Sexual Health
Research
Emergency Bras at the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The 20th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, which honors achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think,” was held Harvard University last Thursday. On hand to help honor the 2010 prize laureates was Dr. Elana Bodnar, last year’s winner of the Ig Nobel Public Health Prize for her Emergency Bra, a […]

Sexual Health
Fewer E.D. Ads! New Teen-Focused Recommendations for Sex-Soaked Culture

Teens now spend a whopping seven hours per day on various forms of media. So the American Academy of Pediatrics just issued a revised policy statement, “Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media,” in the September 2010 print issue of Pediatrics (published online Aug. 30). In addition to calling for the creation of a national task force […]

Research
The Power of Teenage Love

photo by Pink Sherbet Photography A study by Bill McCarthy of the University of California and Eric Grodsky of the University of Minnesota found that teens in romantic sexual relationships have similar school experiences to virgins. Meanwhile, students who engage in NON-romantic sexual activity (hook-ups, friends with benefits, etc) were found to be more likely […]

Sexual Health
One Woman's Tale of Dying to Give Birth

photo by Lynsey Addario/VII Network for Time It’s reasonable to assume that, in this day and age of technological advances and common knowledge about good health, maternal mortality rates should be next to nil. But even in the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, it’s up at 13.3 deaths per 100,000 […]

News
Herpes – the Good News, the Bad News, and the Really Bad News

photo by Nathan Csonka A new study out from the CDC shows that herpes is twice as common in women than men, and three times as common in blacks than whites. A massive 48% of new herpes cases are among black women. We called on Dr. Vanessa Cullins, an obstetrician/gynecologist and vice president for medical […]

Sexual Health
New York City Wants to Turn You On

Good design used to be completely unheard of in the world of sex accessories — neither function nor form was particularly paid attention to, whether it was a vibrator or a pair of latex undies. Fortunately, in the last decade or so, both form and function have improved immeasurably, and we could not be happier. […]

Sexual Health
Sex at the Winter Olympics

Vancouver is continuing the tradition, started in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics, of making free condoms available to athletes. They’re matching the amount of 100,000 that the Chinese provided at the last Summer Games. But since there are fewer athletes in the Winter Games than in the Summer, it works out to more condoms per […]

Sexual Health
What Kind of Birth Control Should You Use?

The good news is there are a lot of birth control options available to women. The bad news is you have to figure out which one is right for you — how to choose?! Planned Parenthood has a pretty cool, new widget that can help take a little bit of the guesswork out of it. […]

Sexual Health
Turns Out There IS Such a Thing as Too Many Orgasms

photos via BeautifulAgony.com When we first saw the headlines this past week about a woman who has 300 orgasms a day finally meeting the man of her dreams — i.e. a man who could keep up with her libido — we assumed the story would be about Marrena Lindberg, whom we interviewed last year for […]

Sexual Health
Take Action Against the Stupak Amendment Today

photo of the Capitol Building dome interior (looking kind of like a pack of birth control pills) by opalsson Today, Planned Parenthood is organizing a “National Day of Action” to inform people about the Stupak Amendment and to lobby the Senate for health care reform that ensures women’s access to reproductive health care. Their bullet […]

Research
How Consumer Reports Tests Condoms

photo by trec_lit Consumer Reports recently tested a whopping 15,000 condoms (bought by one dude!) representing 20 models. (Check out the video here to see how they do it — try to ignore the cheesy wink-wink-nudge-nudge commentary.) To get the specific models and their exact ratings you have to be a subscriber. Damn you, Consumer […]

Sexual Health
Dr. George Tiller in Doc "What's the Matter with Kansas?"

Salon.com has an extended scene from the forthcoming documentary “What’s the Matter With Kansas?“, based on Thomas Frank’s bestselling book of the same title about the Right Wing’s rise in the once-liberal state. It features Dr. George Tiller, the Wichita-based abortion provider who was gunned down last Sunday while attending church. The clip touches on […]

Sexual Health
Will the HPV Vaccine for Boys Make Them Sluts? Ha!

photo by zmxncbv.com When the relatively new HPV vaccine Gardasil came on the market for girls a few years ago, conservatives got their panties all in a bind over the possibility that it would give sweet, innocent P.Y.T.s permission to do it. Now that the vaccine is being considered for boys, no one seems too […]

Sexual Health
Tell Obama to Overturn Bush's Unconstitutional "Conscience" Rule

Planned Parenthood’s president speaks out about speaking out. The tides are definitely turning. Earlier this year President Obama overturned Bush’s Global Gag Rule which denied funding to any international family planning organizations that provided responsible abortion information and/or services (a rule that ironically and tragically led to more abortions). And just this week, Obama lifted […]

Sexual Health
36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade; End of Global Gag Rule…?

photo by Shht! Today marks the 36th year women have been legally allowed to make decisions about their own bodies, without (too much) interference from the government, despite continuous threats from religious and anti-choice extremists. According to NOW: Hateful legislation seeking to block our reproductive freedom continues to pour out of conservative state legislatures. Pharmacists […]