2011-10-16

Entry tags:

links-round-up

Links round-up: Week ending October 15th

Welcome to our new weekly links round-up. This is a compilation of items from the past week that may be of interest to VPers.
As a reminder, in lieu of trigger warnings, I use keywords describing the themes of the piece. Please skim these before deciding to read the excerpt or click through for the full article. Outside sources are not safe spaces, and mainstream source's comments should almost always be avoided. The links I highlight don't necessarily reflect VP's views, or even my own, for that matter.

This week's round-up includes: Notes from the urban/rural divide: your contempt is showing; HBC linked to relationship satisfaction; street harassment turns deadly; easier gender marker changes in California; representing Native presence at Occupy Wall Street; sexy and the gender binary; my gym shorts are not an invitation; learning how to eat: meals as love

( Read more... )

What have you been reading (or writing!) this week?

If you'd like to see an article included in next week's round-up, send me an e-mail at recidivist@vaginapagina.com . Non-US and positive links are especially appreciated. (I can't fit all the awesome links people send, but I'll try to post any that I don't include to Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter.) You can also just take matters into your own hands and post in the comments!

Current Mood: anxious

vaginal bleeding + having trouble peeing

i checked tags and i couldn't find this anywhere. i just got done with my period on the 11th of the month. i since then had sex (protected) on the 13th & 14th. on the 15th i started to have a funny feeling as if i had to pee but nothing wanted to come out. this morning on the 16th. i had the same feeling but i saw blood when i wiped. (the blood came from inside, it was not outside of the vagina) i took a bath to clean up, but there was no blood there but i still feel like i need to pee! any ideas what this could be and what i can do to treat it? i never went through this before. i am not taking an BC but i use a condom every time i do have sex. if it doesn't go away in the next few days, i will be going to the doctors/gyno i just want some understanding what's going on down there. thanks for any advice and suggestions!

Here is an interesting/strange question:

Has anyone felt a very distinct buzzing directly where your uterus is? I had this last night. No mistaking the feeling. It was very very much there and exactly felt like buzzing. Then 10 minutes later I had some slight aching in the same area. But I am not sure if I was imagining that or now. But I was not imagining the buzzing feeling. That was crazy vivid!

What could this be?!

Entry tags:

mod-posts

2 days left to nominate yourself or someone else to be a VP maintainer

Greetings, Superstars!

Just a reminder that VP is hiring a new cohort of 2-3 maintainers and we'd love for you to nominate someone (or yourself), if you're interested.

http://vaginapagina.livejournal.com/20230404.html

We are especially interested in those from minority backgrounds (varied gender/sex identification and personal pronoun use, non-Whites, non-U.S. citizens, etc.). We are also a bunch of (aging!) busy people and we are looking for someone with the sufficient free time and youthful enthusiasm that can help us conquer the daily tasks of running a large community.

Interested? Just let us know by 10/17, which is when we'll begin the first round of email interviews. You can email (vpteam@vaginapagina.com) or comment to the post linked above.

--Bob
For the VP Team

contact_vp

P.S. Thanks for being patient with us while we bump this post daily. One more post after this, and then we start the interview process. Thanks to those who've gotten in touch so far!

(no subject)

My boyfriend and I have had sex frequently in the past few weeks. It seems the last 3 times we have had sex, the condom has come off inside me and he pushed it in further, but I'm on birth control so it was no giant issue. The biggest issue is that I didn't know they had come off inside me, we thought it just came off somewhere around the room, so I was walking around with two condoms inside me for DAYS. (How horrifying!)

I soon realized what probably happened and extracted them immediately, but now my urine has been wreaking of latex for the past two weeks. Is this normal? How long does it take to flush the odor of condoms out? Any input would be appreciated. The smell is undoubtedly that of latex and it's really unsettling me.

Strange-smelling urine

I found a previous, somewhat similar entry while Googling this issue, and have an inkling that I might have my very first UTI (lucky me). However, the situation is a bit weird, so I thought I would consult you all myself!

For the past 48 hours or so, I've noticed a strange odor when I urinate. It's pretty strong; I went to the bathroom at work last night and thought there was a lightbulb burning out or something, but realized that the burnt smell was in fact coming from me. I had just drunk a bunch of tea, so kind of wrote that off as the culprit, but the odor hasn't gone away. My boyfriend went down on me this morning and I could even smell the burnt-ish odor on him afterwards, and again when I went to pee.

The last time I had PIV sex before today was this past Tuesday, and around Wednesday/Thursday I did notice that my bladder was feeling full and that there was some pressure. I wouldn't say I had to pee urgently constantly, but as soon as I do drink something, I feel the urge to pee soon after and more acutely than normal. I haven't had any pelvic pain or noticed any blood or anything visually off about my urine. Strangely enough, the urge to urinate had gotten less troublesome by Friday-ish, so I assumed it wasn't a big deal. I had PIV sex twice today, and am now slightly concerned that I may have exacerbated any infection I may have.

Should I assume this is, in fact, a UTI? And would it be appropriate to treat it with an over the counter remedy? I've been working hellish hours (including a twelve-hour overnight tonight) and can't get to a store until tomorrow. It would also be difficut to arrange a gyno visit unless it's really urgent. Thanks in advance, fabulous VP-ers!

Current Mood: curious

Sudden change in odor - could ovulation be the culprit?

Ahoy, vagineers!

I just finished my period a few days ago (first one after the endo surgery and lupron fiasco - the one good thing about all that was not having to menstruate for months!) and Ladytimer tells me I'm ovulating.

I slept for like twelve hours last night and woke up drenched in sweat (I have a cold and it's messing with me), and I noticed upon my morning pee that my vaginal odor was very different from usual. I figured it was the usual increased discharge mixed with sweating for half a day, but after showering, I still had that same smell, kind of sharper and more sour than usual (citrus sour, not bad milk sour). It's not BAD, just very different from my usual scent.

Can hormonal changes affect the smell of vaginal discharge? Post-shower, it smells EXACTLY like my girlfriend's normal scent, and she has severe hormonal issues that leave her basically feeling like she's always either ovulating or PMSing (it's exactly as much fun as it sounds, the poor thing). Again, it's not bad or unpleasant, but it's really different from my norm.

If it doesn't go back to normal in a few days, I'll get myself checked out for infections just in case. I need to see my GYN anyway. But the scent is nearly identical to my healthy gf's, so I'd be surprised if I had an infection. (Also, I have chronic BV - fun times - and it smells nothing like this, and I have no weird discharge aside from the usual ovulation-time increase in volume.)

garlic & HBC interactions

I've been eating about a clove of crushed raw garlic everyday for 4 days or so, to help clear up a YI. While doing some research this evening on the other health benefits of garlic, I saw that it could negatively interact with birth control. Something about the garlic speeding up the breakdown of the estrogen, making it less effective.

Has anyone gotten pregnant or noticed problems (like spotting) while taking birth control and garlic or garlic supplements? Do you think one clove a day is enough to make a difference? I hope I don't need to stop, because garlic is the only thing that has been working for me so far.

Thanks.

Weird cycles and IUD question

I had my son back in Nov of 2008 ( almost 3 years ) and ever since then my cycles have been way out of whack. They range anywhere from 14 days to 4 months between cycles and the bleed can be just spotting to full out bleeding for 3 weeks. My last period lasted 2 and a half weeks. I went to my GYN and was told that I don't have PCOS. I had an ultrasound done and blood work and everything was fine. Does anyone know what else could cause this?

I was thinking about going on some form of Birth Control to help regulate it. Issue that I have is that I suffer from cronic headaches. I have tried Nuva Ring and the pill and both just cause my headaches to be a million times worse. I have also been on the Deop shot and hated it. For those of you who have an IUD do you like it? Does it give you headaches? Do you have the Mirena or the Copper one? I was thinking about going with the copper since we aren't going to be having any more children.