contraception

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Is it possible to have sex with someone while they're asleep? Sure it is. Is it likely they won't wake up at all? Not so much. Is it likely that person would wake up and think it was awesome someone was engaging them in sex without their permission in advance? Probably not. More to the point, is it...

Advice
  • Sarah Riley

One of the most common side effects of injectable birth control is that withdrawal bleeds (remember, you don't have real "periods" on birth control) may lighten or disappear entirely. A second extremely common side effect is spotting (sometimes called breakthrough bleeding) throughout a woman's...

Advice
  • Susie Tang

Short answer: YES. You NEVER reuse a condom. NEVER. Even if you wash it really thoroughly, you cannot use it again. (If, by chance, by "it" you mean his penis, washing the penis isn't a method of birth control either, and will not prevent pregnancy.) And if you take the step of having sex a second...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Since there are so many different pill brands, so much information to sort through, and since with adolescents and/or young adults information on some aspects can vary slightly, and we get so many questions about the pill, it seems it's high time to give the most basic rundown I can speaking to...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Pregnancy is not likely to occur for most people who menstruate who have sex during their periods. But because ovulation schedules can vary -- and be particularly erratic for younger people -- it's never smart to have unprotected sex at any time you do not WANT to become pregnant, even during your...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

You've been having unprotected sex. That means you have been at risk of pregnancy and well as sexually transmitted infections. The pregnancy risk is moderate to high, depending on your fertility, and your partner's sexual habits (as in, if he has ejaculated recently before unprotected intercourse...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Sara: so long as you took the test properly, at this stage of the game, there's earnestly no reason to be concerned you're pregnant. With emergency contraception, it's normal to have both or either some menstrual cycle kookiness for a little while, and/or some unexplained vaginal bleeding. That...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Unprotected intercourse, with or without ejaculation, poses high risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The pregnancy risk is substantially smaller than had there been full ejaculation, but it still may be a risk. Not knowing when this happened, if it has been less than 120...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Good on you for doing so much research, but if you're using the birth control pill, then you're not ovulating, nor most fertile at any given time. The combined pill suppresses ovulation, so there's no sense in charting when you're on it, because there isn't anything TO chart: your fertility status -...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

The short answer is that it is possible, yes, but is not very likely. The longer answer is that there are a lot of variables, and we still need more study to be done on this to give a better answer. Do we know that pre-ejaculate fluid can contain sperm? Yes, we do. We also know that there are far...