F--it, Let's Have All Our New Year's Resolutions Be About Sex This Year

The new year is right around the corner, so you know what that means…vision board parties, long-term goal setting, and resolutions tailored specifically to 2024.

You might already be thinking about reading a certain number of books each month, going to the gym consistently, or aiming for a promotion at your job—all of which are probably very reasonable and great ideas. But there are also plenty of resolutions you can put on your list that will help you spice up your sex life, regardless of whether you’re single or you’ve been with your partner for years.

So set a goal to learn some new tricks, act out your wildest fantasy, or express yourself sexually in a whole new way. Start your year off right with these 6 sexy New Year’s resolution ideas for 2024...

5 Crucial Steps in Becoming Your Most Sexually Confident Self

Sexual confidence requires a lot of inner work and dedication to becoming your most authentic self.

It’s not nearly as much about technical skills in the bedroom as you may think. In fact, it hardly is at all.

#1 GET CONNECTED TO YOUR BODY AND HEAL YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH IT

Our physical body is the vehicle through which we express ourselves and receive pleasure, and having a poor relationship with it does us a huge disservice. It makes us afraid of being seen—physically and emotionally—which prevents us from forming deep relationships with others. It makes us anxious and unable to relax during sex, which inhibits us from receiving pleasure. It disconnects us from our intuition and our truth, and being in tune with these is crucial for us to be able to live authentic, fulfilling lives. Good news: You can heal your relationship with your body and feel extremely connected to it without having to change a damn thing about it! Here's how...

The 5 Best Online Sex Therapy Platforms for 2024

If you’re experiencing sexual health challenges, sex therapy may help.

Sometimes, sexual dysfunction, mental health concerns, interpersonal and psychological factors, or relationship issues can get in the way of having the healthy and fulfilling sex life you desire.

However, to find therapy and the support you need for your sexual health is sometimes more difficult than to find mental health therapy.

Anonymity may be a factor. Or, finding a therapist specializing in sex therapy might be challenging in some locations, especially rural areas.

Online sex therapy services can bridge the gap. An online therapy program is a convenient way to get the support you need via online sessions in the comfort of your home, car, or anywhere you can access a phone or the internet. Online therapy options are available via therapy apps and websites.

What Does an HPV Diagnosis Mean For My Relationship?

If you or a partner receive an HPV diagnosis, it may be time to revisit your safer sex practices. Being honest about your status can help reduce the risk of transmission between partners. Here’s how to navigate this chapter of your relationship.

HPV refers to a group of more than 100 viruses. About 40 strains are considered to be a sexually transmitted infection (STI). These types of HPV are passed through skin-to-skin genital contact. This typically happens through vaginal, anal, or oral sex.

HPV is the most common STI in the United States. Almost 80 million Americans currently have a strain of the virus. Each year, 14 million more Americans contract an infection.

Almost all sexually active Americans will have HPV at some point in their lives. And anyone who is sexually active is at risk for contracting the virus or spreading it to a partner.

It’s possible to have HPV without showing symptoms for several years, if ever. When symptoms do appear, they usually come in the form of warts, such as genital warts or warts of the throat.

Very rarely, HPV can also cause cervical cancer and other cancers of the genitals, head, neck, and throat.

Lily's Story-Cervical Cancer Caused by HPV

At 27 years old, Lily learned she had cervical cancer. HPV causes almost all cervical cancers. She is sharing her story to encourage parents to protect their children from HPV-related cancers by getting them vaccinated. 

When I say that I was the most normal 27-year-old, I truly mean that I was the most normal 27-year-old. I had met the love of my life, recently moved in with a friend, and started working with my father helping out with the family business full time. I had this beautiful dog, Rocco, who I adored. He went with me everywhere. I loved going to all sorts of different music concerts, walking around the dog park, and just hanging out with friends.

About a year into my relationship with my boyfriend, I noticed that I was having quite a bit of pain in my pelvis. I would wake up almost every day in pain, not so much that I couldn't get out of bed, just enough to make me realize that the pain was there. I would get up and take an aspirin and usually forget about it by the end of the day. I also started to bleed after sex. I waited almost an entire year before going to the doctor. I was that person that would go to the doctor when it was really bad. I kept putting off my regularly scheduled pap smear because as a young woman in her 20s, I didn't think I NEEDED to go to that one appointment. I could likely skip one and be just fine. Okay, maybe skip two and still be just fine.

I finally went into the doctor just thinking they'll do a quick check and I'll be out in no time. I even called my boyfriend to let him know I'd likely be home in about an hour. During the exam I remember thinking, this is taking longer than usual. Then she said, "Well, I'm sorry this is taking so long, but I'm seeing something here that isn't right."

RHNTC

Identifying and Responding to Human Trafficking in title X Settings eLearning Course

This eLearning course can help Title X family planning staff to identify signs of human trafficking and respond appropriately to potential cases. This course provides practical strategies, as well as survivor stories, activities, case studies with reflection prompts, and a video.

GRIT Conference

May 6-8 2024

The Greater Rockies Immersive Training on Exploitation and Trafficking (GRIT) is brought to you by Uprising, a Wyoming-based anti-trafficking nonprofit. By fusing together the latest research, trends, and field expertise coupled with innovative immersion training, GRIT aims to cultivate sustainable change in how criminal justice systems throughout the Rocky Mountain region react to, investigate, and prosecute exploitation-based crimes. GRIT accomplishes this by using a multidisciplinary approach that targets offenders while providing holistic support for the victims of these crimes.

The Forgotten Reproductive Justice Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King

In rereading Dr. King’s pivotal speeches, sermons and commentary, one is easily struck by his profound wisdom on matters related to race, class, reproductive autonomy, health and women’s equality. What is old is new again.   

In 1966, King wrote a landmark speech on reproductive health and rights for his acceptance of Planned Parenthood’s inaugural Margaret Sanger award.  



Of Margaret Sanger, Dr. King noted that there is a “striking kinship” between the fight for reproductive rights and civil rights, particularly because Margaret Sanger,  “like we, saw the horrifying conditions of ghetto life.” He explained, “[l]ike we, she knew that all of society is poisoned by cancerous slums.”  Dr. King noted that Sanger sought, like he, to expose truth “to the millions.” 

To him unwanted, unplanned pregnancies were “a cruel evil” that “urgently need[ed]…control.” 

Recent scholarship provides a nuanced and complicated view of Margaret Sanger, who founded what is now the Planned Parenthood Federation of America as does my book, Policing The Womb. 

In accepting the award—Mrs. Coretta Scott King appeared on his behalf—Dr. King wrote that Black Americans “have no mere academic nor ordinary interest in family planning.”

He saw the cruelty and evils of poverty exacerbated by racial discrimination up close. He explained “[t]here is scarcely anything more tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted,” and poverty is often at the root of this condition.  

Despite the many “mountainous obstacles” facing the Black community, King insisted that a key element of stabilizing Black life, “would be an understanding of and easy access to the means to develop a family related in size to his community environment and to the income potential he can command.”  

Perhaps for this reason, Dr. King recognized the civil rights movement and advocacy for family planning as “natural allies” seeking to “guarantee … the right to exist in freedom and dignity.”  

5 things to know about the maternal health crisis

The Black maternal mortality crisis has gotten renewed attention in recent weeks amid growing concerns over the disparity in deaths between Black and white people.

The U.S. is among the wealthiest nations on Earth, yet it has the highest rate of death during pregnancy for up to a year afterward, according to the United Nations. 

Black people are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts. 

For years, Black leaders have worked to address these disparities, but with the newfound focus on the issues, advocates say the lives of Black mothers could be saved. 

Here are five things to know about the maternal health crisis. 

Implicit bias 

There are a number of underlying causes for maternal mortality, and they range from mental health conditions such as postpartum depression to physical disorders such as hypertension. 

While Black patients are more likely to exhibit comorbidities such as high blood pressure, research also points to implicit and structural bias in the medical system.....

Pregnancy care deserts are growing. Indigenous babies are at risk.

As medical director of one of only three NICUs in South Dakota, Balay knew this had to represent a much bigger problem. She talked about it to anyone who would listen — namely, other health care providers, city officials, tribal decision-makers. “People were always just like, yeah, I can’t believe that — syphilis? No, we got rid of that. And I’m like, no, no, it’s here. It’s in South Dakota. It’s affecting my babies,” she said.

Until the early 2010s, women only rarely got infected with syphilis. But in 2012, women’s infection rates began to tick upward, and rose more than 700 percent across the US according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

At the same time, congenital syphilis cases — in-utero infections that have high rates of disability and death — also began to lurch out of control throughout the US. Transmission has been particularly intense in South Dakota. Last year, the state had the highest rate of sexually transmitted syphilis infections, and the seventh highest congenital syphilis rate.

Nationally, infections in both adults and infants have increased faster in Native Americans than in any other racial or ethnic group, especially over the course of the pandemic — a trend also mirrored in South Dakota. But the concentration of cases in this group “has nothing to do with the color of their skin or their race,” said Balay. “It’s a disease of access.”

Many providers like Balay see an obvious link between rising congenital syphilis rates and sparse access to obstetric care (i.e., care for pregnant people, also called maternity or prenatal care). That’s largely because, historically, prenatal care is where syphilis transmission to a fetus has been interrupted. Testing is standard in prenatal care, and all but eight states require syphilis testing during pregnancy.

The problem is simple, as Balay explains. “There just is not enough obstetric care,” she said. And as prenatal care becomes increasingly scarce, so do opportunities to catch and treat syphilis.

Child Trends- Strategies to Advance Racial Equity in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

Health care providers are more likely to discriminate against Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth and to stigmatize them for their choices, including both abortion and 

pregnancy. Additionally, adequate and reliable public transportation and access to affordable comprehensive and unbiased contraceptive and pre– and post-natal care are less available in communities in which Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth live. These systemic disadvantages inhibit both quality of care provided and adolescents’ ability to receive services and use methods that align with their preferences. As a result, Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth experience disparate sexual and reproductive health outcomes, such as increased rates of HIV/STIs, pregnancy complications, and adverse birth outcomes. The root and driving cause of these inequities is racism—particularly structural racism.

When most people think of racism, they tend to think of the harms caused by interpersonal racism, wherein—for example—individual providers act on racial biases and provide a lower standard of care based on a patient’s race. However, structural racism can

negatively affect access to care 

for entire populations by way of policies and systemic inequities—in health care, social services, education, housing, justice, etc. For example, Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth are disproportionately

represented in the child welfare system, often for reasons such as over-policing of their families, poverty, and mass incarceration, all of which are undergirded by racist policies (e.g., redlining, lower approval for loans to Black people, and limited education access). Youth in the foster care system face additional barriers around parental consent and availability of contraceptive methods, ultimately increasing their likelihood of experiencing health outcomes such as unintended pregnancies or unsafe abortions.

These examples show how structural racism shapes and places direct obstacles in the path to health for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, but there are many mechanisms and examples by which structural racism affects the sexual and reproductive health of youth from these populations