sexual health

Showing 31 posts tagged sexual health

My university refused to give me birth control. Now I’m afraid others will experience that, too.

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The Catholic university I went to gave me a diploma. But when I needed birth control — something just as important for my future — I was on my own. For me and for a lot of people who go to religious universities, this is a common experience. And after the recent Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Pennsylvania, my experience could become even more common. And that’s not good for anyone. 

In July, the Supreme Court ruled that universities and employers can deny students and employees health insurance coverage that would allow them to get birth control. This means that if the people in charge of a university or company have a “moral” or religious objection to birth control, they can exclude it from the health insurance offered to students and employees. 

I’m accident prone, so when I went away to college I got to know the campus health center staff really well. When it was hard for me to get back to my usual provider, it just made sense for me to ask the campus health center staff about birth control. They shrugged me off saying, “That’s not really our specialty.” 

It should be. Birth control is essential health care — no matter what kind of school you go to or who your boss is. Nearly nine in 10 women will use it in their lifetimes. And birth control is so important for students — the ability to get the pill before age 21 is the most influential factor enabling women already in college to stay there. It’s how we build careers after college. And for many people, it’s the medicine they need to treat endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and other ovarian conditions. It’s how many people manage painful or irregular periods. Birth control is a vital part of our lives. 

Yet no other kind of health care is subject to the whims of your boss or your college administration. Sexual and reproductive health care — including birth control — has been the target of political attacks for generations. Policies like my university’s and the Trump administration’s are part of a long history going back to the Comstock laws — when the state dictated what was “moral” in people’s personal lives and made disseminating birth control a federal offense. We should not be bringing back ideologies from 1873.

At my university, it went beyond birth control. The health center there wouldn’t provide prescription birth control, STI tests, or even condoms. Not even when I was sexually assaulted and called the campus health center for help. No emergency contraception, no STI testing, nothing — when I needed it most. When I asked if they knew where the closest Planned Parenthood was, they told me to use my own resources to find out. Thankfully, I have access to the magic of the internet and the means to travel. 

But not everyone has the resources to figure out how to get health care in this country. Health insurance is confusing too, especially when you’re a young person navigating it for the first time. I was lucky to find a Planned Parenthood health center near campus, which I continued to visit for sexual and reproductive health care throughout the rest of my time in college. I even got a Pap test there when my campus health center, of course, refused to provide it.

Getting birth control should be easy. Yet, the Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration’s rule affect not just students like me, but women, families, and LGBTQ+ people whose employers have their own moral or religious objections to people accessing this care. 

I’m afraid for them. I’m afraid for students who need birth control to focus on their classes and prepare for their futures. I’m afraid for myself, a recent college graduate looking for a job. Will my future employer provide health insurance that covers birth control? I believe everyone should be able to get the health care they need — including birth control — and that we should be working to make it easier to access. I wish the Supreme Court agreed. 

Mattise Wood recently graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington with dual degrees in Biology, Women and Gender Studies, and Comprehensive Leadership.

How Planned Parenthood Is Providing Critical Reproductive Care During Coronavirus

“We know that people’s sexual and reproductive health care can’t wait — even during a pandemic. People across the country are practicing social distancing and staying in their homes (though many are having sex), which is why access to sexual and reproductive health services—including birth control, emergency contraception, and abortion — continues to be critically important.”

What to Do Now That the Trump Administration Forced Planned Parenthood Out of Title X

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If you’ve ever received health care like birth control, STD tests, or annual exams for free, at low cost, or on a sliding scale at Planned Parenthood, chances are Title X helped pay for it. Title X is the nation’s only dedicated program for affordable birth control and other preventive, reproductive health care. The program helps 4 million people each year — including over 1.5 million Planned Parenthood patients — access care they normally couldn’t. But the Trump administration just imposed a dangerous and unethical gag rule that pushed Planned Parenthood and other providers out of Title X. 

Even if you don’t know whether you’ve been helped by Title X, you can take control of your health now by knowing your options. Read on to learn how to access high-quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care — and how to fight for everyone who could lose access.

ACT NOW TO PROTECT CARE AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD!

Planned Parenthood’s Doors Are Open

Above all, know this: Planned Parenthood staff members are doing everything to make sure all of our patients can still access care. 

Currently, all Planned Parenthood health centers are open and providing services. You can still make an appointment and come to us for care. Our doors will be open today and they’ll be open tomorrow. We are fighting the gag rule in court, calling on Congress to act, and we will do everything we can to make sure our patients don’t lose care. 

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Why You Need to Pay Attention

While we are working to make sure patients don’t lose care, the devastating gag rule will cause harmful changes. It may be harder for you to get free or low-cost preventive services at Planned Parenthood, including birth control, cancer screenings, and annual exams. Every state is affected by Title X and will be harmed by Trump’s gag rule, but the specific impact will be different state-by-state.  

Pay special attention to news about Title X if you don’t have insurance, live in rural areas, are a young person, have trouble making ends meet — or if you know anyone in these groups. These people have benefited the most from Title X, and stand to get hurt the most by the gag rule. 

How to Find Out If You Can Still Get Free or Low-Cost Services

1) Call your local Planned Parenthood health center

Use our health center locator to find the health center you want to visit, and give them a call. 

2) Ask how much services cost

Once you get a Planned Parenthood representative on the phone, tell them what health care services you need and ask how much they cost. Services that Title X helps cover include birth control pills and other contraception methods, STD tests, wellness exams, and breast and cervical cancer screenings. Keep in mind that Title X only covers preventive care — not abortion services. 

If the cost for your preventive care is more than you can afford, ask if you can apply to any government programs (like Medicaid) for discounted care, or if there are other ways to help cover the costs.

3) Discuss alternative options.

The Planned Parenthood representative may have information about other ways to access affordable care. 

However, it’s possible that your only options will be to pay out-of-pocket at Planned Parenthood or try to find an alternate provider. If this is the case, Planned Parenthood will let you know if there are any other qualified providers where you could potentially get free or low-cost care — but they may not be easy to access.

Also be careful to avoid “crisis pregnancy centers.” These fake clinics may advertise free pregnancy tests, STD tests, and information about abortion — but they’re often run by people who are anti-abortion and anti-birth control. You can’t rely on crisis pregnancy centers to provide effective birth control methods (like the pill or IUDs), and they frequently give biased and inaccurate information about sexual and reproductive health.

Your health is important. So try not to delay or avoid getting the care you need — it can be dangerous.

Speak Out to Protect Care

Yes, this is scary. That’s why Planned Parenthood is fighting the Trump administration’s Title X gag rule in court. But your members of Congress also have the power to stop the gag rule — and you have the power to help. 

The U.S. House passed a bill that would block the gag rule. Now the Senate must push for a bill that does the same. We’re asking you to help us protect sexual and reproductive health care for millions of people by calling your senators.

TELL YOUR SENATORS TO PROTECT TITLE X!

More About Title X

Since 1970, Title X has been an important safety net for people who would otherwise go without health care. This includes LGBTQ communities, people of color, people with low incomes, and other marginalized communities that historically have faced barriers to care. The majority of patients in the Title X program identify as Black, Hispanic, or Latinx. 

What the Gag Rule Does

The gag rule makes it illegal for any provider in the Title X program to give patients information about how or where to access abortion, even if those patients ask for an abortion referral. So, if a patient who needs an abortion goes to a provider who gets Title X funds for preventive services, the provider would have to say something like, “I can’t give you information about abortion, but here is where to get prenatal care” — even if the pregnancy puts their patient’s health at risk.

Planned Parenthood providers are committed to giving every patient the best medical care and information available. The gag rule makes it impossible for us to keep this commitment, and therefore the Trump administration has made it impossible for us to stay in Title X. 

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By bullying health care providers into withholding information from patients, the Trump administration is saying that people don’t have the right to make their own decisions about their health. If you’re as angry about that as we are, speak out. 

What Happens Next

Again, our doors are open. 

While Planned Parenthood health centers continue to provide expert, compassionate care, we are carefully analyzing the impact that being forced out of the Title X program will have on our health centers. And we’re doing everything we can to fight for the millions of people who rely on us. 

While we don’t know for certain what this will look like, it’s unrealistic to think there won’t be harmful changes. For too many patients, this will mean that birth control and reproductive health care are out of reach. 

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Stand Up to the Gag Rule and Stand With Planned Parenthood

Taking away people’s reproductive health care and potentially leaving them with nowhere to turn is beyond unacceptable. It’s unconscionable, it’s dangerous, and we need your help to fight back.   

TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE!

How do I prepare for the gynecologist?

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Someone asked us:

Do a person’s first obgyn visits hurt? What do you do in preparation? I don’t know if I need to shave or not an am too embarrassed to ask my parent… (ftn/m by the way)

Your first visit to the gynecologist shouldn’t hurt, and you definitely don’t need to shave before you go. In fact, you don’t need to do anything special to prepare. It’s normal to be a little nervous the first time you go, but don’t worry! You can always ask beforehand if you can have a friend in the room with you if that makes you feel more comfortable. Here’s what usually goes down at the gyno.

  • Your gynecologist (or a nurse practitioner providing the same care) will start by asking questions about your body, health, daily habits, and relationships. If you’ve had vaginal, anal, or oral sex, you may also talk about  birth control and STD testing. Try to be honest —  they need to know this stuff so they can give you the best care. This is also a good time to ask any questions you might have.
  • They might check your height, weight, and blood pressure. Next, they might give you a short physical exam. The exam could include:
  • Giving you a pelvic exam, meaning they check your genitals and reproductive organs, like your vulva, vagina, uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes. Pelvic exams usually only take a few minutes. Unless you have a medical problem, you can wait until you turn 21 to get your first pelvic exam. Often, the pelvic exam also includes having a Pap test.
  • Checking your breasts for lumps or other issues.
  • Testing you for STDs (if you’ve had any kind of sex). However, it isn’t always part of your gynecology visit — if not, you can ask your doctor or nurse about what tests you need. STD testing is usually quick and painless!
  • Giving you the HPV vaccine.

If at any point you feel awkward or uncomfortable, or if something hurts, tell the doctor or nurse. You deserve to feel as comfortable as possible.

Read more about going to the doctor.

-Emily at PlannedParenthood

Enabling sexual and reproductive rights for people with disabilities

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By Kristin Duquette with Cailin Crockett 

In the summer of 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. For the first time, disability was federally codified as a category of discrimination in all aspects of public life, including employment, transportation, education, housing, and health care. This landmark law not only established baseline protections for people with disabilities, but also laid the foundation for sexual and reproductive health and rights, including protections in the workplace for pregnant people, and people living with HIV. 

Despite the importance of the ADA in advancing access to health care, people with disabilities are mostly absent in conversations about sexual and reproductive health, and this inattention often translates into subpar services from providers. This year, I’m honoring the legacy of the ADA by sharing my story as a woman with a disability navigating what is taken for granted by so many as a routine procedure: a Pap test. 

Since I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of 9, my body has been looked at, poked, and pried by a myriad of health professionals. So, I was used to a certain level of awkwardness or discomfort as part of the health care experience. But, when I went for a common preventive sexual health exam — a Pap test — I was surprised and disappointed to feel like my disability was an inconvenience to my doctor. 

When my appointment began, I immediately felt out of place. The nurses who brought me into the doctor’s office looked me up and down, giving me the sense that they did not know what to do with my chair or my body. (My muscular dystrophy requires that I use a motorized scooter to move around.) I’d hoped things would smooth over once the doctor arrived, but it soon became clear that I wasn’t going to be equitably treated. Rather than feeling confidence and trust, I was anxious and uncomfortable. I felt unsafe and shaky as I coached the nursing staff on how to guide my legs and help me onto the exam table. 

At one point, I asked the doctor, “How often do disabled women come in for check-ups?” “We have some here and there,” she said. I felt like I was being told that patients with disabilities were not even an afterthought. Towards the end of the procedure, I asked the doctor to take a pause. She didn’t stop. As the doctor and nursing staff left the room with a completed exam, I took a moment for myself and cried before entering the office hallway. 

After the procedure, I thought of my friends — other people with disabilities — and wondered how they, too, have likely been let down by our health care system, and might even be discouraged from accessing basic, but needed, preventive sexual health screenings as a result of a negative experience. While gender-based inequities in health care are finally being discussed more openly, gaps in care for people with disabilities, particularly women, remain hidden.

According to the National Council on Disability, women with disabilities are less likely to receive annual Pap tests and mammograms compared to women without disabilities, regardless of age. We are also more likely than women without disabilities to delay getting the medical care we need, and some of us have reported avoiding reproductive health appointments altogether because accessible services are so difficult to get. 

I’m also mindful that, as a college-educated white woman living in a city setting, I have, despite my disability, access to resources that many others do not. Recognizing the intersection of disability with other forms of oppression is critical, especially because the rates of disability are significantly higher among Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women. It’s important that equitable, disability-inclusive, and affordable health care is available for all people regardless of age, income, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and geography. 

As a whole, society needs to view sexual and reproductive health care with the same level of importance as any other type of medical care for the disability community. We need to ensure all doctors and nurses have a basic understanding of treating patients with disabilities, particularly with sexual and reproductive health services. Disabled bodies are like all other human bodies — beautiful, imperfect, and deserving of quality care.

Since the ADA was passed 29 years ago, people with disabilities have been more welcomed into health care facilities through accommodations — like a ramp or elevator — that literally let us through the door. But 29 years later, I, and people like me, don’t feel truly comfortable making an appointment for basic health services like a Pap test —  because access to a doctor’s office is not the same as full and equal treatment by a provider. 

For true change to occur, we need to collectively humanize dehumanizing experiences. It’s normal to feel self-conscious, and at times shameful around these stigmatized topics; however, I hope more people with disabilities are empowered to share their experiences. Our words have power, and I knew once I shared my story, I wouldn’t stop. 

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Kristin Duquette (@KristinDuquette) is a globally-recognized disability rights advocate, a five-time American Paralympic Record Holder, three-time Junior National Record Holder, and the former Captain of the U.S. Swim Team for the 2010 Greek Open . From December 2015 to March 2017, Kristin served inside the Obama Administration as the Confidential Assistant to the Chief of Staff for the National Endowment for the Arts and currently works for the federal government. 

Cailin Crockett (@C_A_Crockett) is a policy expert on gender-based violence, and former advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Aging and disability in the US. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living. Her work on women’s health, intimate partner and sexual violence policy spans roles in the Obama White House, the United Nations Development Program, and US Department of Justice.

Can I get birth control and other sexual health services without my parents finding out?

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Two people asked us:

hey, is it possible for a newly sexually active teen with unsupportive parents to get free birth control (specifically nexplanon for me) without them knowing? i want to be safe but i don’t know how to navigate this around my parents

Hi, I’m 25 yrs old & would like to keep this private. My family is conservative &keep tabs on my record. I don’t want them to know 1) I’m sexually active, and 2) I want to get a Pap smear and birth control. I am under my parent’s insurance. If I attend planned parenthood & pay out of pocket would I be able to do so without having that record connected to my health insurance? Or is there a way to hide these documents from my clinical record? I’m sorry if this is a stupid question!

We get this question a lot, and we wish that everyone had supportive families they could talk with about sexual health. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality for everyone. But don’t worry, you’ve got options.

Many states have special laws that protect your right to get sexual health services (like birth control, Pap tests, and STD tests) privately, even if you’re under 18. But laws are different in every state. There are certain places where the doctor’s office can contact your parent or guardian if you’re under 18. The best way to find out what’s up where you live is to call your doctor’s office, community health clinic, or local Planned Parenthood health center to ask about their privacy policies.

If you’re on someone else’s health insurance and use it to pay for your appointment or prescriptions, they might get a letter in the mail from your insurance company that says where you went and what services you got. You can call your insurance company to find out about their privacy policies (the number is usually on the back of your insurance card). You can also ask your nurse or doctor for help figuring out your insurance privacy policies. In some instances, the insurance company may be able to work with you to make sure that your information stays private.

A few states have special programs that allow young people to get their own private health insurance plan for things like birth control and STD services. And sometimes, you can get free or low cost sexual health care without using your family’s insurance. Your local Planned Parenthood health center can help you figure out if these are options for you.

It’s totally normal to be nervous talking about this stuff with your parents or guardians. If you ever decide to bring it up, here are some tips on talking with them about sex.

If you feel that asking questions about sex will put you in danger, it’s okay to not have the conversation with them at all. If you don’t feel like you can rely on your parent or guardian, talk with another adult you know is trustworthy — like an older family member, counselor, teacher, or school nurse. And you can always call your local Planned Parenthood health center to get honest, private information about birth control and sexual health.

Oh, and high fives to you both for being responsible and taking charge of your sexual health!

-Kendall at Planned Parenthood

If the US wants to take the crisis of HIV in African American communities seriously, researchers and HIV advocates say they must treat prisoners with the same time-tested health practices that are used on the outside, which includes making condoms and PreP available and ensuring HIV-positive incarcerated people continue receiving their HIV treatment.

We Can’t End the HIV Crisis Unless We Get Serious About Sexual Health in Prisons via Broadly