pregnancy

Sara: so long as you took the test properly, at this stage of the game, there's earnestly no reason to be concerned you're pregnant. With emergency contraception, it's normal to have both or either some menstrual cycle kookiness for a little while, and/or some unexplained vaginal bleeding. That...

Unprotected intercourse, with or without ejaculation, poses high risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The pregnancy risk is substantially smaller than had there been full ejaculation, but it still may be a risk. Not knowing when this happened, if it has been less than 120...

Good on you for doing so much research, but if you're using the birth control pill, then you're not ovulating, nor most fertile at any given time. The combined pill suppresses ovulation, so there's no sense in charting when you're on it, because there isn't anything TO chart: your fertility status -...

Yes, she could. As well, the same -- and sometimes slightly higher -- STI risks are present during menstruation as any other time. For most people who can become pregnant, pregnancy is substantially less likely from intercourse that happens during menses than from intercourse at other times. However...

In truth, it takes a more than one sperm to fertilize an egg. Only the one does the fertilizing, but that one sperm needs a couple hundred "helper" sperm to do the job. That isn't to say pre-ejaculate cannot cause pregnancy. From all we know practically and scientifically, on some occasions when pre...

If you always use condoms properly -- and it sure sounds like you do -- then it's reasonable to presume that you have not had a risk of pregnancy. Condoms used alone -- when they are used properly and consistently -- are really very, very reliable forms of birth control and STI protection...

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.

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.

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.

How a pregnancy happens is a lot more complicated and a whole lot more interesting than just a sperm cell and an egg cell running into each other. Here's our map to the way there...or not.