Got good news yesterday at the doc

[julie]

Did she show up back home so stuffed with monster sundae that she couldn't eat dinenr -- with a new dolly in her arms?

Yeah, that was me.

If it was a boy, though, he left home emptyhanded...and came home with a new pet gecko.

Nessie

Nope wasn't you

[julie]

I don;t have to worry about plan b, I don;t drink enough to lose control. As for planned Parenthood, I went there once when I was 16, I'll never darken their doorway again, all they wanted was to give me a abortion if I got pregnant

[QuicksandMania]

I can hardly blame you for dissing Planned Parenthood based on your experience. Its Web site is a good source for contraceptive information, though. Its origins are shady given its founder Margaret Sanger's positions on eugenics as stated here. I fully support the idea of contraception but wish its most vociferous proponents would show more honor for reason and judicious sexual conduct.

[Mynock]

One of my cousins had the exact same experience with them. They do provide other forms of prenatal care, and they do it well, but try to talk you into "that" the whole time you're there and make you think it's the only solution. You'd think the docs get a bonus for every one they kill. Stay away unless you're desperate.

[tempman]

The numbers really scare me. Yes, only full abstinence has a 0% chance of getting pregnant, but if you have sex twice a day, then that 0.01% doesn't seem like such a small number! 1 in 1000 encounters has the chance of resulting in a baby!

Also follow the menstrual cycle. Try to aim sexy fun times when it's even less likely to result in pregnancy.

And I'm not sure how accurate the figure is, but even if perfect conditions (no contraceptives, perfect time) the chance of getting pregnant is 60-80%.

[QuicksandMania]

Omitted from the discussion so far are other methods of sexual release such as oral sex and mutual masturbation. No one has yet mentioned disease transmission but that certainly motivates monogamy or abstinence. Sterilization methods are highly reliable but not 100% effective since surgeons are not perfect. If you are a man who gets a vasectomy, do a sperm count every six months to assure the tubes did not heal back together. I have a relative whose birth resulted from a bungled tubal ligation on her mother. The child's birth contributed to marital stress that led to a divorce. This took place in a Latin American country that apparently has no "wrongful birth" legal precedents and probably no legal abortions, either.

[Duncan Edwards]

Most importantly I'm glad you're not pregnant if that's what you want.

After all this discussion though I'm wondering how I've made it this far.

After experiencing intercourse at the hands of an "older woman" (she was 18) I pursued it as though my life depended on it. One thing that the "older woman" did teach me was careful and consistent use of a condom. Then came 22 years (and counting) of marriage with a woman who never forgot the daily pill. The doctors agreed that when we wanted we should be able to multiply like bunny rabbits so I know there's nothing wrong with the machinery. When she decided it was time we had one perfectly scheduled pregnancy. (Birth between the AFC Championship and the Superbowl XXXIV) 33 years of regular sex and no STD's or unwanted pregnancy.

The one thing that is missing from all of those encounters is alcohol. Anyone care to speculate on what a difference that might make?

[Fred588]

Most importantly I'm glad you're not pregnant if that's what you want.

After all this discussion though I'm wondering how I've made it this far.

After experiencing intercourse at the hands of an "older woman" (she was 18) I pursued it as though my life depended on it. One thing that the "older woman" did teach me was careful and consistent use of a condom. Then came 22 years (and counting) of marriage with a woman who never forgot the daily pill. The doctors agreed that when we wanted we should be able to multiply like bunny rabbits so I know there's nothing wrong with the machinery. When she decided it was time we had one perfectly scheduled pregnancy. (Birth between the AFC Championship and the Superbowl XXXIV) 33 years of regular sex and no STD's or unwanted pregnancy.

The one thing that is missing from all of those encounters is alcohol. Anyone care to speculate on what a difference that might make?

Multiply like rabbits = "1 time 1 equals many"

[Nessie]

The one thing that is missing from all of those encounters is alcohol. Anyone care to speculate on what a difference that might make?

Alcohol does not, by itself, have much effect on birth control.

As an ex-heavy drinker, though, I can positively tell you that the PROPER APPLICATION of birth control is highly likely to suffer as consumption goes up!

A light to moderate drinker will probably be all right. A couple beers won't cause you to lose much. You'll just feel slighly lightheaded and it may be instrumental in breaking down some inhibitions -- but you really do need to stop after a couple.

Here's the routine for heavy consumption -- this is what you missed by not being a heavy party kind of guy:

After a few beers, the opposite sex looks more wonderful to you than ever. You will then begin to make your moves. The more alcohol you consume, the more you THINK you can do with her, and the more you WANT to do everything in the world to her, but the truth is, the more you drink, the LESS you can actually do with her, and there is less that you WILL do with her with every additional beer.

And the more she drinks with you, the less she can feel anything you're doing to her anyway and the less she cares what it is.

If you're a man, eventually you'll discover that you can't get your condom onto your penis. But by then you're sure you don't need it! God, Fate, and the entire world is on your side! You are drunk! So, you are convinced that you are invincibly lucky!

In the morning, you wake up next to each other with monster headaches and fur growing over your tongues...and neither of you know whether you did anything at all.

There is no way to dummy-proof this process except to go under the knife and get your equipment fixed so it can never do anything...so, for a lifetime of party sex, it's best get this operation while you're sober.

Since all alcohol, in any amount, tends to reduce physical feelings in general, I guarantee you that you got more out of everything you have ever done by not drinking at all.

Nessie

[QuicksandMania]

Neither my wife nor I have ever understood the appeal of drinking. She tried it once at age 13 when her parents were gone. She sneaked enough from a mix of drinks from the liquor cabinet to get drunk. (She covered her tracks by replacing the missing liquid with water!) All she got from the episode was 16 straight hours of sleep and a throbbing headache. I have never been "drunk" though I have on cruises had enough mixed drinks to feel "warm and wobbly" all over my body. Our mutually conservative attitudes in personal behavior is one common trait that drew us together in a landscape filled with hedonists who worship unreason. The worst of these want to justify their bad behavior by dragging otherwise "clean" people into their web of self-delusion and so justify their own continued destructive actions.

Sorry for the soapbox rant but this is one aspect of modern society that has always bugged the living daylights out of me. I lost at least one high school classmate at an early age because of this. He actually accidentally drank a caustic substance stored in an unmarked wine bottle in someone else's house. But the adolescents in that house were having a drinking party while the parents were away and no one had the sober sense to stop the boy in question until too late. Others also drank the poison and had to undergo years of surgery to correct the damage.