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Black market birth control? Let’s go with no…
While not everyone agrees that birth control pills should be available over-the-counter in the U.S., it’s clear that there’s a demand for effective methods women can use without a prescription. How else to explain recent stories about women buying birth control on Craigslist and the yerberias of Arizona ? Cost may be a factor for […]
Gold-standard birth control: The IUD and the implant
In terms of effectiveness, not all birth control methods are created equal. And if there was any doubt as to which methods stand out in that arena, an article by the folks behind the Contraceptive CHOICE Project (just published in the New England Journal of Medicine ) should put it to rest. The Contraceptive CHOICE […]
The HPV vaccine: Is it working yet?
We’ve called HPV (human papillomavirus) the common cold of the sexually active world —but just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s not worth preventing when possible. While there are 40 different strains of the virus, only a couple of them are the major cause of cervical cancer (types 16 and 18) and most genital warts […]
The STI testing question of the hour: Where?
Ignorance isn’t bliss when it comes to HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). Early diagnosis and treatment means better long-term health and less likelihood of passing the infection on to future sexual partners. So why don’t more people in the U.S. get tested? Two new studies suggest that where the testing is happening may be […]
Herpes blues
Once you get it, it’s with you for life—so about 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. has genital herpes. Two prescription-only medications, acyclovir and valacyclovir, help make outbreaks of the virus less frequent and less painful. Acyclovir and valacyclovir are good at reducing the amount of herpes virus present in the genital area, so […]
HPV really gets around
New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that about 4% of people in the U.S. aged 14-69 have a high-risk type of human papilloma virus (HPV) in their mouth or throat. (High-risk types of HPV are associated with cancer.) The study concluded that any type of HPV infection in the […]
Before you panic about condom problems…
If a couple uses condoms correctly every time they have sex, they have only a 2% chance of pregnancy in one year. That 2% represents a problem with the condom—most likely slipping or breaking during the act. But a recent review of the problems people report when using condoms found a much high proportion of […]
Sex ed: A gift that keeps on giving
Stay in school, kids! A new study from the Guttmacher Institute shows that men and women who got formal sex education in school had long-term benefits in terms of their birth control use and relationships. It’s not news that sex ed has positive results, but this was the first study to look at long-term benefits […]
Condoms in college
A few weeks ago, headlines blared about a new study that found women to be less likely to use condoms by the end of their freshman year of college. The study asked how frequently women had used a condom during sex in the last month. They could select one of five answers ranging from “never” […]
Should the pill be available over the counter?
In 2012, a small Pennsylvania college made national headlines for putting packs of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B in a vending machine in their student health center. Imagine the uproar if that vending machine had packs of the pill in it, too. Selling the pill in a vending machine wouldn’t be legal in the […]
