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…
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- Heather Corinna
Our sexuality is about so much more than our genitals. Our genitals are actually one of the smallest parts of our whole sexuality and our sexual response and experience, believe it or not. Without our brains (and everything that goes on in them), our neurological, cardiovascular and endocrinological…
- K M Patwardhan
I’ve wondered, with a lot of women’s sexual issues, why am I so passionate about it?
- Heather Corinna
Originally written for The Guardian , condensed version can be seen there. In 2008, over 5,000 UK women under the age of 20 had an abortion that was not their first. As was made clear by the alarmist headlines following the publication of those numbers, this is a big concern for the public. A woman…
- Anna Knöfel Magnusson/RSFU
The mythical status of the hymen has caused far too much harm for far too long. RFSU shares their fantastic information booklet intended to dispel some of the myths surrounding the hymen and virginity, including a new, improved term for that anatomy, the vaginal corona.
- Melissa Busch
“Do you have any children…?” It’s such a typical question to ask someone, and for many it’s an easy yes or no answer. For me though, I consistently find myself hesitating to respond. Generally when speaking to strangers, casual acquaintances, and even new friends, I opt to answer “no.” On occasion, I brave the consequences and answer the truth: “Yes, I’m a birthmother.”
- coffeeforkatya
The holidays are here and you know what that means! Well, if you’re a person of color in an interracial relationship, it may mean having to sit through yet another uncomfortable, racially-charged conversation with your significant other’s fam. I know I have, and December’s barely here.
- Heather Corinna
I get the impression that some, if not many of of our users think that condom failure rates are the same as condom breakage/slippage rates. In other words, think that when we explain that in typical use, condoms are 85% effective, that means that 15% of condoms break. It doesn’t: that is NOT what those rates mean. I hate for anyone to be presuming it is and to panic about a potential pregnancy via condom use because of that misunderstanding.
- Alison Cole
Sex leads to pregnancy leads to childbirth. This, of course, is a huge oversimplification.
The LGBT National Help Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that is dedicated to meeting the needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and those questioning their sexual orientation and gender identity. We are an outgrowth of the Gay & Lesbian National Hotline, which…
- Heather Corinna
I don’t think that how we feel emotionally is ever about a matter of rights. We cannot control what we feel, after all: we can only control how we process, hold, express and manage our feelings. You feel upset: whether or not you or anyone else thinks you have a right to have those feelings, there…
- 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.
- Michelle Kinsey Bruns
I am a volunteer abortion clinic escort. This means I am there to walk with women coming into the abortion clinic. It’s usually no more than a minute’s walk from their cars to the front door of the clinic. Under normal circumstances, my help would hardly be needed. Except the circumstances outside an abortion clinic are rarely “normal.”
- K M Patwardhan
As someone who was all but completely celibate throughout high school and this was not at all by conscious choice, I can tell you that I often found it frustrating to deal with the fact that a lot of teenagers were under- or mis-informed about safer sex, that a lot of teenagers were sexually active, and that a lot of politicians and think tanks believed in stanching teenage sexual activity entirely. I was fourteen when I started listening to Loveline (though I didn’t always agree with Dr. Drew) and it began my path of sex-pertise (as it were). I was eager to get informed.
- Heather Corinna
That’s the verbatim response to the question “What if I want to have sex before I get married?” in “No Second Chance,” a film that is part of Sex Respect, an abstinence-only program. This particular message in the video, that sex (and only sex outside of heterosexual marriage) equals death is a common thread in many, if not most, abstinence-only curricula and programs. I figured it was high time we just unpack it, take a good look at the real deal, and be done with it.
- Heather Corinna
I don’t think it’s very realistic to expect most of us to feel the exact same way, or “equally,” about all men, all women or all people whose gender is outside of that binary. I’m not even sure, I have to say, what feeling “equally” about people, period, would be. People are so radically different…
- Lena
Good news from the White House! President Obama announced today that the US will overturn its current law banning HIV-positive individuals from entering the United States as tourists or immigrants. He explained that lifting the ban will help end stigma against people with HIV/AIDS; in fact, the ban itself has kept many people from getting tested and, therefore, could even be said to increase the spread of the disease.
- Heather Corinna
I’m so sorry you had to experience a rape. But I’m glad you survived it and very glad you feel able to ask for help and support. The vagina can’t really be “broken.” A person with a vagina can sustain injuries to their genitals – via rape, consensual sex, intentional genital mutilation, childbirth…
- Heather Corinna
There is little in the world that varies as much as human sexuality does. So, even when we have a couple common variables – let’s say all 18 or 19-year-old women: both an age and a single sex or gender there – we are still going to see a huge variety within that group based on all the other…
- coffeeforkatya
Are you in an interracial relationship? Do you have the hots for someone of another race? Attraction is all well and good until someone gets targeted for their race. Here’s the scoop: attraction is different than fetishism.
- 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…
- Heather Corinna
My hat’s off to you for being so thoughtful about the readiness of your partner. Too many people not as concerned as they should be about a partner’s readiness, and people are often particularly prone to presume male partners are always ready: that if men want sex, it’s all go, with no need to…
- Lena
Four years ago, Joseph Rocha was a committed and ambitious 18-year-old Navy recruit sure of two things: his love for his country and the corresponding desire to serve it in the Armed Forces, as well as his sexual orientation as a gay man. Unfortunately, the latter was very much in conflict with the former.
- coffeeforkatya
Okay, quick quiz: What do these things have in common? Getting accepted into college, meeting people for the first time, walking down the street in your neighborhood, going to the airport. Answer: In all these situations, your race affects how you are perceived and treated by others, as well as your…
- Heather Corinna
I’m writing this because someone told you that you can’t understand or experience love at your age. If no one did yet, they probably will soon enough. I’m writing to tell you that if you’ve heard that, I just don’t think it’s true.