This week, Bayer has been under fire with the Food and Drug Administration for its birth control pills Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella. The pills in this family contain a synthetic hormone called drospirenone, which is being linked to the seventy-five percent increased chance of blood clots. Bayer went in front of the FDA and unfortunately, the FDA ended up voting 15-11 to keep the pills on the market. They did however vote “21-5 on Thursday that labeling on Bayer’s popular Yaz and similar birth control pills is inadequate and should be revised to better reflect the higher risk of blood clots associated with these drugs.” Some of the members of the panel voted yes because they feel there are women that do benefit from the drugs. Well, yeah I and many of the other women affected had benefits. And then we almost died.

After going through such a harrowing experience and reading about so many other women who’ve gone through the same thing, it’s tough to know they will stay on the market for now. The lawsuits are still ongoing, and I hope the women affected get some peace of mind and justice. If you don’t think it’s that common, check out some of the responses I got…

Is Lindsay Lohan being treated unfairly?

Does your birth control have a higher risk of causing blood clots? Find out!

Even Gaga has moments of self doubt.

A hair towel that reduces frizz? It exists!

10 things you probably didn’t know about testicles. Yeah, we’re going there.

Why do people think Khloe Kardashian is fat? What is wrong in this world?!

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.