Sexually transmitted infections are one part of sexual health, but that’s not all! Any aspect of health or healthcare that is related to sex and reproduction is about sexual health: menstruation, common infections like yeast or bacterial infections, birth control and abortion, health conditions like endometriosis, PCOS or phimosis, vaccinations, pain with sex, safer sex and other preventative sexual health practices and yep, STIs, too.
Sexual Health
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Rose
CONTENT NOTE: includes explicit descriptions of medical abuse. I was sexually abused as a young child. I'm 25 now, and I've never had anything inside my vagina. I tried to have a pap smear when I was...
Advice
Article
How Not to Get Pregnant : Five Things You Can Do to Most Effectively Prevent Pregnancy
- Heather Corinna
Articles and Advice in this area:
Advice
- Heather Corinna
Probably not, no. There are a few reasons why this is the case. One of them, particularly in clinics which also provide abortions, is an issue of simple security. It is dangerous to work in these clinics because of a history of in-clinic violence, and some time ago, one way people who did violence…
Advice
- Heather Corinna
If you go to an OB/GYN and your mother asks them to do this, the very first thing that should happen would be for that doctor to explain that is not what should motivate a parent to get their child sexual healthcare, and hopefully, they’ll also tell her that going to the gynecologist should be about…
Advice
- Sarah Riley
From what you’ve said here, I’m not sure the pill necessarily sounds like the best option for you at this point in your life. The pill is a good method of contraception, but it isn’t for everybody. As far as the side effects go, do understand that they’re not guaranteed to happen for everybody…
Advice
- Heather Corinna
Was her partner ever treated when she was? Standard procedure when one person is diagnosed with Chlamydia is for a healthcare provider to make clear that all current or recent partners are informed so that they can also be treated at the same time. Some healthcare providers will even just provide…
Advice
- Sarah Riley
Unless you’ve been charting your fertility (see our article Get with the Flow: All about FAM for more information), it’s not really a good idea to think that there’s any “safe” period in your cycle where you have less need to worry about pregnancy. Not everybody ovulates on Day 14. Especially in…
Advice
- Sarah Riley
Some people can take longer than others to adjust to hormonal birth control. In fact, that’s why you’ll usually hear that you should be ready to deal with some weirdness for the first 1-3 months when you start hormonal birth control. Remember that with the pill you’re essentially adding lots of new…
Advice
- Susie Tang
The Papanicolaou test, more easily pronounced “Pap smear,” is a test that checks to see whether there are any abnormal growths on your uterine cervix. Your clinician takes a small brush or swab and sweeps a sample off the tip of your cervix. The lab checks the sample to see if there are any abnormal…
Advice
- Heather Corinna
With most sexually transmitted infections, it would be highly unlikely for a person to have one who has not had any kind of sexual contact – with genitals, hands or mouths – to have one. We call STIs – sexually transmitted infections – what we do because that is usually how they are transmitted…
Advice
- Heather Corinna
Mood changes are certainly one common side effect of the pill, and they’re worse for some people than for others (and younger people can get hit particularly hard with those effects). I hear you on how you’re feeling: way back when I was on the pill, and I was one of those who got whacked really…
Advice
- Heather Corinna
Why do you feel bad about using emergency contraception? Just like condoms, how it works is to prevent a pregnancy, and emergency contraceptive pills (Plan B or the Morning-After Pill) work the exact same way any combination hormonal birth control works, it just only needs to be taken after the fact…
