Sexual Health

Getting Birth Control May Be Easier Than You Think!

If you're a young person, you may not know it, but you can probably access methods of birth control without your parent's permission, and even for free! Here's a starter guide for those in the United States, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa and India.

Getting to Know Your “New Normal”: Tips for Sex When You Have Pelvic Pain

It can be incredibly frustrating when a part of the body we strongly associate with, and expect to give us, pleasure ends up causing us chronic pain. If you have chronic pelvic pain, what do you do if you want to get sexual with yourself or someone else? How can you be physically intimate if you’re in pain? How do you talk to your partners? If it starts hurting, should you stop? This guide from Nicole Guappone offers some great help with all this and more.

A Manifesto on Pleasure and Self-Love for We With an STI

Despite the initial shame, guilt, name-calling, jokes, and fear related to disclosure, my STI presented me with a chance to love myself more deeply. It gave me a chance to sit with myself, who I thought myself to be, who I thought I was going to become, and who I really was.

A Guide to Accessing Abortion Care – Even When It Looks Hard 

Let’s say one day you find out you’re pregnant. And let’s say that after considering your options – carrying the pregnancy to term and becoming a parent, adoption, or abortion – you’ve decided that the best choice for you is to terminate your pregnancy. That’s fine! Depending on where you live, though, accessing abortion care could be an issue. This guide is here to help you figure out how to access the care you need.

Sexual Assault Exam: An Insiders Guide

I know that isn’t news to anyone, but I think we forget that sometimes when trying to help our friends or family members who are going through it. We expect them to act “rationally,” like we would, or like we want them to. But sexual assault is traumatic, and making decisions during and after trauma is complicated. Decisions about who to talk to - the police, a healthcare provider, a friend, a teacher - can feel incredibly complicated. Are they going to believe me? Are they going to listen to me? Are they going to call the police even though I don’t want that? What is going to happen next?

What's Pelvic Pain and What Can I Do About It?

We’ve created this guide to let you know that if you're experiencing any kind of pelvic pain, we believe you, and to let you know that you are not alone. While chronic pain (including pain with sex) is common, it is not “normal.” If it hurts, it’s usually because something is wrong.

Amelia Is Shouting: A Conversation About Abortion

I wanted to have a candid conversation about abortion for the benefit of young people, like what to expect, how to help a friend having one, and the best candy to keep on hand for recovery, and I knew Amelia Bonow was just the right gal for the job.

A Future Without HIV: Are We There Yet?

The findings of a major eight-year-long HIV study known as the PARTNER2 study have shown that so long as HIV+ partners are being fully treated, there is no chance of passing on HIV to a sexual partner, even with unprotected sex. What does that mean, and where do we stand now that we know this?

Mythbusting The HPV Vaccine

I’m an HPV vaccine evangelist. Every opportunity I get, I stand on my metaphorical soap box and preach to everyone who will listen about why it’s so important to get vaccinated against HPV. But it wasn’t always like this.