Posts Tagged ‘pregnant’

Emotional Items and Sex

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

* I don’t have any strong religious, cultural or family beliefs or convictions right now that this sex or partner for me, right now, is wrong.
* I can and do take full responsibility for my own emotions, expectations and actions, as can and does my partner.
* I can handle — even if I don’t like — being disappointed, confused, or upset, as can my partner. I can also handle positive feelings which might surprise me.
* I have at least one member of my family, a friend or some other trusted person — who is not my sexual partner — who cares for me and knows me well who I can talk to with complete honesty about sex, my sexuality and sex life, my sexual relationships, and who I know will always have my back and be honest with me — even when they have to say something I don’t like — and my partner has someone like that in their life, too.
* I can intellectually separate sex from love — even when I love the person I am considering or having sex with — and do not seek to have sex to use it to manipulate, control or influence myself, my partner, or anyone else, or to try and “earn” or prove love.
* I understand that having sex could change my relationship for good or for the worse, and feel I can handle whatever may happen, good or bad alike. I’m ready to be surprised.
* I am prepared to deal with social or cultural judgment based on my choice to be sexually active as a young person.
* I feel I can emotionally handle a possible pregnancy (if applicable), disease or infection, or rejection from my partner.
* I do really want to have sex, not something else I’m hoping sex will substitute for.

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Relationship Items and Sex

Monday, August 9th, 2010

* I am able to create limits (to say no to anything when I want to as well as yes) and can and do trust my partner to respect them. My partner can do same, and can trust me in regard to limits and boundaries.
* I feel I can assess what I want for myself, and separate it from what my partner, friends or family want.
* Sex of any kind is absolutely optional for us both: it isn’t or doesn’t feel like a requirement. If I had to put sex on hols at any time, for any reason, or we had to wait a little longer for it, it’d be no big deal.
* I am able to trust my partner, and am trustworthy myself.
* I can tell my partner what I want sexually and emotionally, and when I do and do not like something, and I feel my partner can do the same. I can talk to my partner about sex comfortably, and be honest and forthright — even when it’s awkward — and they can do the same with me.
* I am comfortable being unclothed with my partner and physically intimate and affectionate with them, as well as comfortable with and able to be honest and accepted about my gender identity and gender roles with my partner.
* Both myself and my partner can be honest with each other about our sexual history.
* I care about my partner’s health, emotions and general well-being, and act — not just talk — accordingly, and can say the same for them. Any kind of sex between us so far feels balanced, like it is about pleasure for both of us, not just one of us.
* I feel like the emotional and intellectual maturity levels of my partner and myself are the same or similar.
* I feel I have a good handle on what consent to sex is and also what non-consent is.

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Recurrent Infections

Friday, August 6th, 2010

These usually occur in the same place every time as the virus stays in a specific nerve root. Recurrent bouts are usually triggered by one of several factors:

* During upper respiratory tract infections like the common cold hence the term “cold sores”
* Exposure to sunlight. The UVR (Ultra violet ray) component that seems to “activate/irritate” the virus
* Menstruation
* Stress
* Other viral or bacterial infections
* After surgery
* Poor diet
* After intercourse when there is mucosal abrasion

The recurrent episode starts with tingling, burning or even pain and within a few hours redness develops followed by the tiny blister (vesicles) which enlarge and fill with pus. It starts to rupture and crust within 1-2 days and heals within 10-14 days.

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Safer Sex For Your Heart

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

We talk a lot about sexual safety and safer sex here at Scarleteen in terms of your physical health. But what about checking in to see if sex is safe for you and yours emotionally? Taking care of your emotions, looking out for risk factors in advance — not just when they become an existing crisis — and safeguarding yourself, your partners and those around you from needless hurt and harm is just as important as doing what you can to prevent STIs and unwanted pregnancies.

Sexuality and sexual partnership is more than just physical, even when it’s casual — it involves our feelings and thoughts as well, and those of our sexual partner.

It seems that a lot of what we hear in terms of safeguarding our emotions — if we hear anything at all — in regard to sex (and remember that here at Scarleteen, when we say “sex” we mean any number of sexual activities, not just sexual intercourse or heterosexual sex) is that either sex is okay, or it isn’t, and we just shouldn’t engage in it if we don’t want to be hurt or hurt others. Or, that only sex within marriage is safe emotionally, but that simply isn’t so: people are no less likely to become hurt by sex within marriage than they are outside it, especially if high divorce rates and spousal sexual and other abuse rates are any indication. To boot, marriage is neither an option nor a goal for everyone.

Only seeing general, binary options — to either have sex or not to — doesn’t help us an awful lot, or give us food for thought to determine what may be risky sexual behavior for any of us when it comes to our hearts, minds and the quality of our relationships and sexual life. Sex is not something that need be hurtful, or that we have to avoid so as not to get hurt or hurt anyone else. When entered into with a solid basis of self-awareness, empathy, care, good judgment and an arsenal of accurate information, sex has no more the capacity to hurt than anything else in life, and has the capacity to be something wonderful, empowering and beneficial.

Just like using condoms, gloves and dams, and having regular sexual health care is preventative medicine to do your best to stay physically safe and healthy; being on the lookout for high emotional risks, hurtful or unrealistic situations, or potential sexual and emotional trouble is preventative medicine to stay emotionally healthy, and help those you’re involved with do the same. It’d be silly and shortsighted to only give information on a sexually transmitted disease after one already has it, or to avoid looking at what we could do to lessen the likelihood of getting one in the first place. So, think of the following pages as preventative medicine for sexually transmitted infections of the emotional variety. If you get informed, keep a watchful eye and protect yourself and those you care for from the very start, you’re much more likely to remain healthy and happy and sexually well, above, as well as below, the waist.

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Learning About Herpes and Pregnancy

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Herpes is a virus that can be spread very easily. It is a virus that can spread from person to person through skin to skin contact, and it can end up appearing on many different areas of the body. Herpes is marked by an eruption of a cluster of blisters, and although you will usually notice an immediate breakout, some people do not break out at all.

In fact, you may have herpes and not even notice it for quite some time, so you really need to pay attention to yourself and watch out for these sorts of symptoms.

Herpes and Pregnancy

If you have herpes and are pregnant, there is some information that is important for you to be aware of. Herpes and pregnancy, the thought of it together, may frighten some people, but at least when you are more educated you are going to be more understanding and will know whether herpes and pregnancy is going to be a dangerous combination for you.

Even if you have herpes and are pregnant, chances are that you will give birth to a healthy baby. One of the biggest worries that pregnant women with herpes have is that they will end up passing the herpes on to their child during labor, but this is not always the case. You will really want to speak to your doctor for more information on this if this is something that you are worried about.

Now on the topic of herpes and pregnancy, of course you are going to want to learn about how the herpes might end up affecting your pregnancy. If you had the herpes before you got pregnant, then the risk of your baby becoming infected is going to be quite low. On the other hand, if you did not get herpes until after you became pregnant, there is a slight risk that it is going to end up affecting your developing baby.

You will need to keep your doctor abreast of your situation if you get herpes while you are pregnant, especially if it happens in the second or third trimester.

Also on the topic of herpes and pregnancy, one of the most common questions that people have is whether or not they will be able to breastfeed. The answer is yes, because the herpes virus is not transmitted through breast milk, and so you can feel safe nursing your baby and not have to worry about passing the virus on to them.

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Sex and Some Change

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Q: Me and my boyfriend plan to marry after school. I really love him and I really want him the same way he wants me, but I am scared about if we have sex then he leaves me. I don’t want to lose him.

A: There’s no sense in being anything but frank.

Sex does tend to change things.

It can bring about or illuminate changes in the relationships it occurs within, changes in our other relationships, and changes in ourselves. Often, we have to add some factors to our lives we may not have had to before, like adding the use of birth control or safer sex, getting sexual healthcare, talking about sexual limits, boundaries and desires, negotiating sex or navigating through sexual conflicts or issues. Obviously, certain results or consequences of sex, such as a pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection, can also create physical changes, as well as changes to our lives and relationships.

Sometimes those changes aren’t even negative things, like losing someone, winding up with Herpes or discovering that sex just doesn’t feel good or right between you. Sometimes those are neutral or positive changes, like discovering new and pleasurable things about yourself or your sexuality (or about your partner and his sexuality) you didn’t know before, getting a boost to your body image, winding up with a wanted pregnancy, or having a relationship go to a new and bigger place, but they are still changes, all the same, and sometimes we’re just not at a time or place in our lives where we feel best able to deal with big changes. This is why, in the Sex Readiness Checklist we have at Scarleteen, one of the questions we suggest people ask themselves if if they feel able to handle any changes sex may cause.

As well, with any relationship we are in, that relationship changing, coming to an end, or any one party leaving is always a possibility, whether we have sex or not, whether we (when we can) marry or not.

There is absolutely nothing any of us can do to assure that a given person stays with us, or stays in a certain relationship with us.

Whether sex is part of the picture of not, life changes things, and time changes things. People change and relationships change as we live, learn and grow, and there is no magic formula or list of things to do or not to do — nor an order to do things in or not — which can put you in complete control of that. One of the trickiest parts of love and relationships is that while they can feel eternal, and while we may have times when we want a certain way we feel, or place we’re at in a relationship, or person to stick around forever, if we can count on any one thing in our lives, it’s change, and that fact that nothing really lasts forever.

So, in my book, the way to approach that is to value our feelings as much as we can while we have them, and to love and honor the people who are in our lives while they’re here as best we can. I also think it’s sage and caring to try and be flexible and open enough that when — as we all tend to — each of us changes, we can still love each other and be in one another’s lives being more attached to who people are than to what exact kind of relationship we are in with them. (And if you talk to older couples who have been together and happy for a very long time, you’ll hear many say that in a long-term marriage, that kind of flexibility is key.) By all means, when you find something marvelous you want to commit to as fully as you can, and really put your whole heart into, I say go for it, since that’s so much of what really living life is about, but also understand that trying to always telescope all your actions based on what will keep someone around can, at a certain point, get in the way of fully experiencing and enjoying what you have while you have it.

What I seem to hear you saying, though, in regard to sex, sounds to me like you are feeling that it is very important to you to assure — for as much as you can — that when you have sex, you do so in a relationship with someone who is committed to staying in the relationship with you after sex. That’s hardly an uncommon thing for a person to want: many people feel that way, and that’s absolutely valid.

Maybe for you, that means you’d prefer to save sex together for after marriage: if that’s what feels best to you, you get to do that. Or, maybe you need to sit down and have a deep conversation with your partner about your concerns, and if you very strongly feel you want to have sex before marriage, but are fearful about him leaving, see how he feels about that, and find out how committed he is to sticking with you no matter what sex might change for each of you and between you. In doing that, you can also provide him the opportunity to talk about his own fears and concerns, which you’ll want to be sure get addressed just like your own.

It sounds to me like you’re expressing feeling pretty fearful about this right now, and I know for myself that when I feel very scared about doing something which is absolutely optional — and sex is, and always should be — I find it best to take more time to work out how I feel about that thing and how that thing may or may not really suit my needs before I go ahead and do it.

So, my personal suggestion to you would be to take some more time to sort out your feelings and talk with your boyfriend before you become sexually active.

Not only does that make it more likely that you’ll make the best choice for you, but sex when you’re fearful simply does not tend to be very enjoyable or enriching: our minds and bodies don’t tend to experience a lot of pleasure when we’re scared or freaked out, and it’s also tough to be open enough to really get close to someone during sex when we’re scared. The time when it’s going to be most right for you is when it’s not this scary, and clearly, when you feel a bit more secure in your relationship than you do right now, and have developed more trust than you have in it right now. An intention to marry or a promise of marriage in the future can’t automatically create things like trust and stability with where you’re at (it’s sage to say that marriage is more about a demonstration of those things as they already exist): it sounds to me like it might be a good idea for you, in your decision-making with this and in general, to think less about a future marriage and more about where you’re at, how you’re feeling, and what you need to feel more secure in your relationship today.

Don’t forget, too, that sex is not just intercourse. The only two big differences between vaginal intercourse and all other kinds of sex is the risk of pregnancy, and the fact that some people simply attach more importance to vaginal intercourse for personal, religious or cultural reasons, particularly before they have it (afterwards, it can tend to be clearer just how different from other kinds of sex it often isn’t). In other words, if you are doing things like making out, or having manual or oral sex, then you already are going to have some idea of how things are going when it comes to sex and the two of you. If you are doing those things, you can look at how those have been going, and if it seems like the sex you’re already having in your relationship is working well within it and leaves you feeling good — not just physically, but also emotionally — or not-so-great.

Again, no matter what, you can’t have a guarantee that any choice you make will assure your boyfriend stays your boyfriend, becomes your husband or sticks around: there is just nothing you can do to assure that. Heck, maybe you’ll find that it’s you who thinks about leaving him at some point; maybe it’s you who will find that sex changes how you feel about him, your relationship, yourself or your future plans. Maybe you two will have some changes in your relationship — or that one of you will decide not to continue on with it or a marriage — over something that isn’t about sex at all. While you can’t have that guarantee, you can manage this in a way which is most likely to keep you and your relationship in a good place.

You’re the best expert on knowing when something is right for you, and when you feel up to handling something and when you do not. You can certainly act in ways which are most likely to benefit your relationship and its quality, such as being honest about your fears, voicing your own needs and working with your partner to assure that sex is something you both really want, and feel ready both to manage and enjoy. The bonus is that doing that not only helps you make the best sexual choices that you can, it helps nurture and grow more love in your relationship as a whole.

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Cold Sores Symptoms

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Cold sores are blisters on the lips and the edge of the mouth that are caused by an infection with the herpes simplex virus (HSV).

Cold sore blisters usually break open, weep clear fluid, and then crust over and disappear after a few days.

Other symptoms may include:

* A sore mouth that makes eating, drinking, and sleeping uncomfortable. Cold sores can be painful.
* A fever.
* A sore throat.
* Swollen lymph nodes in the neck.
* Drooling, in small children.

You may not develop cold sores when you are first infected with HSV. If cold sores do develop when you are first infected, they may be more severe than in later outbreaks. During the first outbreak of cold sores, the blisters may spread to any part of the mouth.

After you become infected, HSV remains in your body and may cause cold sores to return throughout your lifetime (recurrent cold sores). Most people have 1 to 12 outbreaks a year but have fewer outbreaks as they get older.1

Recurrent cold sores usually develop where facial skin and the lip meet. About 6 to 48 hours before a cold sore is visible, you may feel tingling, burning, itching, numbness, tenderness, or pain in the affected area. This is called the prodromal stage.

Some common triggers that cause cold sores to return include:

* Sunlight exposure, especially on the lips.
* Stress.
* Fatigue.
* Other infections, such as a cold or influenza.
* Food allergies.
* Dental treatment.
* Injury to the lips or gums.
* An impaired (weak) immune system, either because of medicines (such as corticosteroids) or because of an autoimmune disease.
* Cosmetic surgery, such as dermabrasion or laser skin resurfacing.
* Hormonal changes in women caused by the menstrual cycle.
* Pregnancy.

People who have weakened immune systems are more likely than those with strong immune systems to have longer or more severe outbreaks of cold sores. HSV infection may be life-threatening in certain people with weak immune systems.

Who is at greatest risk for developing cold sores?

Anyone who is exposed to the herpes simplex virus (HSV) is at risk for developing cold sores. But many people may have the virus and may never develop cold sores.

People who have weakened immune systems are at an increased risk for having more severe and longer-lasting outbreaks of cold sores.

One form of HSV infection is seen most often in children 1 to 3 years old. This type of HSV infection (primary herpes stomatitis) can cause a high fever and blisters throughout the mouth, which can interfere with the ability to eat. It can be serious in children-they can get quite sick from this illness, although they usually recover without any long-term problems.

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If You’re Pregnant With Genital Herpes

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Pregnant women with genital herpes should be careful about passing the virus on to the baby, but not overly worried about it.

A mother can infect her baby during delivery, often fatally. But if a woman had genital herpes before getting pregnant, or if she is first infected early in pregnancy, the chance that her baby will be infected is very low — less than 1%. Women with genital herpes are examined carefully for any symptoms before giving birth. If sores or signs that an outbreak is coming show up at the time of delivery, the baby may be delivered by cesarean section (also called a C-section).

The risk of infecting the baby is high (30% to 50%) when a woman is newly infected late in pregnancy, however. That’s because the mother’s immune system has not developed protective antibodies against the virus. Women with an older herpes infection have antibodies against the virus, which help protect the baby. If you are pregnant and you think you may have been infected recently, tell your doctor right away.

Ways to Avoid Risks of Getting Herpes While Pregnant

Women who don’t have genital herpes should be careful about sex during the third trimester. Unless you know for sure that your partner is herpes free, you should avoid sex altogether during the third trimester. If your partner gets cold sores (oral herpes), he or she should not perform oral sex on you during this time.

Some doctors think all women should be tested for herpes when they get pregnant, especially if their sex partners have herpes. Ask your doctor if you or your partner should be tested.

Treatment Issues

Women taking antiviral drugs for herpes — either daily suppressive therapy or occasional therapy for outbreaks — should consult their doctor about whether to take the drugs during pregnancy. The answer is not set in stone: You and your doctor have to discuss the risks and benefits to decide what’s right for you.

Herpes infection in a newborn is also serious. Do not allow anyone with a cold sore on the mouth to kiss the baby. If you have a cold sore, don’t kiss the baby, and wash your hands with soap and water before touching the baby.

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Will my Partner Have Major Health Problems Because of Genital Herpes?

Friday, December 5th, 2008

The biggest impact of genital herpes is usually emotional. Painful symptoms, limitations on sexual activity, and that it’s an incurable, lifelong condition can lead to depression. If your partner is pregnant or trying to get pregnant, however, genital herpes is a major concern. Her doctor must be made aware of it. Genital herpes is also more serious for people with HIV and other conditions that weaken the immune system.

You may have heard that genital herpes causes cervical cancer. That’s not exactly true. It may be a factor, but it’s not the main cause.

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Can genital Herpes Kill You?

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

What’s The Big Deal?

Genital herpes is not life threatening in and of itself. But having herpes sores makes it easier for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter your body. Not only is there an increased risk for getting HIV if you have genital herpes, but having the two diseases together may also make each one worse.

A pregnant woman can pass genital herpes on to her baby, so it’s particularly serious during pregnancy. If you get infected near the end of pregnancy, the risk is highest. At least 30% and as many as 50% of newly infected pregnant women give the virus to their babies. For moms who were infected long before delivery, the risk is much lower. Less than 1% of babies born to mothers with an older genital herpes infection get the virus. And if a woman has an outbreak at delivery, a cesarean delivery is usually done.

You may have heard that genital herpes causes cervical cancer. That’s not exactly true. It may be a factor, but it’s not the main cause.

Genital herpes is a lifelong condition for which there is no cure. Having it can force you to make inconvenient changes in your life, particularly in your sex life, and it can cause you a lot of pain and discomfort. You simply would rather not have it.

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