The Huffington Post has a nice little poll up about green birth control.  Actually, birth control is just not all that green. As the poll points out, no one is recycling condoms (obviously – and PS don’t try), the birth control pill may release excess estrogen into the water supply, and while copper IUDs may be the eco-friendliest of all, few women use them.

I’ve thought about this before because pill packets especially the heavier plastic ones have always bugged me. They seem like they’d make the pill the least eco-friendly birth control option, but the Huffington Post piece points out …read more

I got an email today that absolutely blew my mind.
Get this: According to a recent study published in the June issue of Contraception Magazine, the “Pull Out” method of birth control rivals the use of condoms!
This was a piece published by sex researcher Rachel K. Jones, that finds  “pulling out” before ejaculation is nearly effective as condoms in preventing pregnancy – calling the method “only slightly less effective” than condoms.
Wow.
This is not a good thing.
It’s like millions of college boys are suddenly going to feel validated to not wear condoms and spread disease far and wide.
Image: Sxc.hu

I read an interesting piece today on condom makers. Apparently, like many products today, they can be made cheaper in China.
USAID, United States Agency for International Development, a federally funded program that distributes 10 billion condoms to poor countries, in an attempt to help curb the spread of AIDS. They will no longer be distributing American-made condoms.
“Of course, we considered how many U.S. jobs would be affected by this move,” said a USAID official who spoke on the condition that he would not be named. But he said the reasons for the change included lower prices (2 cents versus …read more

by Ali Kriscenski from The Daily Tomorrow, exclusively for Lively Women
Everything we do has an effect on the environment but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun and look out for Mother Nature. There are some easy ways to keep your eco-values alive when giving in to, er, human nature.
Here’s how.
Condoms
Ask a beach cleanup volunteer what they find littering the sands and the answer is likely to include used condoms. Condoms find their way onto beaches, into waterways and water treatment facilities when they are flushed down the toilet. Many sea creatures mistake condoms for jellyfish or other …read more

About.com’s Guide to Women’s Health, Tracee Conforth, highlighted a recent news item in Ms. magazine that summarizes a meeting of male contraception experts to discuss alternatives to traditional forms of male birth control (vasectomy and condoms — or, you know, keeping it in your pants, boys).
From the article:
More than 140 male contraception researchers from around the globe recently gathered in Seattle to discuss new alternatives to condoms and vasectomies. At the two-day “Future of Male Contraception” conference, whose sponsors included the World Health Organization, the University of Washington, and the National Institutes of Health, researchers unveiled a number of new …read more

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’d rather get my teeth drilled than go to the gynecologist, but they’re pretty close together on my list of least favorite things to do. However, I did take my own advice and suck it up this month as I do every July, because it was time for my annual exam. This may be one of those too-much-information posts, so if you’re not interested in commiserating with me over the details of my visit, or if you happen to be a male relative or former or current client and find knowing …read more

Lately it seems like there are literally dozens if not hundreds of options when it comes to contraception. There are injections, implants, patches, pills, surgical procedures…
How do you know which is the right choice for you?