Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2006
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Hot Topic: Birth Control
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I want to dedicate this month’s column to the abundance of new and improved contraceptive choices now available to women. Such was not always the case. Reliable contraception (the Pill) did not arrive until 1960. Before then, women relied on nothing more than bulky and fragile condoms, the unreliable rhythm method, and good luck to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Hasty and unhappy marriages resulted when those methods failed and many young women’s dreams of education and career terminated because their pregnancies could not—Roe v Wade did not grant women sovereignty over their bodies until 1973!
How different is our personal landscape today. The new millennium rang in scientifically sound methods of birth control our mothers could not even imagine. We have pharmaceutical choices as well as barrier methods, and better understanding of our bodies’ subtleties resulted in even more reliable natural methods of conception control. Though this column outlines the newest and brightest stars on the pharmaceutical scene, I encourage you to explore all your options and make your decision in concert with your partner(s) and your health care provider(s).
So what’s new? There’s a lot of buzz about the new low-dose pill named Seasonale that allows us freedom not only from worry about unintended pregnancy but also from more than four periods a year. Another option is Lybrel, a low-dose estrogen and progesterone pill taken every single day, eliminating periods altogether and therefore the attendant fluctuations of our hormonal cycles, a boon to those who suffer PMS, migraines, acne, etc. It will be available to us here in Canada next year.
Don’t want to bother with taking pills at all? Or worried that you may forget to take them every single day? A smoker over thirty-five? Not to fret. Perhaps you’d be interested in trying the NuvaRing , a slim, flexible circle you insert into your vagina once a month. It releases a low dose hormone that mimics the effect of the oral contraceptive. What could be easier?
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Articles
of the Month
New science reinforces what we've suspected for some time about limerence.
From across the pond, a voice of reason regarding sex education in public schools.
This loooong and somewhat naive article about non-monogamy will be of interest to those considering alternatives to sexually exclusive, secrecy-bound traditional forms of relationships. A good starting place.
Attention parents of baby girls: Those seizures may be self-induced joy!
Controversial article about how we can now really choose the fathers of our babies.
On the Winter Solstice of 2005, Canada set another precedent for civil and personal liberties.
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Research
of the Month
A consortium of LGBT groups are dedicated to serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. We want to know what matters most to LGBT people and their allies. Take this short LGBT affinity survey and help us help you. It should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
Still more bad news on the effects of the anti-miscarriage drug given to women in the 1960s.
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Actually, I have an answer to that. If you have already given birth to a child, you may want to consider an IUD. I can hear you now, complaining of the cramping and the long bloody periods. But, wait. IUDs aren’t what they used to be. The Mirena is an easy-to-insert model that releases just enough progesterone to keep you from becoming pregnant while keeping your periods cramp-free and light in volume. Gone are the days of the Dalkon Shield, recalled like a bad Buick. Women now have real choices about how to regulate their fertility and their menstrual cycles, and they can do so with a high degree of confidence about their physical safety. Hallelujah!
But, you say, you’re not in a steady relationship and you require birth control protection only irregularly? Yes, we have answers for you, too. You might want to investigate the spermicidal sponge. Wasn’t that around years ago, you ask? Yes, it was. Seems water at the plant that manufactured the Today Sponge was contaminated and, rather than invest in the necessary cleanup, the company closed the plant. Consumer demand being what it is, the competition began marketing their own brands and now even the original Today brand sponges are available, but only in Canada. Note well: the effectiveness of the sponge is severely compromised in the presence of yeast-fighting medications, and it works far better in women who have not borne a child.
Add to these recent additions the pharmaceutical storeroom of condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps, contraceptive jellies and foams, natural family planning methods, ‘traditional’ birth control pills (makes me smile), IUDs, and sterilization methods for men and women (some reversible), and we can appreciate how vast are our options for choosing conception. If given proper information, each of us can be responsible for our body and treat parenting as the privilege it should be. Could it be that those who carried placards in the ‘60s bearing the Utopian ideal “Every child a wanted child” might see their dream realized? Science and education could make it so.
© Pega Ren. 2005.
All Rights Reserved. |
Research of the Month: Lubrication
The Lesbian Lube Project wants to know what gets you wet. This online survey is an effort to find out what kinds of lube lesbians are using, how we are using it (what we're doing), and what we like and don't like about different brands of lube.
The information will be included in a book on lesbian safer sex. We are putting together a comprehensive dating/safer sex/relationships how-to book that we hope will be fun and accessible with lots of factual information and helpful hints--the ones we wish someone had shared with us.
We got to the chapter on lube and found that women had very strong opinions about it, but we couldn't find anything that looked at the community as a whole. So we started the Lesbian Lube Project.
For the purposes of the book and the survey, we define lesbians as women who have sex with women. If you are bisexual, queer, or transgendered, you are included--if you are (or have ever been) a woman who has sex with women, we want your input, regardless of your past, present or future gender/orientation status.
The survey can be found online at www.lesbianlubeproject.com. If you have any questions or need any more information, please feel free to email Gwen at femgeekgirl@yahoo.com.
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Movie Review: Brokeback Mountain
I joined other moviegoers to fill every seat when Brokeback Mountain opened here in Vancouver yesterday. This film could never have graced movie houses even ten years ago. Today it boasts seven Golden Globe awards and rumours of Oscars even before the public has had a chance to view it, and with good reason. With the White House intent on limiting personal freedom and information, it seems the film industry may be our conduit to sanity and enlightenment.
This is an important film, adapted from a short story by Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News. Brokeback Mountain is as gentle, slow, and visually stunning as her tale of Eastern Canada, but appropriately toughened by the geography of the Rockies and the subject matter.
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, two uneducated, taciturn ranch hands who meet while tending sheep one summer in 1963. Isolated and cold, they have sex one night. To their dismay they fall in love. Struggle as they might to stay apart, they reunite some years later and design an arrangement that allows them to connect regularly on Brokeback Mountain, unseen by the eyes of an unforgiving world. Or are they?
From a writer’s perspective, Brokeback Mountain is commendable. Sociologically, it is powerful and important. Psychologically it is compelling, heartbreaking, and accurate. I wouldn’t have missed it. I hope you don’t, either.
~ Pega
Read the New York Times Review.
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Toy of the Month: The Adonis
 The Adonis, another offering by the Berman sisters, is a winner. Similar to last month's featured Rock Chick, this g spot and clit stimulator is softer and shorter, making it more comfortable to wear during foreplay or while spending extended time on your backside. I found it remarkably ergonomically correct and allowed for considerable moving about. The buzz was a bit to high pitched to produce an orgasm, but was great for extended arousal. The remote control buttons were easier to control than many I've seen and the clean up was a breeze. Highly recommended.
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Humour
It was the postie's last day on the job after 35 years of carrying the mail through all kinds of weather to the same neighbourhood. When he arrived at the first house on his route he was greeted by the whole family there, who congratulated him and sent him on his way with a big gift envelope. At the second house they presented him with a box of fine cigars. The folks at the third house handed him a selection of terrific fishing lures.
At the fourth house he was met at the door by a strikingly beautiful woman in a revealing negligee. She took him by the hand, gently led him through the door, and led him up the stairs to the bedroom where she blew his mind with the most passionate love he had ever experienced. When he had had enough they went downstairs, where she fixed him a giant breakfast: eggs, potatoes, ham, sausage, blueberry waffles, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. When he was truly satisfied she poured him a cup of steaming coffee.
As she was pouring, he noticed a dollar bill sticking out from under the cup's bottom edge. "All this was just too wonderful for words," he said, "but what's the dollar for?"
"Well," she said, "last night, I told my husband that today would be your last day, and that we should do something special for you. I asked him what to give you." He said, "Fuck him, give him a dollar."
"The breakfast was my idea."
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Two lovers go up to the mountains for a romantic winter vacation. When they get there, the guy goes out to chop some wood. When he gets back, he says, "Honey, my hands are freezing!"
"Well, put them here between my thighs and that will warm them up," she says.
After lunch he goes back out to chop some more wood and comes back and says again, "Man! my hands are really freezing!"
She says again, "Well, put them here between my thighs and warm them up." He does, and again that warms him up.
After dinner, he goes out one more time to chop some wood to get them through the night. When he returns, he says again, "Honey, my hands are really, really freezing!"
"For crying out loud," she says, "don't your ears ever get cold?"
Quotes
of the Month
"When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities."
~ Matt Groening
"The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting."
~Gloria Leonard
"I think men talk to women so they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so they can talk to them."
~Jay McInerne
"The difference between light and hard is that you can sleep with a light on."
~Author Unknown |
