Sexual and Reproductive Health

David France: ACT UP in the Plague Years

Have You Properly Observed Global Female Condom Day Yet?

Today is Female Condom Day, where women and gay men -- or any closeted Republican who likes anal sex -- are being asked to pay respect and attention to the condom just as they would a sucker on National Lollipop Day.That means you should definitely have a quickie today -- you deserve it.It's the fir ... More >>

Moms Sue Fresno School District Over Bad Sex Education Policy

It appears the educators over in Fresno might have eaten one too many fried chicken sandwiches from Chick-fil-A . In the small suburb of Clovis, the school district is refusing to teach kids about sex prevention, telling students instead to abstain from the natural act, and "get plenty of rest" to s ... More >>

FDA Approves Drug That Reduces the Spread of HIV

Truvada, the first drug shown to drastically reduce the spread of HIV, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration today as a successful preventative measure for people at high risk of contracting the virus. Produced by Foster City-based biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc., Truvada h ... More >>

SF AIDS Walk to Convene in Golden Gate Park This Weekend

It's that time of year again. This Sunday, a crowd of 25,000 is expected to gather at Golden Gate Park to begin a 6.2-mile trek across the city to raise millions for the San Francisco Aids Foundation and other Bay Area HIV/AIDS organizations. The 26th Annual SF AIDS Walk claims the money raised by ... More >>

How You Can Get Tested for STDs in the Comfort of Your Own Home

As we've noted before, San Francisco is a hotbed of sexually transmitted diseases, and it's not just because we aren't regularly using condoms. It's also because we aren't regularly getting tested for STDs.But Bay Area health departments are making it so that you really have no excuse to not get tes ... More >>

AIDS Activistis Use Good Friday to Shame the Catholic Church

The only thing that might make Good Friday even better for some is a loud protest of the Catholic Church. We'll leave that one to San Francisco's AIDS activists who have made a long list of institutions they plan to shame today, including banks, cops, and Catholics.To remember the 20,000 San Francis ... More >>

Marijuana-Like Compounds Stop Spread of AIDS, Study Says

​In many ways, without AIDS, there would be no medical marijuana. But there could be a twist, according to new research: With medical marijuana (or synthetic marijuana-like compounds), there could be less AIDS.Researchers believe there's a link between cannabis use -- or at least drugs that share ... More >>

The Craziest Anti-Planned Parenthood Ads

Planned Parenthood doesn't shy away from provocative gimmicks in its efforts to promote sex education and reproductive health; earlier this week, we brought you the news that the nonprofit has launched a new campaign encouraging people to "check in" to a special social network when they don condoms ... More >>

Keep VD Out of Valentine's Day, Use a Condom

​While they have the attention of lovers and horny people everywhere, health officials are camping onto Valentine's Day to promote National Condom Week. And that's probably a good idea, considering the news last week detailing San Francisco's STD problem. Today, the California Family Health Counci ... More >>

San Francisco Is a Hotbed of STDs

Do you need someone from the health department to slip it in for you?​Just a year ago, the city's Health Department proudly released the female condom 2 with forceful fanfare. But after reviewing some preliminary stats on STD cases over the last year, we've concluded that those touted contraceptiv ... More >>

Sperm Donor Smack-Down: Trent Arsenault vs. the Gay-Hating Bill Johnson

You, too, can have a Trent Arsenault baby.​The SF Weekly newsroom boasts the strange distinction of sitting above a fertility clinic. That means the morning elevator ride is often shared with anxious females gripping the hand of their nervous sperm donor/partner. It also means that in dull mo ... More >>

On World AIDS Day, No Talk of 'Barebacking' in San Francisco

​Today is World AIDS Day, and the men and women who have devoted themselves to fighting this pandemic -- from Bono to former President George W. Bush -- can justifiably take credit for a lot of progress.The day has particular resonance in San Francisco, which was at the forefront of formulating a ... More >>

Pros and Condoms: S.F. Emphasizes HIV Treatment, but a New Generation Advocates Bareback Sex

​Today is World AIDS Day, and the men and women who have devoted themselves to fighting this pandemic -- from Bono to former President George W. Bush -- can justifiably take credit for a lot of progress.The day has particular resonance in San Francisco, which was at the forefront of formulating a ... More >>

HIV Activist Calls Mayor Ed Lee a Name the Chronicle Would Never Print

Wonder how he feels about Jeff Sheehy ... ​In this election, Mayor Ed Lee has been called many charming names -- crooked, double-crossing, sneaky, Republican. Now he can add "dick" to that growing list of insults.    According to the Bay Area Reporter, Jeff Sheehy, who was the HIV czar f ... More >>

Donors Allege Price-Fixing Scheme for Human Eggs by Fertility Clinics

Big business?​An Arcata woman is suing national reproductive-medicine groups, alleging that they and their member fertility clinics have engaged in a price-fixing scheme to underpay female donors for their eggs.In her lawsuit, filed this week in San Francisco's federal courthouse, plaintiff Justin ... More >>

The Politics of Sexual Health

Big business?​An Arcata woman is suing national reproductive-medicine groups, alleging that they and their member fertility clinics have engaged in a price-fixing scheme to underpay female donors for their eggs.In her lawsuit, filed this week in San Francisco's federal courthouse, plaintiff Justin ... More >>

Angels, Resurrected

Big business?​An Arcata woman is suing national reproductive-medicine groups, alleging that they and their member fertility clinics have engaged in a price-fixing scheme to underpay female donors for their eggs.In her lawsuit, filed this week in San Francisco's federal courthouse, plaintiff Justin ... More >>

Egg Donors Want More Money, Women Sue S.F. Company

For what it's worth ​Even when it comes to donating eggs and sperm, men are seemingly getter a better deal financially. Women across the United States are standing up to fertility clinics, claiming they are not properly compensating them for their donated eggs. According to a class action lawsuit ... More >>

World Testicle Cooking Championship Serves Up a Menagerie of Balls

GloomyCorp/FlickrGolden globes: Poster advertising the 2006 Ball Cup.​The Huffington Post reports today on the seventh annual World Testicle Cooking Championship, taking place in Ozrem, Serbia. On the menu at the so-called Ball Cup: testicles from kangaroo, camel, ostrich, boar, and bulls; bee ... More >>

New Female Condom Campaign Targets Gay Men in San Francisco. You Read That Right.

The female condom is awkward. ​Cheaper female condoms! Come get yer cheaper female condoms!Yeah. That's really what's up. A newer, cheaper female condom,  FC2, as in, Female Condom 2 (wildly creative, right?) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009. It costs about 65 per ... More >>

S.F clinics limiting STD tests to cut costs

The female condom is awkward. ​Cheaper female condoms! Come get yer cheaper female condoms!Yeah. That's really what's up. A newer, cheaper female condom,  FC2, as in, Female Condom 2 (wildly creative, right?) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009. It costs about 65 per ... More >>

Just Fantastic: $82.1 Million Cut to State's Office of AIDS

​Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed a state budget that will cut roughly $82.1 million from the state's Office of AIDS, says that office's chief, Dr. Michelle Roland. The state cuts promise to disproportionately hit cities like San Francisco, which is among the nation's top ... More >>

Is He Sponge Worthy? Local Company Makes This An Easier Decision.

The real-life discontinuation of the women's contraceptive, the Today Sponge, inspired one of the most memorable episodes of the television show Seinfeld. Upon discovering that her birth control method of choice would soon disappear from stores, the sexually active (and apparently responsible) Elain ... More >>

Giant, Anthropomorphic Penises All the Rage in San Francisco These Days

San Francisco Department of Public HealthThe Penismobile is a hybrid? We were sure it'd be a Jaguar XKEYou don't always say this about penises, but in San Francisco, they come in threes. First there was the walking, advice-dispensing dong featured in a locally produced health film/soap opera.Then th ... More >>

Walking Penis Highlights Local Doc's Wildly Effective STD Prevention Soap Opera

Coming soon to an STD clinic near you! The San Francisco Department of Public Health is proud to announce that Safe in the City -- a dramatic 23-minute STD prevention video developed by an SFDPH official -- has given the Centers for Disease Control a giant boner. This week, ... More >>

U Wr Gr8 Lst Nite -- BTW, Get Xamined 4 the Syphilis

The etiquette of 21st-century dating is ever-evolving. And, to those who remember the days when safe sex meant remembering to set the parking brake on your Oldsmobile, the notion of an automated, impersonal e-card informing whomever you banged last night that you exposed him or her to syphilis/crabs ... More >>

Clap On! See Where San Francisco Stands in National STD Survey

When in a city beginning with the letter "M," pack your own condoms -- or elseThe results of the Centers for Disease Control's annual survey on whether we've been naughty or nice are in again -- and there's a whole lotta shaking (and itching, burning, and blistering) going on. Educated folks can arg ... More >>

U.S. Marine Corps an Orgy Palace of Stoned, Drunk, Horny Teens, New UCSF Study Suggests

By Matt SmithWhile doomsayers bemoan America's ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center may have turned up a brilliant silver lining.Thanks to desperate recruiting methods required to staff those wars, the U.S. Marines may be t ... More >>

Sunday Photos: AIDS Walk through Golden Gate Park

By Matt SmithWhile doomsayers bemoan America's ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center may have turned up a brilliant silver lining.Thanks to desperate recruiting methods required to staff those wars, the U.S. Marines may be t ... More >>

Cruise Control

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

No Money In Male Birth Control

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

Pro-Circumcision AIDS Researcher Left S.F. a Pariah, Came Back a Visionary

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

U.S. State Department: now with HIV!

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

Worst E-Card. Ever.: "So, you've been itching, burning, discharging ..."

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

Christopher Columbus Father of Modern Syphilis

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

Embattled Harvey Milk Democratic Club prez Brian Basinger starts another Democratic Club

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

Lust for Life

Testing of a promising HIV vaccine requires volunteers who will couple for the cause

Sloganeering

For years the city has been using racy ads to sell HIV prevention. Do they work?

Radio Free Nepal

An S.F. organization is providing radios and radio programming that just may save lives a world away

Super-Hyped Infection

Sensational headlines coupled with fearmongering public health reports have HIV-positive men in San Francisco running scared. It doesn't have to be that way.

What Part of "Wait Until Marriage" Don't You Understand!

Infiltrator goes to a teen abstinence educators' conference -- and gets laid!

Unreality Show

The 9-11 Commission is a nutty distraction from the dangers we face

House of Tudor

Rap-metal prodigy Schäffer the Darklord plays his swan song (as if you cared).

Vicious Cycle

Federal investigators clear AIDS prevention programs of wrongdoing -- and then reinvestigate them

Disease Detective

Deborah Hayden's new book, Pox, pulls the covers off famous people with syphilis. That's right: syphilis.

Dying to Know

As a young doctor's tragic fate makes clear, a lack of information about hepatitis B has put many Asian-American lives at risk

Staying Alive

An AIDS vaccine should be our government's highest priority. So why is one researcher forced to seek funding from the War on Terrorism?

Saving Togo

One man's hope for Nigeria's tiny neighbor

Out of Africa

Some say Phyllis Kanki saved Senegal from AIDS. But can the controversial triage approach she's developing at Stanford protect the continent's western edge from the devastation suffered in the south?