On Love, Gratitude, and Anatomy

“You don’t have a penis, Mommy!?”

Even though I’ve worked in HIV, sexual health, and education for over 20 years, I never imagined I’d be having a conversation like this with my 3-year-old son.

STI Awareness Month

20 million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. each and every year.

20 million…

ASHA recognizes each April as STI Awareness Month and an appropriate theme this year might be STIs By the Numbers.

Spring Break, College Hookups, and Doctors

Spring Break is here and it’s time to party. For many college students, this can mean finding oneself in a stranger's bed having no recollection of the previous night's activities. We laugh about it afterwards, but no one talks about the health implications.

If You Give a Teen a Condom

One of the hottest debates among school administrators, parents, and politicians is sex education, specifically information about safer sex, in schools. If you give a teenager a condom, are you promoting promiscuity? Are we inviting unplanned pregnancy and STIs into teen’s lives by acknowledging the fact that they might be interested in sex?

Simply put: No. Duh.

National Condom Month 2013: Condoms as a Rite of Passage? Absolutely!

National Condom Month is always my favorite blog of the year to write.

The condom. All sorts of shapes, sizes, colors (even glow-in-the-dark). Ribbed or plain. Lubed or not. Latex or plastic (and natural skin, although that variety isn’t as effective as the others against sexually transmitted infections).