I'm ready for ya, boys.

If you want be having sex, or be having more sex (and, come on, who doesn’t!?) the best thing you can do is make sure you’re prepared. Getting yourself ready for sex will put you in a mental mindset compatible with getting some. And feeling sexy will send out the come hither vibes that will make it happen.

Even if you’re having a dry spell, you never know when the opportunity to break it will arise, and you don’t want to be held back by granny panties or hairy legs.

Keep Up Your Grooming. Keep your down-there area groomed enough so that you’d comfortable with someone seeing it, should the situation arise. Nothing will kill the mood (or your self esteem) faster than an unkempt forest.

Keep Up Your Birth Control Routine. Don’t slack on taking your pill just because you haven’t been getting any or you’ll be sorry when you actually do! Not only will it mess with your cycle (spontaneous bleeding = bad), but it won’t be as affective and the last thing you want from a night of nooky is a night-of-nooky-bun-in-the-oven.

Be Tested Regularly. If you’re not having sex, you don’t need to be tested every three months, but make sure you’ve been tested since your last period of sexual activity. Health comes first! Read More »

Watch out, grams. That game could kill you!

Swine flu is ruining everything. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t kiss without thinking I’m going to contract the disease of the pigs. And now, apparently, I can’t play beer pong.

Officials at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (yeah, I’ve never heard of that place either) have reported 21 cases of swine flu that they have cleverly traced back to a game of beer pong. One single game! But is anyone really surprised? What can’t you contract from a game of beer pong?

The first time I swore off beer pong was during an outbreak of mono at my school. I thought I was being proactive about warding off the disease. That is until I came back from Spring Break in Cancun and was immediately rushed to the hospital with an extreme case of mono paired with dehydration and probably a little bit of alcohol poisoning. So, much for that.

Next, it was oral herpes. If you play beer pong, you will get oral herpes, and DIE. Fantastic. I spent half the party staring at people’s mouths and strategically placing myself a team ahead of the dude with the suspicious lip sore. I was like the Nancy Drew of STDs. No one likes that girl.

Swine flu, mono and a multitude of STDs later, I’m beginning to wonder if my love of the game is worth it.  If you’re going to contract the kissing disease, it might as well be the result of a great makeout session, not a game of beer pong. Especially if you lose. 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 »

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.

After so many of you wrote in to ask Dr. Lissa Rankin questions during CollegeCandy’s STD Awareness Day, we thought we’d bring her back more regularly. So, every Thursday she 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 on the birth control pill and I want to stop using condoms with my boyfriend. I know he is clean, so I am not worried about STDs, but I am worried about pregnancy. Is the birth control pill enough to keep me from getting pregnant? Am I safe without condoms? I’m sorta freaking out, so any answers you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

A: Well, you know what they say- the only perfect birth control is abstinence (with one famous exception- and even that is highly contested!).  But the birth control pill, when taken daily – without fail – is extremely effective. Are you the type that forgets your pill from time to time?  Lower dose pills (ones that have 20 micrograms of estrogen, like Yaz or Lo-Estrin 1/20) are pickier pills, meaning that it’s more important that you take them at the same time every day.  But if you’re good about taking your pill every day, around the same time, you’re pretty darn close to protected (>99%). Read More »

Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles…watch out!  A new study indicates that there is another method of birth control that may be almost as effective as condoms in preventing pregnancy.  The best part is, it doesn’t require any pill, patch, or plastic; doesn’t include side effects of weight gain or nausea; and there’s no wasted rip’n’roll time.

It’s withdrawing, or “pulling out” as it is often referred.

The study, by sex researcher Rachel K. Jones, indicates that “if the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time a couple has vaginal intercourse, about 4 % of the couples will become pregnant over the course of a year.”  With an 18% failure rate, the pull-out method comes pretty close to matching up with that of the condom’s 17% failure rate.

Whaaaa?  Haven’t we been taught forever that pulling out is the worst method of birth control? Haven’t we been giving up on the pleasure of condomless sex because it’s almost guaranteed that pulling out will leave us preggers? And, sidenote, condoms have a 17% failure rate? Why did no one tell me?! Read More »

This morning on Good Morning America, hypocrite Bristol Palin discussed her plan to push an “abstinence-only” message on teens. She couldn’t quite explain how abstinence got her where she is today (with, ahem, a child at age 18), but she was very confident that “abstinence is the only way you can effectively, 100%, prevent pregnancy.”

Props to B. Palin for that brilliant realization (and for basically admitting being a mom sucks), but since, as she said herself just weeks ago, “abstinence is unrealistic,” why don’t we figure out a more-um-successful way to stay child-free, while still satisfying our libidos.

Enter: Birth Control!!

Crazy, right? This stuff comes in all sorts of forms: patches, IUDs, condoms, looking at teen mothers trying to care for their kids and realizing how much less fun life would be with a child… Oh, and the pill, which, when taken correctly (not a difficult feat to accomplish if you can swallow a pill), is 99.9% effective. Certainly more effective than preaching abstinence…and then having unprotected sex with your hockey playing boyfriend in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. And most of the pills now come in pretty packaging! (Yaz has a tidy blue suede case with fun stickers that help you stay on track and turn birth control into a fun craft project).

Of course, we all (should) know that hormonal contraception doesn’t prevent against narsty STDs, so, unless you and your sex-bud have been tested and are exclusively hookin’ up, please use condoms too! I can tell you from looking at some pretty graphic books that Syphilis ain’t pretty. Neither is abandoning your education to raise a child on welfare and food stamps. So instead of shooting moose, go get yourself some nooky. Because, like Ms. Bristol once said, not getting any is just “unrealistic.”

Just remember to pop that very important pill first.

[The following post is courtesy of Vanessa Cullins, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs at Planned Parenthood. Upon speaking with Vanessa and asking for information on STDs we began discussing HIV/AIDS. Naively, I mentioned that college kids are safe and know to protect themselves against this deadly disease. Turns out, I was wrong, and thinking that way is incredibly dangerous.]

Once in a while, we get a variation of this question via e-mail: “I’m a woman in college, and I’m wondering if I still need to be worried about getting HIV. Isn’t it pretty much under control by now?”

HIV/AIDS is definitely still a threat — especially among young people and women. Today, women account for more than one-quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses, and women of color are especially affected by HIV infection and AIDS. The growing complacency about this deadly disease is alarming.  You cannot tell from looking at someone whether that person is infected with HIV or any other sexually transmitted disease (STD). That is why all sexually active people need to protect themselves against HIV. Read More »

Last month, Katie Freitas, a student at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, became so frustrated by the fact that her college would not distribute birth control, she decided to do something about it herself. Because she was concerned about the dangers of other students having unprotected sex, Freitas attempted to create a Sexual Health and Awareness Group on campus, but was denied by college administration. She then collected hundreds of free condoms from family-planning agencies and distributed them in the dormitories around campus.

However, when the administration heard about this, they quickly confiscated the boxes of condoms. Read More »

The first lesson I remember learning was the importance of sharing. I had to share my toys, I had to share my feelings and I had to share my gum with the rest of the class. Now, call me selfish, but I believe that some things in life should not be shared.

STDs, for example. Or guys?

In my mind, once a friend dates a guy, or cozies up with him for more than one night, he’s off the market to the rest of us. I mean, there’s a reason they call it “Sloppy Seconds,” right? But I’ve learned that it’s different for guys; they don’t mind hooking up with someone else’s leftovers. In fact, I know lots of girls who have made their way through an entire group of guys and none of them seemed to mind.

How can that be? Can guys really share hook ups like girls share tube tops? Let’s see what our guy had to say… Read More »

Two days ago, I went to my university’s health center. Now usually I completely disregard any information I get at the health center on the grounds of either a) I have heard that every year since I first took sex ed in 7th grade, or b) they’re full of ish.

But this time, by the luck of the draw, I happened to get a check-up from someone that (gasp!) actually knew what they were talking about. Now I’m not saying you should listen to this doctor (nurse practitioner if you want to get technical) instead of your own, but these are a few little known facts I picked up that I thought I would share. Beware, as these tidbits may scare you away from sex for life (or at least for the night).

1. In order for your birth control to be 99.7% effective, you must take it every day within 30 minutes of the same time.

Apparently, the hormones that make you temporarily infertile only work for 24 straight hours. According to Susan (the nurse practitioner), you should be okay if you miss the time by 1 to 2 hours. If you miss more than that, however, you should use condoms for at least a week. Read More »