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Besides the standard Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr, I have apps on my phone to check the weather, check my bank account, check the status of the subway, browse and/or buy a whole assortment of different stuff, and even one to track my menstrual cycle. But how about an app that tells you, after 14 days, whether you should break up with your boyfriend? Is this taking the whole my-phone-is-my-life thing too far?

Here’s how it works: you plug in your boyfriend’s name (FYI, no “girlfriend” or “partner” option- big thumbs down on that), and every day for two weeks the app prompts you to rate how you’re feeling, on a scale of “Totally Over Him” to “Totally In Love,” and to leave a comment about what’s new with your relationship. The basic idea is that by charting your feelings over time, the app can identify trends and tell you whether your relationship is good for you on the whole. On one hand, this makes some sense, right? It can be hard to see beyond our day-to-day and figure out whether something is good for us. On the other, the idea of letting a computer handle our romantic decision-making seems more than a little… creepy.

Super intrigued, I downloaded the “Should I Break Up With My Boyfriend” app (heads up: it costs $0.99), and I’m currently on day four of my 14 day relationship digital evaluation. I can’t tell you how it’s going because the app hides all the data until the end. But I’m pretty sure I’m not going to break up with my boyfriend, even if it tells me to. Why not? Because I wasn’t really thinking about breaking up with him in the first place. Maybe downloading an app called “Should I Break Up With My Boyfriend?” is a sign that you should, well, break up with your boyfriend. Or at least seriously think about it. What do you think? How much trust would you place in advice from an app when it comes to making decisions about your relationship?

-Alex at PPFA

Since Tumblr’ing our way onto the World Wide Web almost three weeks ago we’ve received hundreds of questions, dozens of supportive comments, and a handful of really great suggestions. A huge thank you to everyone who sent us a little Tumblr-love or asked a question. While we can’t respond to every question we receive, we’re going to be addressing some of the most common concerns in the days and weeks ahead.

From time to time we’ll be turning the Ask feature off so we can catch up with past questions.  But have no fear; your answer is probably already waiting for you on plannedparenthood.org or our Ask the Experts blog. In fact, before submitting a question on Tumblr, why don’t you give Ask the Experts a try. Just search by keyword. We’re fairly confident you’ll find the answer you’re looking for.  If not, ask away.

-Nathan at PPFA

Someone asked us:

Question: If you are 16 years old, do you need your parent’s permission to go on the pill?

In general, you don’t need your parents’ permission to get a prescription for birth control pills. However, there might be certain places where, for one reason or another, a health care provider will require parental permission or notification before giving you a birth control prescription. If you’re worried about that, you can call your health care provider or your local Planned Parenthood to ask about their policy.

We get that you might not want to talk with your parents about this, but lots of teens find talking with their parents about birth control (and sex!) can be really beneficial — seriously! Your parents might not like the idea of you having sex, but they probably do like the idea of being involved in your life decisions. And becoming sexually active is a pretty big life decision. Learn more about how to talk to your parents about sex.

Someone asked us: 

Question: What does birth control do to a girl’s body to make her not get pregnant?

Anybody else ever get the feeling that hormonal birth control (like the pill) is nothing less than pharmacy-dispensed magic? You take a pill every day, and voila: you don’t get pregnant. I totally remember feeling like that when I first used it. And while that was kind of cool, understanding the specifics of how birth control pills work made me feel more confident about using it and more aware of what was up with my body.
 

So how does hormonal birth control work? Different methods work in slightly different ways, but the basic gist is the same: hormones in the pill (or the shot, the ring, the patch, or any other kind of hormonal birth control) keep a person’s ovaries from releasing eggs — ovulation. No egg = no pregnancy. The hormones can also prevent pregnancy by thickening the cervical mucus, which can block sperm and keep it from joining with an egg. 
 

More of a visual learner? We absolutely love this animated graphic from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. 

Some kinds of hormonal birth control — including the ring, the patch, and most pills —use a combination of the hormones estrogen and progestin. Others use just progestin. A health care provider can talk with you about your body and your life, to help you figure out what kind of hormonal birth control might work best for you.

-Alex at PPFA 

Nobody feels all that “positive” about a positive result on an STD test. But more than half of us will get a sexually transmitted infection at some point in our life. Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida has some good advice on what to do if it happens to you.

myplannedparenthood:

Education is key - knowledge is power. If you learn that you have an STD or STI, there are some steps you should take for your own health and the health of your partner(s). Click HERE for more.

We’re always really surprised by the massive amount of misinformation floating around about masturbation. Crazy-false urban legends about all the bad stuff that will happen to you if you touch yourself kind of transcend every generation and culture. You’ll go blind, you’ll get acne, you’ll grow hair on the palms of your hands (gross).

And since most adults (and plenty of young people) masturbate, it’s not even like any of this negative propaganda is keeping masturbators down.

Here’s the thing about masturbation: lots of totally smart, savvy folks believe that, for one reason or another, masturbation is dirty, or dangerous, or unhealthy, or otherwise not good. And it’s just plain not true – masturbation has no health risks.

So we’re thinking about starting a collection of the wackiest and most totally untrue myths about masturbation. So far our favorite is the mistaken idea that masturbating too much will somehow “ruin you” for sex. As if learning what you like and how to have an orgasm won’t make you a smarter sexual partner!?! Have any silly masturbation falsehoods to contribute? Reblog and add yours!

FACT: Lesbians can have safer sex, too.

Ever wonder why areolas, the dark area around the nipple, have little bumps? So have scientists.  And when scientists wonder something, they get to finding out.

Turns out that the bumps might have something to do with helping newborns smell their way towards their mother’s breast milk. New mothers with more bumps started producing milk sooner and their babies gained weight faster. They also found that scent of secretions from these bumps encouraged newborn feeding behaviors like sucking and licking. Bodies are cool!

via newscientist.com

Cell phones are great! They always know what time it is. Sometimes they bring us sweet messages from our friends and more-than-friends. And if they’re smart enough, they can even give us directions to the nearest teriyaki joint.

Yep, cell phones are pretty rad. So rad that researchers conducted a little experiment to see if regular ol’ text messages could help women remember to take their daily birth control pill. Turns out they can: 84% of women took their birth control within an hour of getting the text reminder. Of course, you don’t need to be part of some fancy research project to use technology to help you remember your birth control. Set up your phone’s alarm, calendar, or reminder features with a message to take your pill, change your patch, or remove your ring.

Planned Parenthood is excited to be launching our new Tumblr that’s all about sexual and reproductive health – bodies, birth control, relationship issues, “is it normal for this to do this?” type things. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be sharing what we know, answering questions, and just… tumblring. 

We hope you like it! And we hope it helps.