While I was setting up for a women’s health workshop, unpacking the contents of my favorite red carry-on suitcase, an early arrival approached me and asked, “What on Earth are those?” She was referring to the rainbow of menstrual cup demos I had lined up on the table. “How many people actually use those?” Since I hang out with a lot of sex ed-types, my perception is “a lot.” I’d estimate that well over half of the women with whom I talk about menstruation use one. Continue Reading →
Sexual Health
Recent posts
Health Care For Women
The controversial Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been upheld in the US, meaning that all Americans must purchase health insurance or face a penalty. A lot of people are unhappy about this, claiming the government is overstepping its bounds, that it’s unfair to impose a penalty, and so on. From a sexual health standpoint? I’m going to call this a win. Especially from women’s perspectives. Continue Reading →
Condoms Don’t Ruin Sex
I’m not getting paid by the condom industry to write this, I assure you. But when I see a webpage titled How Condoms Ruin Sex, my first reaction is surprise and my second reaction is outrage. Why on earth would someone attack a form of birth control that’s been shown to reduce the transmission of HIV and other STIs? For women who do not wish to be on hormonal birth control, condoms (when used consistently and properly) are helpful in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Sure, there are valid reasons for people to choose not to use condoms, but as a sex-positive feminist, I really have to say that those should be personal choices, not decisions mandated by a website with a thinly-veiled religious agenda (and let’s keep in mind that many religious women use birth control too). Continue Reading →
Upgrade Down Under: Australian Boys Will Get Free Gardasil Vaccinations
After years of only vaccinating young women and girls, the Australian National Immunisation Program will begin covering Gardasil for 12 and 13 year-old boys. The Gardasil vaccine protects against four strains of the Human Papiloma Virus (HPV) – two that cause 70% of cervical cancers and two that cause 90% of genital warts. The types that cause cervical cancer can also cause penile and anal cancers in men, but because those cancers are rarer than the cervical types, girls have been prioritized for vaccine delivery. However, many public health advocates have argued for giving the vaccine to boys not only because sexually active men can get genital warts, but also to prevent them from spreading the cancer-causing strains to young women. Will other countries follow suit? Continue Reading →
Black Market Birth Control
I was reading an article on xoJane and it featured a young woman who was broke – as I’m sure many people feel right now. I’ve had friends who have mentioned changing birth control methods due to price or having to choose between groceries and paying for their birth control. However, the woman mentioned to her hair stylist that she was feeling a bit too broke to possibly afford her birth control and the stylist had the “perfect” answer – just buy her Nuva Ring from a woman’s car trunk. At this point, I sat on my couch slack-jawed just waiting for some popular music celebrity I don’t know to jump out and yell “You’ve been punked!” Except that didn’t happen. Continue Reading →
Syphilitic Reflections on the 20th Century
At times, working on a long-term STI research project, it is easy to become embroiled in the minutiae of the day-to-day. When times like this strike, it is crucial to remember the bigger picture. From a less cosmic perspective, some historical appreciation of our place in sexual health is often required, both as a reflection on how much has been achieved and a reminder of the forces that continue to influence this work. Above is a graph to which I turn when such a reminder is necessary – it depicts syphilis diagnoses in genitourinary medicine clinics in the UK from 1931–2004. A favorite of epidemiologists working in sexual health, this graph appeared in lectures in various subjects throughout my studies; it was used as a tool to prompt students to consider transmission dynamics of STIs and the many factors that influence these. Continue Reading →
A Biblical Perspective On Abortion
Abortion is a tricky issue, resonating with people on multiple levels (personal, religious, political, among others) and I feel that I should state that in this post I’m not trying to convince someone to think differently here, or come over to my view (which is pro-choice if only because I’m hesitant about people without wombs making decisions for people with wombs, and because I believe that abortion needs to be safely available as part of the effort to provide social equity and begin to fix the socio-economic-educational problems that lead to unwanted babies in the first place). However, I recently discovered that the Bible does not necessarily unilaterally condemn abortion, so I thought I would share some of that information here in case others find it as thought-provoking as I did. I followed a link (I forget from whom) to the site of a Christian blogger who provides close readings of Biblical passages. The first post, What the Bible Says About Abortion, discusses a passage in Numbers wherein God tells Moses that if a husband suspects his wife is pregnant with another man’s baby, they can perform a ritual that will cause the woman to abort. Whoa… Continue Reading →
Ecology of the Nether Region
The world of ecology has just got a whole lot more interesting. Instead of delving deeper into the uncharted waters of our oceans, or the dark recesses of the world’s rainforests, scientists have turned their focus inwards, to the ecology of microbes lurking in the nooks and crannies of our own bodies. Incredibly, bacterial cells that live on and in us outnumber our own cells by about 10 to 1. Collectively known as the microbiome, these microscopic passengers are far from simple free-loaders. Our gut is teaming with bacteria that help us to digest everything from our breakfast cereal to our midnight ice-cream indulgence. Continue Reading →
Reproductive Politics in YA Literature
Everyone’s read The Handmaid’s Tale, right? With its dystopian vision of a future where the few women who are fertile are kept like slaves? Well, with reproductive rights being so hotly contested right now, it’s no surprise that the topic is popping up in literature again. This time, YA (Young Adult) novels offer a variety of perspectives on how a disturbing yet plausible future might emerge from our currently debated policies. It makes you wonder… Continue Reading →
Sex, Love, and Life Advice for Guys
I’m not a sex educator, but I am a sex geek and I love to talk about sex. There’s nothing like having a discussion with your mates in a pub, while the rest of the world moves around you and you’re discussing the latest thing you’ve learned, then some random walks past right at that part of the conversation and you get a weird look. So in response to Debby’s post about advice for women, I compiled a male set of advice that I thought could be helpful to MSP’s readers. 1. You have penis – learn to live with it. Continue Reading →