I’m one of those girls who religiously pees after sex. I read an article at some point in my life (probably in Cosmo when I was sneaking it at 15) about how peeing could prevent UTIs. Combine that with the fact that I inherited my mothers insanely-active bladder, and I can’t imagine not taking that trip to the potty. Sure, it sorta kills the romance and puts cuddling on hold for a minute, but I’ve never had a UTI so I think that makes it worth it.

I’ve also heard girls talk about how peeing after sex could prevent STDs and pregnancy. I’m less than convinced, but could there be some truth in it? Does urine have some secret healing powers? I decided to investigate the idea of peeing after to sex to see if it really does anything…or if we’re all missing out on quality cuddles for nothing.

Most research finds that peeing after sex may reduce the possibility of contracting a Urinary Tract Infection. Peeing after sex can prevent UTIs because “it can help remove unwanted organisms from the urethra, which may reduce the risk of urethral infections.” While it’s not a guarantee, what do I really have to lose by running to the bathroom naked to clean out my urethra? I’m not a fan of any unwanted organisms in my lady-parts, so if peeing after sex will flush them out, I’m game.

So if pee can rid me of that evil bacteria, can it do the same for sperm? Read More »

Although reviewed as “one of this year’s most inviting summer novels” by the New York Times, J. Courtney Sullivan’s first novel Commencement is the perfect back-to-school dorm room read to carry any undergraduate woman through the first days of their fall term. Whether you are a first year or a senior, Sullivan’s story about friendship, feminism, and the climb towards maturity will find its way into your heart.

A narrative about four friends at Smith College, an all women’s college in Massachusetts (famous alumnae include Gloria Steinem, Julia Child, Sylvia Plath, Betty Friedan…just to name a few), Sullivan captures the essence of what it means to make friends in the richest sense of the word, while chronicling life on campus and post-graduation adulthood.

Each character is truly distinct, making the novel easy to identify with. Think the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, except more adult. Sally, Celia, Bree, and April are four very different women, but their individuality weaves together beautifully, showing that sisterhood looks past Sally’s love for Lily Pulitzer, Celia’s conservative-yet-wild side, Bree’s Southern Belle charm, and April’s radical feminism to form a life-long bond, even if the girls couldn’t be more uncommon from each other.

Sullivan, alumnae of Smith herself, paints the all women’s atmosphere just as it should be, a unique and tradition-filled roller coaster of emotions. Giving an accurate glimpse of what it means to be a young woman at a college without men, Sullivan does not degrade Smith or the single-sex setting, but instead lifts it up and showcases it in a light that most do not see when they hear “all women.” Read More »

Talking sex with your doctor isn’t always easy. Whether you are afraid she or he will judge you,  you just don’t feel comfortable sharing the intimate details of your life between the sheets, or you can’t think straight with a speculum between your legs, many people get tight lipped in the doctor’s office. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have questions.

We thought we’d help and every Thursday our friend Dr. Lissa Rankin will be answering your questions. The ones you couldn’t ask your doctor in person and didn’t really trust the Yahoo community to answer for you. Just leave your questions in the comments, or send em over to us. (We’ll keep it all anonymous for you.) Dr. Lissa will answer anything – really, anything – about sex and other lady things. Don’t be shy; she’s waiting for ya!

Q: My period is irregular every month. Sometimes it comes 6 weeks apart and other times it can be up to 9.  I am not on birth control (can’t handle the side effects) and practice safe sex with my boyfriend. The problem is that I get freaked out every month that I’m pregnant. How soon can I take the test? Are there any signs I can look for that will either tell me I’m absolutely not pregnant or that maybe I am?

A: Sounds like your periods are annoying, unpredictable and scary. Bummer about that.  Chances are, if your periods are that irregular, that you’re not ovulating regularly, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about pregnancy. Your ovaries can still spit out an egg from time to time. When you’re not ovulating regularly, your uterus doesn’t know when to bleed, and your hormones can be all over the place.  Why might you be skipping periods or not ovulating? Read More »

Whatever happened to “no glove, no love”?

These days, forgoing condoms is practically considered proof of love … but intentionally unprotected sex isn’t merely a practice exclusive to the betrothed or married. “Forget ’sex without condoms is the new engagement ring’,”writes journalist Rachel Hills in this month’s edition of Australian women’s mag, Cleo. “For a lot of people, it seems, sex without condoms is the new ‘going steady’.”

I see where Rachel is going with this one, but I’d even take it one step further and say that condomless sex (the non-accidental variety) isn’t even limited to those in love.

In my post-high school romances, the sexual exclusivity (A.K.A. “Who else are you sleeping with cuz I’d like to ditch the condoms”) talk has always preceded the relationship talk, but I’ve also discussed the issue with guys who I never had an interest in seriously dating. The subject has been broached with f**k buddies, casual interests, and boyfriends alike. What I’ve learned is that the nature of the relationship — whether it’s a serious romance or a sexual fling — matters less than how well I know and trust my partner. I might go out on regular dates with a new guy for a couple months and never suggest giving up condoms, but will bring it up after a just few short weeks of sleeping with a trusted male friend.

That doesn’t mean I approach unprotected sex with a flippant attitude. Rather, I bring up sexual exclusivity not so I can secure a regular hook-up, but as part of a larger conversation about responsible practices. Unfortunately, the only thing more awkward than officially defining a relationship is initiating a conversation about sexual exclusivity. You may be concerned about appearing presumptuous, especially if you’re sleeping with someone who you’re not dating and don’t want to send the wrong romantic signals. But uncomfortable as the conversation might be, you can’t skip that step altogether if you’re thinking of losing the glove (nor should you be having sex if you’d rather cross your fingers than actually communicate about these issues). Read More »

Talking sex with your doctor isn’t always easy. Whether you are afraid she or he will judge you,  you just don’t feel comfortable sharing the intimate details of your life between the sheets, or you can’t think straight with a speculum between your legs, many people get tight lipped in the doctor’s office. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have questions.

We thought we’d help and every Thursday our friend Dr. Lissa Rankin will be answering your questions. The ones you couldn’t ask your doctor in person and didn’t really trust the Yahoo community to answer for you. Just leave your questions in the comments, or send em over to us. (We’ll keep it all anonymous for you.) Dr. Lissa will answer anything – really, anything – about sex and other lady things. Don’t be shy; she’s waiting for ya!

Q: I am weighing my birth control options with my boyfriend. There are so many different choices now, so which is the least likely to fail? Any help would be appreciated!

A: In my opinion, the two reversible birth control options that are the most reliable are the Mirena IUD and Depo-Provera. Other hormonal contraceptives are also highly effective if used correctly.  Barrier methods, such as condoms and the diaphragm, are the least effective for pregnancy prevention.  To help you, I’ll go through each birth control method, one by one. Read More »

You’ve done some crazy things in your love lifetime:

Sleeping with your cell phone near your head as you wait for that boy to call.
Googling him to find out his interests…and then getting interested in professional hot dog eating yourself.
Eating only half of your burger when you could have eaten the whole thing and the fries so he didn’t think you were a heffer.

We get it. No biggie. Especially when you compare yourself to the real crazies out there:

The Sperm Jacker
Askmen.com recently warned their readers to beware of this crazy woman. The sperm-jacker is a woman who has neglected having children to focus on her career. When she starts to hear her biological clock ticking, she decides it is time to get pregnant. She goes out to a bar to find a man who will (seemingly) be able to provide for offspring, beds him, and then “accidently on purpose” gets pregnant.

The Marriage Trapper
We all know who this girl is – she wants her boyfriend to commit and his bachelor-ass doesn’t want to. Solution: get pregnant. This girl will get off the pill behind her boyfriend’s back or poke holes in his condoms when he’s not looking in order to get pregnant and force him to marry her. Some women go to even more desperate measures (yes, it does get more desperate than that!), and have sex with someone else to get pregnant and claim it’s their boyfriends. Too bad that plan didn’t work out so well for this woman, whose boyfriend had had a vasectomy that she didn’t know about. Read More »

Got a question for Tuffo? Email her at tuffyluv@collegecandy.com to be featured in her weekly column!

Dear Tuffy Luv,

I’m broke. But I’m still in college so I can’t work full-time. So I had this great idea. I’m going to donate an egg. Do you know anything about this? All I know is it’s going to make me money.
Thank you, Tuffy!

Brandi

Dear Brandi,

It’s true you can make thousands of dollars for donating eggs, but it’s a little more complicated than that. (Isn’t everything? Sigh.)

Women are born with a certain number of eggos. There’re several hundred, but what you got is all you get. To give, you have to be at least 21 and you usually have to be less than 35. You have to be healthy (no STDs or hereditary health problems) and you can’t be a drug user or alcoholic. Read More »

There are a plethora of factors separating teenagers from adults. You know you’re an adult when you start practicing various combinations of adult-like things. Paying your own bills, making important decisions by yourself, working, and having sex, amongst other things, encompass adulthood.

But when you’re a teenager looking onto your sexuality from afar, you’ll believe just about anything you’re told about sex, particularly if you’re being told by someone who has actually had it. Once you merge further into your adulthood and sexuality, though, you start to realize that a lot of things you were told about sex (or made to believe in some other way) are bullsh*t.

Some of the biggest myths about sex:

1. Men want sex more than women.

Um, no. There are always exceptions, yes. BUT, lots of women love lots of sex. Do women always love sex with a guy who’s being a punk? Nope. Do women always love sex when they’re exhausted or emotional? Nope. But none of this has to do with how much women want sex. In fact, I almost always want more sex than my boyfriends do. Read More »

When someone wrote into College Candy asking us to investigate the raising prices of birth control on and near college campuses across America, I was moderately shocked.

I have always had health insurance and never really thought about what the birth control options were without it. That made my birth control a whole $8 a month or so. But that’s neither here nor there. I don’t have health insurance anymore and neither do many college girls in need of birth control.

The laws have changed since the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which alters how drug makers are permitted to calculate rebates related to Medicaid. Somehow or another, this act twisted itself around to make it expensive for companies to offer schools discounts on birth control. Lame. So instead of paying $3-$10 a pack, thanks to discounts, college students are now being forced to pay $30-$50 a pack instead. Even for the cases when insurance would cover the difference, what about the girls who don’t want to involve their parents’ insurance with their birth control?

A female college student should be able to obtain reasonably priced birth control in this country without the assistance of health insurance. Read More »

Orgasms have been linked to a number of positive health and beauty tricks. They give you that oh-so-satisfying glow, they can lower stress and even reduce headaches and let’s not forget they are very, very fun. But like everything else in life, those orgasms come with a price (pun unintended).

Unfortunately the big O isn’t all sunshine and toe-curling euphoria that it may seem to be on the surface. Don’t let your libido fool you, orgasms can be dangerous too!

Guardian is reporting that your orgasm could increase your chance of being pregnant, knocked up, with child, up the creek without a condom… however you want to say it. Bottom line: orgasms give couples the best chance at producing a child.

Believe me, I learned my sex ed a long time ago.  Even before sex ed, I had that talk. You know how it goes, “When a man and a woman love each other very much…blah blah blah icky cringe.” That being said, I get that sex leads to babies – there was never any confusion there. Read More »