Sexual Health

Hi Kayla, While you can be sure that YOU have been faithful, there is no absolute way you can know that your partner has been faithful. Has your partner been tested for gonorrhea or chlamydia in the past? If not, there is no way for you to know that he didn’t have it when you started dating. If your…

Delilah: what you’re describing is most likely a completely normal physiological response to being sexually aroused. Part of female sexual arousal, much like erection for men, is swelling of the genital tissues due to blood pooling in the pelvis: the clitoris (both externally as well as internally)…

How about something like this: “Hey, I know we should have talked about this before, but since we’ve been having sex without condoms, I need us to talk about safer sex now. I don’t want either of us to be taking risks when we don’t have to, or when we should reduce them, so can we talk about this a…

As a product of the withdrawal method myself, you can imagine why I’m not too excited about it. But even if I wasn’t, what I know is that it’s one of the least effective methods in typical use (only 73% effective), and that even with perfect use (96% effective), it’s still less effective than most…

No method of contraception is 100% effective, even with perfect use. Please understand that when any two fertile, opposite-sex partners are having genital sex where genitals meet genitals, pregnancy is always a possibility. Birth control methods and practices reduce the risk of pregnancy – more or…

This is actually a question that we see very often around here, and it’s understandable that you’d be worried about this if you don’t want your mother right now to know that you’re sexually active. Doctors actually have an ethical responsibility in keeping what’s called doctor-patient…

It depends on when you start taking your pills for the first time, and on what level of protection you want. If you start the pill on the first day of your period, it’s likely – so long as you take every pill in that cycle during and after that week perfectly – that you will be have the full…

There are a few possibilities. • Maybe she is on the pill, but either doesn’t know how to use it properly, or hasn’t been using it properly, such as by missing pills, confusing active pills for placebos, or had an interaction with her pill and another medication, like an antibiotic. • Maybe you’re…

Did your doctor have a discussion with you about the fact that your boyfriend may already have HPV? If you have been with him for a long time, and only recently was your HPV detected (particularly if you’ve been good about your STI testing and pap smears before now), you may well have gotten it from…

You already know that no method of contraception is 100% effective to prevent pregnancy. You probably also know, however, that there are reliable methods which are very effective when used properly, and that if you use contraception correctly and consistently, pregnancy becomes a whole lot less likely. But did you know that by doubling up and using two methods, with almost any combination you use, you can get mighty close to that 100% with most combos?