If you are sexually active and aren’t ready to have a baby anytime soon, it’s important to get started on the birth control method that is right for you. If you haven’t started having sex yet, it’s a good idea to think about what method you might want to start in advance, so you are protected when you are ready.

Prom is a great time to celebrate the end of the year, the start of summer, and moving on to your next step in life, if it is your senior prom. Even with all this fun, prom can be a stressful or emotional time for some people. Check out these tips for making your prom a fun, happy, and healthy experience!

May is National Teen (Unintended) Pregnancy Prevention Month! The good news? Teen pregnancy rates have drastically declined in the past 50 years across all states. The not so good news? The US still has the highest teen unintended pregnancy rate in all of the industrialized world.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a chance to educate ourselves and others about sexual assault. Wednesday April 25^th is Denim Day, a chance to wear jeans in support of sexual assault survivors. Denim Day started in 1999 in protest of a rape case in Italy where a survivor’s jeans were used as a sign of consent because she had to help remove them. Denim Day is a chance to educate ourselves and others about common myths and misconceptions around sexual assault and challenge those myths.

Did you know that if you test positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea, you may be able to get extra medicine for your partners? Through a practice called patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT for short) or expedited partner therapy (EPT for short), your doctor can give you extra packages of medicine or an extra prescription that you can give to your partners who are unlikely to go see a doctor themselves.

It’s STD Awareness Month! This month we are putting the spotlight on one of the most common STDs – CHLAMYDIA.

STDs are common in California. So common, that our state ranks #1 in the country for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections!

Who is impacted the most by STDs? Teens and young adults. More than half of all STDs in California are experienced by young people ages 15 – 25.

Transgender Day of Visibility or TDOV is a day to show your support for the trans community. TDOV started in 2010 and takes place every year on March 31. Whether you know a transgender person personally, or just want to show your support for people living as their true selves, TDOV is a chance to learn, accept and celebrate. 

Spring is a time for new beginnings, and this may include new relationships.  Here are a couple of relationship tips and reminders to consider to help make sure you start off on the right track:

Over half of teens in the United States are not having sex. In California, that number is even lower. Less than one third of California teens reported ever having sex and less than a quarter of California teens reported being currently sexually active.