Sexual Health

I started to grasp that AIDS hit very diverse people from lots of different backgrounds, but AIDS had no face for me. No real face, I mean. Only a face hidden in a shadow, or behind glasses, with a wig or a base cap and a weird, computerized voice, without a name. But it did get a name for me. And a face.

Using a condom is generally easier than it looks (especially if you can relax about it), but the first few times, it can be tricky, especially if you’re nervous about knowing how to use one.

I’m 16 and I used to be pregnant.

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.

Am I blue? Find out what “blue balls” are really all about: the facts may surprise you.

A vaccine is available to help prevent the spread of some types of HPV for people of all genders. Have a click to find out more about it.

Need to check out what your sexually transmitted disease or infection risk might be in a jiffy?

There are instances in which condom use alone - or the use of dental dams and gloves – cannot offer the level of STI protection they can in other instances, with STIs which are transmitted not via fluid exchange, but by skin-to-skin contact: namely two of the most common STIs, HPV and Herpes.

Enough people don’t talk about abortion. Too many people don’t listen to those who do. I’m not talking about conceptually or hypothetically. I’m not talking about discussing this woman or that who you knew that aborted or did not. I’m talking about talking about abortion; intimately, personally. In public, not in secrecy.

HIV is a virus that destroys the immune system and thus weakens the body’s ability to fight disease and infection, even common infections like flus and colds. HIV usually progresses to AIDS. This makes HIV the most dangerous sexually transmitted infection today. It is the fifth leading cause of death for the young under 40 in the United States. At this time, no one has been cured of HIV or AIDS.