Pregnancy 101
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By: health
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February 4, 2013
Pregnancy is what happens when sperm meets up with an egg and the fertilized egg sticks to the lining of the uterus. So any type of sex where semen gets inside the vagina could result in a pregnancy—even if the penis is near but not inside the vagina when the penis-owner ejaculates. It doesn’t matter […]
Got health insurance? Hello, birth control options!
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By: health
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January 23, 2013
By Gretchen Borchelt of the National Women’s Law Center . Has birth control ever given you sticker shock? Thanks to the new health care law , the Affordable Care Act (or ACA), if you have health insurance, your preferred birth control method should now be a covered benefit without any out-of-pocket expenses. You read that […]
Birth control for breastfeeding moms
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By: health
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January 3, 2013
Now that your bundle of joy has come, it’s time to snuggle up with that new-baby smell and settle into being a mom. Between that and dealing with the effects of sleep deprivation— going to the grocery store in pajamas, falling into bed right after dinner, and drooling in public —you’ve got enough to worry […]
Abuse by birth control sabotage
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By: health
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December 19, 2012
By Dr. Liz Miller, MD, PhD, the Chief of Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. About twelve years ago, I was working as a doctor in a clinic in California. A young woman came in and requested a pregnancy test. Her test was negative. I asked her if she wanted to be […]
Millions need birth control—take action now!
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By: health
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December 13, 2012
UPDATE: President Biden has opened the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans for 2022. You can now enroll in one of these plans until January 15, 2022, at healthcare.gov . Some states have their own open enrollment periods and websites for signing up. Check to see if your state does . […]
What’s Medicaid expansion?
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By: health
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December 13, 2012
UPDATE: President Biden has opened the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans for 2022. You can now enroll in one of these plans until January 15, 2022, at healthcare.gov . Some states have their own open enrollment periods and websites for signing up. Check to see if your state does . […]
Fertility unawareness
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By: health
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December 3, 2012
The good news? Young folks who have used fertility awareness or withdrawal (a.k.a. pulling out) for birth control have a better idea of when in a person’s cycle they’re most fertile compared to folks who have never used those methods. The bad news? That’s not sayin’ much. A Research Brief from Child Trends used data […]
Stress, depression, and birth control…
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By: health
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November 19, 2012
Feeling stressed or depressed can make it harder to do all kinds of basic things —like get to work or school, sleep well, and make decisions. Turns out it can also make it harder to stay on top of your birth control. The study Almost 700 women in Michigan, ages 18-19, took part in a […]
How to make sex safer in 4 simple steps
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By: health
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November 12, 2012
Most of us have said, or heard a friend say, at one point or another “Hello birth control—goodbye condoms!” I get the thought process behind this—but as a healthcare provider for young women, it worries me. Here’s why: young women have the highest risk for accidental pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Double trouble… A […]
Birth control bullies: When your partner wants your method to fail
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By: health
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October 25, 2012
When I was training to become a doctor, one of my patients was a 25-year-old woman. She already had one child and didn’t want to get pregnant again. She’d been using the birth control patch , but came to me because the patch wasn’t working for her. When I asked her “why not?” she said, […]