Sexual Health
Pregnancy and Delivery: Super-Basic Edition
If you don’t know about what it’s like to be pregnant at any or every stage and you just want half a clue, this is your article.
Teen Access to Abortion: An Interview with Carol Sanger
Legal scholar and reproductive rights expert Carol Sanger talks about barriers to abortion access and supporting pregnant teens.
Reproductive Coercion: An intimate partner violence you might be overlooking
What is reproductive coercion, how can you spot it and what can you do about it if you do?
Pills (and other hormonal contraceptives) By Post May Save Your Hide
A guide to accessing hormonal contraception (regular and emergency) via online mail-order pharmacies and other helps when access in the United States is looking grim.
The STI Files: Zika
While most cases of Zika virus are acquired via mosquito bites, this emerging virus can be transmitted sexually, and the CDC reports that the numbers of such cases are growing in subtropical regions of the Americas.
When, Where, and Why: Telling Your Partner You Have an STI
So, you've got an STI. How do you tell current or potential partners?
Something You Can Worry About Less: Interference and Hormonal Birth Control
Worried a medication might interact/interfere with your hormonal contraceptive, or vice versa? Here's a rundown of the most common culprits in birth control interference.
The Pregnancy Panic Companion
In the thick of a pregnancy scare? Freaking out? Not sure what to do? Welcome to your virtual pregnancy scare doula.
Higher Learning: Navigating Sex and Relationships in College
Going away to school can present some new sexual challenges. Here's a get-you-started guide to grow on.
Have a Little Faith in BC
An article about choosing methods and trusting methods
All the Barriers! All the Time!
Everything you'll probably ever need to know about safer sex barriers, like which to use, how to use them, how to get more comfortable with them, and how surprisingly cute they are.
You're Not Pregnant. Why Do You Think You Are?
Some people struggle with strong pregnancy fears when there isn't a pregnancy or hasn't even been any real risk of pregnancy. What's that really about, and how can you move forward?
Self-Care: A La Carte!
Some helps for the care and keeping of you when you're stressed, depressed, riddled with anxiety or fear or going through something wretched and trying to come out the other side.
Figuring Out How to be a Lesbian Safer Sexpert
When I started having sex with girls, there was no one cheering, especially not encouraging me to have safer sex. But over the last few years, I’ve finally begun to feel confident with safer sex, and it’s improved my sex life a million percent. I wish I’d gotten comfortable with it sooner.
Risky Business: Learning to Consider Risk and Make Sound Sexual Choices
Choices about sex and intimacy will always involve some risks, and making sound choices when risks, emotions and social high stakes are involved isn't something anyone is magically expert at. How can we learn to do it well, and what are some common things that trip us up?
The Simple and Underrated Art of Washing Your Hands
Handwashing, seriously? Yep, handwashing. Seriously. (Well, mostly seriously.) Here's how to do it and why it's so important to do.
This is About Genital Herpes
I realized that I was uncomfortable associating myself with genital herpes. Will people think I have it? Why else would someone write about genital herpes and risk that association if they didn’t have it, right? So I pressed on, putting myself at the center of an itty-bitty social experiment that resulted in some pretty big stuff.
The STI Files: Molluscum
Molluscum contagiosum -- a bumpy skin infection -- isn't technically an STI, but can be transmitted through sexual contact. The CDC states that molluscum cases in the United States have been on the rise since 1996.
What Safer Sex Isn't
Maybe you know what safer sex is. But do you also know what it isn't? Take a minute and fact-check your ideas about what can protect you from STIs and what cannot.
What Are Menstrual Cups?
Looking for an alternative to tampons or pads? A user asks about menstrual cups, and we give her -- and you -- the scoop.
Love the Glove: 10 Reasons to Use Condoms You Might Not Have Heard Yet
You've probably heard or thought some things about condom use that might be keeping you or others from using them or from using them consistently, and I'm willing to bet you haven't heard everything I'm about to say. Even if you're already using condoms and using them every single time properly, I bet you know someone -- a sibling, a friend, a sexual partner -- who could stand to hear ten great reasons to use condoms.
Chicken Soup for the Pregnancy Symptom Freakout's Soul
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.
Yo, Doctors: Pelvic Exams Shouldn’t Be Quickies
My experience with sex-negativity and ignorance in the medical world. Adventures in having an ovarian cyst, coming out in the ER, enduring bad gynecological exams, healing my relationship with my anus and finally finding a good doctor.
The Buddy System: Effectiveness Rates for Backing Up Your Birth Control With a Second Method
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?
Peeing on a Stick: All About Pregnancy Tests
Choosing a pregnancy test can be pretty overwhelming. This article is designed to give you a general overview of pregnancy tests. It will discuss what a pregnancy test does, the difference between a urine test and a blood test, how to choose a pregnancy test, when and how to use pregnancy tests, and finally what to do after a pregnancy test.