Category Archives: health

Catch up on the latest health legislation, honest discussions about our bodies, and “I Have” essays from women’s personal experiences. Whether mental or physical The Frisky discusses each disease, concern, or condition to encourage open conversation.

Kansas Abortion Clinic Operated By Dr. George Tiller To Reopen

Sarah GrayApril 4, 2013 //

Will Mississippi become the first state without an abortion clinic? Read More »

Clinic Open For Now

Judge blocks law that would have closed Mississippi's one clinic. Read More »

D.C. Abortion Ban Fails

A bill to ban abortions in D.C. after 20 weeks has failed in the House. Read More »

Finally open!

Finally, something positive happening for the reproductive rights of women in Kansas. Four years after abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was fatally shot by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder in Wichita, Kansas, his clinic is re-opening.

Activist Julie Burkhart, who worked with Dr. Tiller for seven years, started the nonprofit organization Trust Women Foundation in 2010. The foundation purchased Tiller’s old office, and after raising nearly $1 million, is ready to open the South Wind Women’s Center.

There will be some changes: unlike under Dr. Tiller, the clinic will not provide late-term abortions. The Kansas City Star reports that despite the fact that Kansas allows abortions 22 weeks into a pregnancy, the clinic’s cutoff will be 14 weeks. South Wind Women’s Center will also provide other women’s heath services including fertility counseling and other routine health care, like Pap smears. Keep reading »

France Will Now Reimburse The Cost Of Abortions, Provide Free Contraception To Teen Girls

Jessica WakemanApril 2, 2013 //

Our Favorite Republican

... says male legislators "shouldn't even vote" on abortion bills. Read More »

ND "Fetal Heartbeat" Law

North Dakota governor signs law banning abortions after fetal heartbeat. Read More »

ND Anti-Abortion Law

Life begins at conception, according to a bill in North Dakota. Read More »

Beginning yesterday, France will provide access to free birth control for teenaged girls ages 15 to 18 without parental notification, as well as reimburse the cost of abortions to all women over age 18.

Pinch me. Am I dreaming? It’s not still April Fools’ Day, right? Keep reading »

10 Things Our Gynos Told Us That Blew Our Minds (As Told In GIFs)

Ami AngelowiczApril 1, 2013 //

Your Hair Down There...

What it says about you. Read More »

Absurd Puberty Videos

These puberty videos were so unhelpful. Read More »

Late Period?

Don't panic. There are other reasons you might be pregnant. Read More »

Your Vagina Is A Sleeping Bag

As a woman in her ’30s, I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about my body. If you had asked me, I would have sworn I was well-informed. And then I started going to a new gynecologist and she literally blew my mind when she told I’d been checking my breasts all wrong. What? How had I missed this? I knew about the circular check but not the up-and-down pattern. Well, maybe because the last time I learned about breast self-examination was from a pamphlet I got in high school. That was a while ago. After the jump, I asked other women about the most surprising things they learned from their gynos. Keep reading »

Boston College Halts Condom Distribution

Jessica WakemanMarch 29, 2013 //

Bacon Condoms

Some bacon condoms to go with your bacon lube? Read More »

Condom Ice Cream

Condoms make ice cream way less appetizing. Read More »

Toddler Eats Condom

Kid exposed to gonorrhea by sucking on used condom at playground. Read More »

Condom Commandments

The rules of condoms. Read More »

Boston College students are facing possible discipline for distributing condoms both on- and off-campus. The school, a Jesuit college, no longer wants birth control distributed on its campus because it doesn’t align with Catholic teachings. [Boston Globe, Feminist.org]
Five ways to make the “Lean In” movement more inclusive of low-income women. [xoJane]
Mississippi’s governor nominated Teri Herring, who worked for the anti-abortion Pro-Life America Network, to the state’s Board of Health. [Feminist.org]
What do we think of this new PSA aimed at teen girls to discourage them for sending sexy “selfies”? [AdRants] Keep reading »

Don’t Panic! 7 Reasons Your Period Might Be Late (Besides Pregnancy)

Amelia McDonell-ParryMarch 25, 2013 //

The Pregnancy Test

A brief history of the pregnancy, prior to peeing on a stick. 11 Photos »

Stupid Period Ads

These menstrual product ads are dumb. Period. 9 Photos »

My Period Is Early

An open letter to Jessica's period on the occasion of coming early. Read More »

For the last week or so, I’ve been somewhat convinced that I’m pregnant. For the most part, this belief was paranoid, but also not entirely outside the realm of possibility. I had a proper French affair when I was in Paris a few weeks ago and at one point there was a broken condom situation, though we realized it was broken and replaced it with a fresh one prior to, ahem, any fluids reaching their apex, so to speak. But I know how babies are made and I’m a total hypochondriac, so when my period failed to arrive on the day it was supposed to, and the day after, and the day after that, and I started feeling gassier than usual, well, I began to panic. I started to type “gas sign of” into Google and the search engine, seemingly reading my mind, autofilled the rest with “early pregnancy.”

Oh god, I thought. It was all but confirmed. Keep reading »

6 Kinda Embarrassing Questions You’re Too Afraid To Ask Your Doctor — Answered!

Megan ReynoldsMarch 18, 2013 //

My Long Labia

All about Amelia's long labia. Read More »

Your Hair Down There...

What it says about you. Read More »

I Have: Vaginal Cysts

Those hard tiny lumps weren't STDs, but cysts. Read More »

Your annual visit to the lady doctor isn’t necessarily the most pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Between the poking, prodding and your casual evasion of pointed questions like “How many drinks do you have a week?”, going to the the gynecologist is a necessary but not entirely awesome experience. I usually leave the gynecologist with a list of unanswered questions, and I always resolve this situation by taking to Google with a glass of wine, self-diagnosing through the mess of Yahoo! Answers forums and WebMD. It goes without saying that this never really works out for the best. This time, we’ve decided to do the work for you! We consulted the best of the best on the Internet to come up with answers to all those burning questions that feel a little too personal to ask your doctor. Keep reading »

Mommie Dearest: Pregnant Women Shouldn’t Lose Their Jobs

Avital Norman NathmanMarch 7, 2013 //

Fired Over Pregnancy

Christian college fired woman for getting pregnant out of wedlock. Read More »

Morning Sickness

His wife has the same acute morning sickness as Kate Middleton. Read More »

Kicking Out Pregnant Girls

Louisiana school says they'll stop kicking out pregnant girls. Read More »

For all intents and purposes, I had a pretty textbook pregnancy. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred, but that also didn’t mean it was all rainbows and unicorns.I’ve always wondered why they call it morning sickness, when for many people it lasts all day. At least, that’s what it was like for my when I was pregnant with my son. I’d wake up feeling nauseous and no amount of Saltines or ginger chews left by my bedside table to nibble on first thing ever helped. I felt the equivalent of sea sick all day: unbalanced, dizzy, and foggy. For the first few months, my weekends were spent in gentle yoga classes when I could afford them or lounging on my couch catching up on grading.

My weekdays were much less bearable. I taught high school social studies and I always had to be “on” and engaging, despite my roiling stomach that hardly gave me a minute’s relief. More than once I would call out a hasty plea to “please read page 44 and I’ll be right back” before booking it to the nearest bathroom and hugging the questionably clean toilet. But “morning” sickness was only the tip of the iceberg. I also had to deal with sweaty teenage boys who thought cologne was an acceptable coverup for post-gym stink (it’s not), as well as whatever horribly pungent odors wafted up from the cafeteria. Keep reading »

A Pill You Only Take When You Know You’re Getting Laid?

Sarah GrayMarch 6, 2013 //

Birth Control Facts

Did you know any of the 10 bizarro facts on this chart? Read More »

Male Birth Control

The male birth control shot. Read More »

Permanent Birth Control

Your arguments against our permanent birth control are BS. Read More »

While there are many positive side effects from taking a once-daily birth control pill — no more heavy periods, no more acne, less intense menstrual cramps — the main purpose, as the name suggests, is to prevent pregnancies. It is just one of many forms of contraception used by those who are not ready to have children.

Yet those on the Pill can attest that the potential for human error is high. The Pill’s effectiveness is reduced if a dose is skipped or even taken outside a specific margin of time. The Guttmacher Institute reports that 54 percent of women who have had abortions say they’ve used some form of contraception (usually the Pill or a condom), and of once-daily pill users who had abortions, 76 percent said they used them inconsistently. At last, there might be hope for the fair-weather BC pill user! Keep reading »

Breast Cancer Survivors Tell Their Stories Through Mastectomy Tattoos

Julie GersteinMarch 5, 2013 //

View the Gallery / 7 Photos »

Perhaps you missed this, but last week, Facebook was in a tizzy over a topless photo of a breast cancer survivor showing off her chest tattoo. The piece was meant as a celebration of her survival and a means of covering up her mastectomy scars, but Facebook classified the image as “pornographic.” The company’s official stance on photos says that Facebook “aspires to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo’s David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.” Keep reading »

Celeb Breast Cancer Survivors

Celebrity women who have survived breast cancer. Read More »

Celeb Neck Tattoos

These famous ladies have neck ink. 15 Photos »

Crazy Fan Tattoos

17 crazy, disturbing, and permanent odes to celebs. 35 Photos »

South Dakota Flat-Out Being A**holes To Women Seeking Abortion

Jessica WakemanMarch 1, 2013 //

I'm A Pro-Choice Mom

Avital is a mother who supports legal abortion. Read More »

Say What?!

Alabama politician says an abortion removes a woman's "largest organ." Read More »

Abortion Rights

All of The Frisky's posts about reproductive rights. Read More »

This is how anti-abortion extremists try to control women’s bodies: they use state legislatures to create bogus and medically unnecessary laws that make it very, very difficult for a woman to have an abortion.

Case in point? South Dakota, which already requires a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion, advanced a bill in its state Senate yesterday to remove weekends and holidays from those 72 hours, meaning women have to wait even longer.

Why do anti-abortion extremists do this? Because South Dakota only has one abortion clinic and it’s a medium-sized state, meaning many women have to travel in order to get the procedure. And traveling means finding childcare, taking time off work, and dealing with other responsibilities. Waiting periods — especially loooong waiting periods which require at least two trips to the doctor — are intended to make it hella difficult for women to get to the clinic. If the governor signs this bill into law, South Dakota would have the longest waiting periods for abortion in the country. Keep reading »