College can be a crazy time of self-discovery, but new friends and partners also mean we have to figure out how to build relationships and navigate hook-up culture. With so much going on, these 10 sexual health resources can help make sure you don’t spend your 4 years at school worrying about unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other unintended consequences of sex so you can focus on consent/communication and having fun!
Planned Parenthood is a leading provider of low-cost birth control, abortion, STI testing, and counseling for young Americans. Along with locations across the country, they have 3 different apps to make sexual health an accessible resource – so easy you can do it on your phone! PP Care and PP Direct both provide birth control and at-home STI and UTI testing kits that can be delivered to your local pharmacy or right to your dorm room (available in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Washington, and California). Spot On is PP’s birth control and cycle tracking app that has reminders and information about your period and method of BC. Online and over the phone support staff can answer questions about birth control options, abortion, STI testing or symptoms, and any other questions/concerns about sex.
Bedsider compares all the contraceptive methods out there to help you find one that works best for you. Looking at cost, how you take or apply it, effectiveness, and other variables that might help you choose the right BC, Bedsider is the perfect resource if you feel ready to take pregnancy prevention (and STIs for some contraceptives) into your own hands and want to know all your options.
ASHA is a great resource if you are just beginning to think about what sexual health means for you or want to learn more about topics from protection to pleasure. It has news articles about how sexual health is changing in culture and legislature as well as a Youth and Teen section (http://www.ashasexualhealth.org/sexual-health/teens-and-young-adults) specifically for college kids. They include an LGBTQ+ page that helps answer questions about sex for people of all gender and sexuality identities. While the layout of the website makes it a little difficult to navigate, if you scroll all the way down you will find super helpful videos and articles that explain sexual health topics in easy to understand ways.
Advocates for Youth is a great resource to understand all the different topics that are included in the phrase “sexual health.” It can help remind people that there is more to sexual health than preventing unwanted pregnancies and STIs; remembering consent, pleasure, nonconforming sex, and other topics is also crucial. With a list of links that break down sexual health and how it affects people of color, low-income people, or gender nonconforming people differently, Advocates for Youth has lots of important information for everyone.
My Sex Doctor is an app that focuses on answering questions about sex and sexuality while maintaining your privacy (they promise not to collect any personal information or record your usage on the app). By bringing sex education into the palm of your hands, My Sex Doctor has a dictionary, a symptom check, and must-know info, making it a go-to for quick help or to explore everything that the app has to offer.
This website is a for teens by teens collection of educational material and articles about experience with sex, sexual health, and sexuality. The information is clear and easy to understand (after all, other college kids are writing it), but there are also games and polls to remind us that when sex is safe and consensual/communicative, it should be fun!
Refinery29 is a very popular digital media company covering almost every topic imaginable such as fashion, politics, entertainment, world news, and health. The sex subsection of health focuses on sexual health, consent, and pleasure, making it a great resource if you know there is more you want to learn but aren’t sure what it is or where to find it. Articles update readers on policies and social movements that have to do with reproductive or sexual health rights, but they also make sure to keep things fun. With articles about sex toys, period sex, queer positions, and more, you will definitely leave R29 with something new to think about or try.
This website has a self-assessment section to help you find out how much you already know about sexual health as well as if you are using the right methods of protection for your body and sex life. These quizzes are informative while being interactive, a refreshing way to engage in sexual health education without being lectured or reading a million paragraphs (us college kids do enough of that already).
This feminist sex-positive website is geared towards queer women but contains information that is helpful for people of any identity. Similar to R29, they have a variety of content in their articles, but check out their sexapalooza map (https://www.autostraddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/autostraddle-sexapalooza-handout.pdf) to explore your pleasure and maybe even take your sex to a whole new level of fun.
Scarleteen is a sex education website that focuses on being inclusive of different sexualities and bodies. By talking about sex and disability, gender nonconformity, asexuality or polyamorous identities, and various other nonnormative sexual identities, Scarleteen is a great resource to expand how we think of sexual health and who it applies to (which should be everyone!). Check this out if you feel like sex education often leaves you out or want to learn about how to be more inclusive in how you think about or have sex.
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