear everything in mind we need to in terms of infection and disease, birth control, our relationships, our bodies and the whole works, now and then we need to remember the bare bones and the human element of the thing, and keep the essentials in the forefront of our minds.

Vaginal discharge and secretions are a normal, healthy part of your reproductive system. The vagina -- which is not the whole of your genitals, that's called the vulva, but the flexible tube behind the vaginal opening and inside the body -- is a passageway between the outside of the body and the internal reproductive system. The pH balance of the vagina is acidic, with "good" bacteria, by design, which helps keep infections away. Vaginal secretions are how the vagina cleanses and regulates itself -- how amazing is that? -- in the same sort of way that saliva helps keep your mouth clean and healthy.

After a few years of being the postergirl for alternative approaches to menstruation – writing articles, being interviewed, doing workshops, selling washable pads to women and getting involved in too many party conversations on the topic to possibly count – something is starting to give. The truth is, I’m starting to get a little bit tired of being nice. I’ve lost my patience with trying to pussyfoot around the issue until women are willing to talk about their own blood. And so, as a form of cleansing for me and education for you – should you choose to engage in it – I have penned the following set of arguments dispelling the myths about washable menstrual pads and your period. So there.

A vaccine -- Gardasil -- is available to help prevent the spread of some types of HPV. The Centers for Disease Control report that clinical trials in over 11,000 young women have shown the vaccine to be 100% effective for young women in preventing cervical precancers caused by the targeted HPV types, and nearly 100% effective in preventing vulvar and vaginal precancers and genital warts understood to be caused by the targeted HPV types.

The next time anyone tells you that only losers masturbate, or that they don't, and never would, bear this in mind: according to most studies and surveys, about 95% of adults have masturbated or continue to do so. Were many falsehoods and misconceptions about masturbation true, it would mean that 95 out of every 100 people would be blind, drooling psychopaths with hair on their palms and shrunken genitals.

Looking for an alternative to tampons or pads? A user asks about menstrual cups, and we give her -- and you -- the scoop.

When I was fourteen I became convinced that masturbating would kill me.

We get a lot of questions at Scarleteen from folks who are worried about periods that are MIA (missing in action, for us civilians). Sometimes there's a pregnancy concern, and sometimes not; but even if you're not sexually active, a missing period can be worrying.

Many women who have difficulty with first intercourse or vaginal penetration are often quick to suspect their hymen isn't “broken.” However, in some instances in which the woman is aroused, lubricated well, and has a patient and sensitive partner, but she still suffers great pain or discomfort with attempted penetration, that isn't the case at all.