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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How Not to Get Pregnant: Five Things You Can Do to Most Effectively Prevent Pregnancy
- Heather Corinna
Articles and Advice in this area:
- James Elliott
Having sex with another person, regardless of their gender or yours, can always pose health risks, especially if you do not use proper precautions to protect yourselves from those risks. In the case of sex with another person with a penis (or with anyone, for that matter), the risk of acquiring an…
- Heather Corinna
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.
- Heather Corinna
It’s fine to start on day two. Really, it’s okay to start at any time in your cycle. It’s just that the pill will become fully effective more quickly if you start at certain times rather than others. If you start within the first six days of a period, your withdrawal bleed (the “period” that happens…
- Heather Corinna
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.
- Ruthie
Just Curious, I’m so glad that you wrote in with this question! I remember Enrique Iglesias made news back in 2007 when he voiced his concerns with condoms that fit too loosely, and LifeStyles immediately responded with an endorsement deal and the promise that they would have a condom in his size…
- Heather Corinna
That question probably either sounds like a really important one or a really stupid one, depending on your view. But I want the answer regardless, and am seriously tired of waiting for it. That’s why I went ahead and asked it myself. As an organization that provides information on all methods of…
- Stephanie
One of the first things you generally want to think about in terms of any problems during or after sex such as you’re having with irritation, is when was the last time you were in to see your gynecologist? I can see from your question that you’ve been to a doctor about the UTIs, and that’s good. But…
- Heather Corinna
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.
- Heather Corinna
“Birth control” or “contraception” simply means any number of methods a person may or does use in order to try to prevent pregnancy. So, condoms are birth control. The pill is birth control. IUDs are birth control. The Depo-Provera shot is birth control. Withdrawal is birth control. If you choose…
- Sarah Riley
Right now, it sounds like you are your partner are practicing withdrawal as a form of birth control. As a method of contraception, withdrawal is not the most effective choice available. With perfect use it is about 96% effective (meaning that about 4 out of every 100 people using it will become…