Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

alastair-made-me-do-it:

Threatie’s review of Planned Parenthood:

• No protesters outside (I was kinda hoping to spot one in the wild tbh)
  
• Locked doors, had to get buzzed in
• Rather uninviting color scheme in waiting room
• Kind, happy staff
• A medium amount of paperwork that crams in a lot of really important questions, respect
• Questions that would catch an abusive relationship, awesome
• Questions for guys in case guys need STD tests and stuff, cool
• A section for minors who need their visit to be a secret, damn these guys have their shit together
• Over an hour of wait time but meh I was a walk-in and I have the Kindle app, nbd
• Kind, happy nurses
• Really no judgement
• Offered me condoms
• Had discount plans but I didn’t ask for one 
• Prescribed me birth control unlike some other fuckers I know who call themselves healthcare providers but just got shown up by Planned Parenthood, so there!
• Gave me lots of literature
• Seemed to have good resources for lots of people
• Nice place

(via winjennster)

aupu:

mira-of-sassgard:

misandry-mermaid:

Reminder for those who don’t know, if you have a vagina, make sure to urinate immediately after you have P-in-V sex.  Bacteria can get in your urethra during P-in-V intercourse so as soon as you are done having sex, go to the bathroom to pee, even if it doesn’t feel like you need to, because even a little pee can flush out the bacteria and prevent a UTI.  I didn’t know about this and I got a UTI from my first time, and it was super awful and uncomfortable and unfortunately even those with good sex education rarely learn info like this.  I want everyone with a vagina to know how to prevent it because UTIs suck hard.  That is all.

Sex ed in this country is utterly worthless, always reblog. Never known when it might be seen with new eyes.
Also, penis units should share with their vagina units if they don’t do this.

This is super important, I’ve gotten a UTI a couple of times before and it’s quite literally one of the most painful experiences I’ve ever had to go through (I even went to the ER) so please please pee after sex!!! 😭

(via lupinatic)

Bullshit Diet Scams, and Why They Work

pandavalkyrie:

Hello friends I am here to give you a quick and dirty lesson on all those diet fads/cleanses/juices/wraps/etc and why they work and why they’re equally complete bullshit.

“But how can something work but also be a scam?”

Well here’s an explanation. You may have seen ads like these:

Over priced all natural supplements, teas, and diet based cereals promise you’ll drop a shit load of weight in two weeks-a month. And you will! You absolutely will! It’s called water weight.

Water weight is something of a confusing subject, since it sounds like weight you gain by drinking too much water. In fact, water weight is what gets expelled when you become properly hydrated, reduce your sodium intake, or begin eating a more balanced diet. When you’re dehydrated, your cells hold on to every bit of water they can. This causes bloating and the infamous water weight.

So in two weeks, when you become ultra hydrated on that juice cleanse, or reduce your caloric intake by eating cereal, or take an herbal supplement that includes a diuretic, you will lose weight quickly. The heavier you are, the more pounds you’ll lose.

And then, after a week or two, it’ll stop. Once the water weight is gone, the only weight loss left to go is fat deposits. And you’re not going to healthily lose fat by drinking herbal teas or wrapping your abdomen every day. A healthy range for weight loss on a caloric deficit is 1-2 lbs a week, with the high end being on a very large deficit. Anyone wanting to lose fat should strive for a .5-1 pound of weight loss a week. It’s a slow process, and many drop out because they lose their patience. Especially after that 10 lb drop in the first two weeks sets up lofty expectations.

These things are scams because you do not need to pay a cent to lose water weight. You just need to properly hydrate and watch your sodium intake. If you drink a lot of soda, cut back. That’s it! These companies know what they’re doing, and the multi-level marketing ones are the worst at it. Because they’ll have sales reps who tried it themselves and ‘woah man it actually works!’ Yes! It will work! You will lose 5-10 lbs in two weeks! But you didn’t need to shell out $60 to do so.

Don’t fall for these things. The world is full of enough focus on fat shaming, body negative bullshit scams without a natural process being exploited for mad cash.

(via bonehandledknife)

Anonymous asked: The idea of biological sex is false. It equalizes genitals with gender when in reality it's just that they have certain genitals, such as a penis or vagina. If you need to know something about a person don't ask what's your biological sex, just ask what chromosomes or genitals the person has, because those things don't determine gender. Stop using the term, it's harmful to trans people and unnecessary in the first place.

I assume you’re referring to this post and I understand your point, anon.  I will even acknowledge that I could have phrased that better, but I wasn’t sure how.  I personally am not trans, but please realize that I realize that dysphoria can be incredibly destructive to trans/nonbinary individuals.  If my wording was insulting or hurtful to you in some manner, please know that I am genuinely sorry for my error and was coming from a place of concern for people’s physical health, and I will do my best to explain the reasons that I used the wording that I did in the hopes that you will understand.  

First and most simply, most of the trans/nonbinary people I know find asking about their genitalia incredibly invasive and exceptionally rude (not to mention rather exclusive of intersex individuals), which makes sense, doesn’t it?  It makes sense to me, at the very least, and as a result I would make an effort to avoid such a question in a medical situation unless absolutely necessary.  

And the idea that genitalia is defined by chromosomes is also quite problematic from a medical perspective, because (contrary to what your high school biology class might have said) chromosomal alignment does not necessarily determine genitalia/physical sex at birth.  A good example of this would be Swyer syndrome, or (more technically) XY gonadal dysgenesis.  What this essentially means is that a person is born externally and internally female (although lacking ovaries), but has the normally-male chromosomal arrangement XY, which can have effects ranging from relatively minor (lack of breast/hip development, lack of menses) to potentially highly dangerous (adrenal failure).  This link will take you to the Wikipedia page, which is rather brief but includes more helpful links at the bottom of the page.  Swyer syndrome affects approximately 1 in 80,000 people, and there are a number of other chromosomal conditions involving a mis-arrangement of sex chromosomes.  These include such things as Turner syndrome (one X chromosome, child will be designated female at birth), Klinefelter syndrome (XXY chromosomes, child will be designated male at birth), or even XXXY syndrome (child will be assigned male at birth).  So, yes, for many people asking their chromosomal arrangement would answer the necessary question, but beyond the strictly medical issues, it can be very intimidating to start asking about their genetics, particularly someone in pain or in the midst of a panic.  People suffering from an acute medical issue tend to already be very afraid, and it’s human nature to jump to the worst case scenario, which, when you start throwing around words like ‘chromosome,’ could be many a terrible thing.

The final reason I used the phrasing ‘biological sex’ is because sex and gender are fundamentally different, although through the vagaries of the English language the two concepts often become confused and conflated.  In the strict definitions, gender refers to someone’s identity–man or woman; binary or nonbinary; him, her, them, or another pronoun.  Sex, on the other hand, refers to what you were discussing, genitals and (in all likelihood) chromosomes, the category to which an individual was assigned at their birth.  

I intended for it to be a more gentle way of asking that question, and if I was wrong I’m deeply sorry and invite any trans/nonbinary individuals to suggest a better one.  In retrospect, I possibly should have phrased it as ‘what sex were you assigned at birth.’  The reason I would ask someone that question in a medical crisis is because if I’m speaking with a woman who has stubble and a bass voice, I don’t want to ask “did you used to be a man” because maybe she never was, or maybe she’s a man some days and a woman on others.  I don’t want to ask “what is your genitalia” because if they have had gender reassignment surgery that question won’t be helpful, and if they haven’t then I don’t want to trigger a bout of dysphoria.  I could ask “what are your chromosomes”, but I don’t want to scare them in the event that they would infer that I think they have a genetic disorder.  In a high-pressure situation, I know myself well enough that I prefer direct questions over beating around the bush, because sometimes time really is of the essence.  So I would probably say, “I’m sorry that I have to ask you this and I assure you that I will use whichever pronouns you prefer, but I need to know which biological sex you were born with.”  Again, if this is a harmful way to phrase the question, I would gladly take any other suggestions from trans or nonbinary individuals, but there really are some times when that information is necessary for the patient to receive the best care possible.  The system has many flaws related to the issue of gender, yes, from professionals who refuse to use the correct pronouns to the lack of distinction between ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ on many intake forms/patient records, but I do not intend to let that stop me from caring for people as best I can.  Thank you very much for your input, anon, and I hope you understand where I was coming from.

fempunkandkittens:

officialaphnetherlands:

ancientnorthmartian:

“Doctors who spent years studying the human body”

Do you mean doctors who spent years learning about abled white cis men’s bodies

do you know anything about the world besides what you read on tumblr

Okay but this is true?? Shut up with your bullshit, the medical industry for a very very long time has used the able bodied white cis male as their standard and that has very real healthcare consequences for a lot of people.

Do you know why most women don’t know when they’re having heart attacks? Why heart attacks kill more women than men? Because symptoms of a heart attack are different for women and the ones that doctors usually recognize and publicize are the symptoms experienced by men. Do you know why it’s so difficult for Black and Brown people to get diagnosed if they have skin cancer? Because doctors have been taught to recognize it on white people. People of size are constantly told that their problems are entirely because of their weight and doctors don’t even bother to look beyond that to be sure that’s the case. So those people have medical conditions go undiagnosed properly for years, and die in the process.  Fuck, even just the fact that people think it’s okay to charge women more for healthcare because “they have extra parts” (?????) is indicative of the way the male body has been considered the standard for fucking ever. And the healthcare needs of disabled people or trans people? Forget about it.

OP is 1000% right. The medical industry has used the able cis white male body as their standard of care for CENTURIES and that has real consequences for the rest of us today. It’s getting better but it’s not where it should be. So fuck off with your snarky commentary, you’re wrong. The healthcare industry is not equipped to handle the needs of people with disabilities, women, PoC, trans people, people of size, etc. and that’s in large part due to the fact that the established body of medical knowledge was created by studying able, cis, white male bodies almost exclusively.

Hey there folks, speaking as a trained EMT and a pre-med student, I can confirm that the above person is approximately 7000% accurate.  In my EMT training, I would repeatedly ask ‘’but what if my patent is a woman” or “what is my patient is a person of color” and at first all I got was shock.  Then I got confused bumbling.  I got some answers–basic symptoms of a heart attack in women, how to recognize cyanosis in someone of color, the basics of how to work with an autistic patient or someone who for whatever reason can’t communicate well with you.  In fact, EMTs and other EMS workers are getting a lot better at learning the differences between the health care for a person of color or someone disabled.  We were even told that we would need to ask our patients for their biological sex (I know, I’m really sorry, I know that there are people who find this intensely uncomfortable or even harmful, but there are real medical reasons for this and most decent EMTs will use whatever pronouns you ask them to).  But most if not all of the answers we were given about women were directly related to gynecological issues.  The guys teaching me?  They were good guys.  Nice.  Funny.  Smart.  Devoted to caring for patients.  Impassioned about protecting people, especially women and teenaged girls, from assault.  Largely not sexist toward me or their coworkers.  Hell, they were even smart enough to say “listen, boys, the women in this class have a higher pain tolerance than you, they just do, and as a rule if a women says their pain is a 5 on a scale of 1-10, assume it’s somewhere around an 8” when a kid laughed during the gyno unit.  But they just didn’t know what to say when I asked “so if you’re supposed to palpate the patient’s chest, what do you do if your patient’s a triple-D” or when I asked “so if your patient gets menstrual migraines, how do you know if this headache is a stroke or not.”  They had never been taught.  This is a real problem, one that many medical professionals work hard to remedy once they start practicing.  But this is not bullshit.  At all.  The standard patient is a cis white guy with no disabilities or chronic illnesses.  It’s a huge fucking problem and I’m going to need you to step down with your bullshit, there, friend.

(Source: archive48, via bonehandledknife)

princess-xion:

simonbitdiddle:

gandalfkorv:

adistasteformath:

I honestly hate how art and media have kind of romanticized the idea of like “going off your meds and being your true self again” because like I started taking antidepressants and like immediately got a new job, found a place to live, improved my relationships with people in my life and completely reconciled with my sort of estranged ex-girlfriend?? Medication can be rad and while I realize that it’s not for everybody I don’t think anything should be trying to convince anyone that being on medication inherently makes you less of who you are

(Most) Medication is for helping you to be you again. The real me isn’t tired by just walking to the train station. The real me is not my anxiety or depression. They don’t define me.

The real me is who I am when I’m not anxious and feeling worthless 24/7.

Medication is supposed to be the chemical equivalent of glasses or a wheelchair, depending on the severity of impairment. It tries to help you compensate for what has been taken, been broken, or is missing.

In particular, i always hear the myth that anti-depressants give you “artificial happiness”… no, no, no. They give your brain the ability to be happy. You won’t always be happy, and sometimes you’ll be sad. But the happiness you’re able to feel when you’re on meds is your own, real, happiness.

(via lupinatic)

lastlips:

chugway:

queendopamine:

Just a friendly reminder that the brain of those who have suffered trauma is physically different than a “normal brain”. Trauma and abuse has a severe, long-term psychological and neurological effect. This is why you have difficulty concentrating, why you have trouble sleeping, why you can’t seem to stay focused, why you cry at the drop of the hat, why you’re not satisfied with yourself, why you think everything is your fault, why you think you’re toxic, why you’re full of regret and you don’t know why.

And get this. When you experienced this trauma, no matter how long it happened or how many times, your brain instantaneously made judgments about the world, your sense of self, and others. This is why you’re paranoid. Why you trust no one. Why you perceive things to exist that aren’t true in reality. It’s why people say you’re crazy, over-dramatic, or too emotional.

You may not heal in a day, but know this: it is not your fault. Your brain is responding to trauma.

this is also why you may have memory problems - undergoing severe trauma or prolonged periods of stress can cause the amygdala in your brain to change shape, thus causing damage to long-term memory and troubles with making and maintaining short-term.

important

(via bonehandledknife)

kingskidd93:

atranscendentalimitation:

jellyroll22:

lemuffinmistress:

ruvy:

I think that people forget that condoms protect you from more than just pregnancy.

And there is no morning after pill for HIV.

ACTUALLY THERE IS.

It’s called post exposure prophylaxis.

http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/prophylaxis/en/

If you’ve had unprotected sex and are afraid of possibly being at risk for HIV, please go to the emergency room and ask about POST EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS.

Works for up to 48 - 72 hours after exposure to HIV.

BOOST!

you can get it in the UK for free

Bruhhh

(Source: ruvyspast-blog, via bleedingwillow96)