Voice your opinion about birth control to help make the process of choosing a method easier!
A team of researchers, clinicians, and patient representatives from or working with Dartmouth College are asking women to take a 10-minute anonymous online survey on how they make decisions about birth control. (It’s linked above. And here, again.) The team wants to use what they learn from the survey to develop a tool that will help women and their healthcare providers communicate and collaborate better on the birth control decision-making process. (A very worthy cause in our humble opinions.) In the team’s own words:
We know it can be difficult for women and healthcare providers to have a conversation about which method best suits a woman’s particular lifestyle, finances, and preferences. And, it can be tough to find trustworthy and easy-to-understand information that explains the benefits and drawbacks of different methods.
If you’re a woman between 15 and 45 years old who: uses or is interested in learning about contraception, lives in the United States, and is comfortable reading and writing English, please take a few minutes to share your views and priorities relating to birth control.
PS—The research team is also looking for healthcare providers who offer contraception counseling or prescriptions, live in the United States, and are comfortable reading and writing English to complete a 10-minute anonymous online survey about helping patients make decisions about contraception.
Get your socks off and a condom on.
Via someecards
Wait!!! We get that socks with nothing else can look a little dorky sometimes—and you know we’re all about getting a condom on. But before you take it all off, we feel it’s important to mention that research shows both men and women are more likely to orgasm when they have socks on than when they don’t.
So for those of you who don’t live in a tropical climate, we suggest something more along the lines of: “I can’t wait to see you wearing nothing but a condom—and socks.” Is it just us or does that sound kind of hot?
Not-so-shocking news: People like sex, whether or not it involves using a condom.
Happy National Condom Week! In case you haven’t stumbled upon this study yet, basically some kind researchers took it upon themselves to debunk the all-too-common myth that sex is no fun with condoms. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that condoms do not prevent people from enjoying sex—good news since condoms are the only birth control method that protect from STIs. Check out a few other interesting tidbits from the study over in our news section.
Smoking tobacco isn’t a medical condition of its own, but continued smoking does cause all kinds of medical conditions like emphysema, lung cancer, and throat cancer. It can also have an impact on which types of birth control are safe to use. Women under 35 who smoke and have no other medical conditions can usually use the pill with reasonable safety, but should definitely talk to their doctor about alternative methods. Women over 35 who smoke more than 15 cigarettes a day should steer clear of the pill, ring, or patch.
Who says romance is dead? ;) For random tips and tidbits like this one, sign on up for our birth control reminders.
Image by kimdokhac.
Do YOU know when in her monthly cycle a woman's most likely to get pregnant?
If so, you’d be in the minority, at least among 18-29-year-olds. From our latest Get on Top, “Fertility unawareness”:
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 woman’s cycle she’s most fertile compared to folks who have never used those methods. The bad news? That’s not sayin’ much.
If your partner is controlling your birth control, it is a sign of a larger relationship problem. All women should be able to protect their bodies from an unwanted pregnancy without threats or sabotage. You deserve to be with someone who respects you and your plans for the future—including when or whether you want to have a baby.
The Magical Powers of Semen...
New research on β-NGF, a protein found in semen, suggests that it may be able to trigger ovulation. Scary or fascinating?
So. Much. Swoon. We’ve loved the Contraceptive CHOICE Project for a long time, but this video of women who participated talking about what the project meant for them made us fall for them all over again.
The Contraceptive CHOICE Project was an initiative of the Washington University School of Medicine to remove the most common barriers to good contraceptive use for women in the St. Louis region. Researchers partnered with community healthcare providers to first educate women about all the contraceptive options available to them, then provide those women with whatever method they thought would be best for them, completely free of charge. In other words, the project took factors like lack of information, lack of access, and lack of money out of the “what should I do about birth control?” equation.
The result? 75% of the women who participated chose long-acting, super-effective methods like the IUD or the implant. And judging from the researchers’ results and the testimonies of the women themselves in this video, seems like their choices have already paid off.
Here’s to local and national efforts to make it easier and more affordable for women to choose—and use—the best birth control method for them!
Sometimes old ideas die hard. One good example is the old idea that you have to start taking the pill on a Sunday, or start it five days after your period begins. Research has shown that this is just plain wrong.
