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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 […]
Earth Day Reminder: Birth Control is Green!
Kirsten Moore is a consultant for the Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP). It’s almost Earth Day and you’re thinking about what you can do to help the planet. An article blaming your birth control pill for a plethora of environmental woes, from intersex fish to male prostate cancer, shows up in your twitter feed. So, […]
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 […]
EC from a vending machine?
Shippensburg University, a small-ish school in Pennsylvania, made the news last week for offering emergency contraception (EC) through a vending machine in their student health center. The machine has been there for about 2 years, but the FDA only recently started asking questions about it, possibly as an after-effect of December’s controversy about over-the-counter access […]
DIY IUD Removal: Yesss or yeeeck?
According to new research from the University of California, San Francisco, some women like the idea of being able to remove their own IUD—so much so that it might make them more willing to try one in the first place. Women who liked the idea of removing their own IUD said it was because they […]
The Obama Administration makes it official!
We shared this via tumblr last week, but for those who somehow missed the big news, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has decided to include almost all employers in the new health reform ruling that requires them to cover birth control in their health insurance plans without co-pays or deductibles. If you’re […]
The HPV vaccine won’t make you wildly promiscuous
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new study about women across the U.S. who used the HPV vaccine, a.k.a. Gardasil, between 2006 and 2008, which found that participants’ sexual behavior was about the same regardless of whether or not they’d had the vaccine. The study did find a few differences in […]
SILCS: It’s not your mama’s diaphragm (not her spermicide, either)
Update: The Caya diaphragm, a.k.a. SILCS, is now available in the U.S. — In the 1960s, more than 10% of married women in the U.S. used a diaphragm for birth control—today, fewer than 1% do. The drop could be because so many other birth control options have been introduced since then, including the implant , […]
Sexy thoughts
Ever wonder where the claim that “men think about sex every seven seconds” came from? It’s so widely known that Snopes has debunked it —and we can assure you it’s not based on scientific research. A new study from an Ohio State University shows that the real number is more like every 4,275 seconds, or […]
