pain after sex, cramping cervix?

[le-soleil-noir.livejournal.com]

I just finished having sex with my male partner and during, I had some sharp pains in my vagina. I think maybe he hit my cervix a few times. Not really a big deal, as i've experienced that before, but this time it hurt more than normal.

Now that we are finished, my vagina area hurts a lot. It isn't the usual sore walls from friction but an aching/throbbing kind of crampy feeling within the vagina (perhaps the cervix?) and above.

What is going on?

switched to generic brand of BC

[laurie-house.livejournal.com]

For the past 3 or 4 months I've been on birth control I've been taking reclipsen. I decided to order my next pack online, instead of calling it in. I had a bit of a hassle in ordering it, but finally did, but reclipsen was gone and in its place was apri, with a note saying it was the generic brand of reclipsen.

I started taking apri yesterday and was wondering if taking it would conflict with me having taken reclipsen. Or are they essentially the same thing?

I don't want to mess up my cycle or anything by taking a different BC.

ultrasound suggested years after mole removed from breast

[unfetteredvoice.livejournal.com]

Hello, all. 

This is indeed my first post to the group, though I've been reading for years and years and years.   

I went in for my yearly exam and pap today, and I mentioned that I have had some tenderness in my left breast close to the area where I had a pre-cancerous mole removed at the age of 19.  My gyn asked me if the dermatologist ever followed up with me after it was removed, and I said no.  She seemed pretty shocked.  I guess I was under the impression that since I had the mole removed (twice, actually -- once for biopsy and once to make sure they got ALL the tissue around it out), I was finished and there was nothing to worry about.  I still feel pretty confident that I'm fine, but my doctor suggested that I get an ultrasound.   She also just said that I have particularly lumpy breasts, and because of that, it's probably worth getting it checked out since it would be difficult for me to monitor the area at home.  

I'm only 23, and I'm not extremely concerned about breast cancer. However, I know there have been quite a few studies that have linked melanoma and breast cancer, concluding that if you've been diagnosed with one, you're at a higher risk for the other.  Let me be clear:  I was not diagnosed with melanoma, but had a mole removed from my breast that had the potential to develop into melanoma.  Since I was so young when this happened, I guess that makes me wonder if I am genetically predisposed toward either/both cancers.     

Has anyone spoken to a doctor about something like this in the past? Anyone had a mole on a breast removed that caused a gynecologist to request an ultrasound or biopsy? I'm curious to hear your stories.  

Thanks in advance.  

birth control losing effectiveness against PMS symptoms

[galaxy-soup.livejournal.com]

I primarily take the pill to reduce my PMS symptoms, but it seems like after I take a certain brand of pill for a while it eventually gets less and less effective at this and I have to change brands. For a couple types of pills it took a year for this to happen, for another it took around five months. Most of the pill brands in my country seem to be phasic pills, where the hormone level in the individual pill is different at different points of your cycle.

It's like my body gets used to the highest level of hormones in the pill cycle and then eventually my PMS symptoms start to show themselves again when the hormone dose drops.  Has anyone else experienced this with phasic pills? Would a non-phasic type be better?

Or is there something I could supplement the birth control with around my period? I usually get extremely anxious and prone to anger and depression starting around five days before I even hit the inactive pills. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm so tired of having this crop up and having to tough it out for a few weeks until I can get back to the doctor :(

Convulsions?

[pinkmath.livejournal.com]

I'm rather embarrassed by posting about this but it freaked me out so bad I'd like to know if anyone has any idea what happened. And how to avoid it.

I identify as a female with a vagina and my partner identifies as a male with a penis. Just so we're clear... and hopefully I've not offended anyone. (He kept his penis in his pants.) Oh! And I refer to him as "Dearest".


( Background info. and detailed making-out/penetration thing )

So my question! Any ideas of what these convulsions during penetration with a dildo by a partner are? Do you think it'll happen again?

MMMMonday! Guest post: Morgan Robyn, On Taking Up Space

[mangofandango.livejournal.com]

Welcome to Mega Magical Meta Monday! Each week, we'll bring you special content on Mondays, in the form of guest posts, giveaways, or other maintainer-curated content. We hope this will enhance your VP experience and diversify our membership and discussions! This week, please welcome Morgan, of A Trip To The Morg!

Morgan Robyn is a sex-positive, kinky, witchy, radical, anti-racist trans woman. She writes a lot of poetry and constantly blogs about social justice. She envisions a world in which her sisters won't be killed for their desire. For more of her writing, check out www.atriptothemorg.wordpress.com.

On Taking up Space

I went to a party the other night for a friend of a friend who was celebrating his first anniversary of being on T. I was in a room full of gender-variant queers with awesome music playing and lots of hotties to look at. Why, then, did I feel so alone in that space? These people, ostensibly, are my peers. They are my comrades-at-arms against cissexism and heteropatriarchy. What was the problem?

And then I realized that there were only 3 women of color (you know we were in a group the whole time) at the party, myself included, and no transwomen, brown or otherwise. The room was full of white transmen and queer women. And many of them live in JP, the same neighborhood that the party was held. A neighborhood that has been historically a community of mostly Black and Latin@ working class people. And yet here are all these white, upwardly mobile queers gentrifying (read: internal colonization) the hood and they didn’t even have the decency to have any sort of real diversity?

More to the point, this party was explicitly billed as a queer/trans party celebrating someone’s transmasculine identity. And while the party in and of itself isn’t bad (aside from my reaction to if being on of discomfort), you can invite who ever the eff you want to your party, I think that it says a lot about that general trends of what is visible in the queer/trans community. And that is that it is mostly white and mostly transmasculine.
And don’t give me that, “Oh we reached out to communities of color but they didn’t come! It’s their fault for not participating!” Because that is just bullshit. The reason why POC don’t show up for your event/party/campaign etc is because there is no space made for them. Why would anyone want to enter a space where their voices, histories and thoughts are ignored? Why would anyone want to enter a space where folks were committing microagressions left and right? Moreover, who would want to be in a space that has historically excluded them?

I think one of the things that the white queer/trans community fails to realize is that there are many communities held within the queer community. And as such, one can’t expect the queer experience to be universal or think that all queers want the same thing. I couldn’t care less if middle-upper class white gays get to marry. That’s just not salient to me. I do care about non-discrimination legislations (although not hate crimes legislation cause that shit doesn’t work and it just adds black and brown bodies to the PIC). I do care about affordable housing and access to healthcare and educational/job opportunities. These are the things that are important in my life.

But all the time, energy and money is spent trying to get marriage equality and why is that? Because it is the thing that effects white people the most. The folks who participate and run Gay, Inc (read: HRC) already have access to safe housing, healthcare, education etc. The single issue politics involved in advocating for marriage equality just alienating and frustrating because the purport to speak for the whole of the queer community when, in fact, they only speak for a small section of it.

And to add insult to injury, if one creates a space for black and brown queers only or focus on the accomplishments of queer people of color, white people get butt hurt and insist that they be included because it would be “racist” otherwise. They won’t make a space for us with them (and if they do it tokenizing) and when we do it for ourselves, they feel entitled to that space.

I write this so that my white sisters and brothers (and others with privileged identities like being able bodied, wealthy, male etc) will understand that they take up space by default and that their voices, histories, thoughts and opinions are given precedence over POC voices. I want my white allies to not only be anti-racist but to be aware of how they are taking up space. I want my white allies to be able to co-create room for POC voices. I want my queer/trans white allies to have the concerns of POC in the forefront of their minds while the plan campaigns. Most of all, I want my white allies to check other white people on their white privilege and tell them if they are taking up to much space so that a POC doesn’t have too. This is because it is not our responsibility to educate white folks on white privilege, which is often a very painful process for us, it is yours.
And I also want my fierce queer/trans people of color to come together and make space for ourselves. I want to see more transwomen of color coming together in sisterhood. I want to see transmen of color come together for brotherhood. And I want us all to come together to keep each other safe, supported, and loved. I want us to come out of the alienating space of white queerness that doesn’t have a critical analysis of race, which tokenizes us and keeps us separated, and unite so that we can create self-actualizing communities that feed us.
Communities that give us the strength to fight this battle called racism in america and win.

MMMMonday double feature! Street Harassment

[mangofandango.livejournal.com]

Hello, Superstars!

It's MMMMonday, and this is the second of two special posts we have for you today. (See the previous post to the community for the first, a special guest post by Morgan of A Trip To The Morg, or follow this link!)

This week we're thinking about street harassment. Have you experienced it? Do you have ideas about how to challenge it?

As Ms. Magazine notes, "Sharing stories to raise awareness is what the upcoming International Anti-Street Harassment Week is all about. Street harassment can only begin to be curbed after more people are aware, first, that it happens; second, that it happens a lot; third, that it happens to most women and girls and many men in the [LGBT+] community; and fourth, that when it happens, it has a negative impact on the harassed people’s lives." We think it also has a negative impact on our communities.

In that spirit, from March 18-24, over 100 groups in various countries will work to call attention to this global problem. Some things folks might be doing are: hashtags, radio campaigns, street theater, protests, arranging sharing circles, speaking out in public, and more. Participants can choose whatever approach they think will be most effective for them and their communities.

Please feel free to share your stories about street harassment. Has it happened to you or anyone you know? Do you know people who do it? Do you have general thoughts about it? Are you participating in any local events to challenge it? Or do you have ideas on how to combat it in the future? We'd love to hear your thoughts and get a conversation going--words are powerful and so are you!

mangofandango
For the VP Team
[Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]