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In this episode of Real Talk, KJK Student Defense Attorneys Susan Stone and Kristina Supler are joined by Dr. Lauren Streicher, a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University’s medical school, and the founder and medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Menopause and the Northwestern Medicine Center for  Sexual Health.  In this episode, they talk about if current contraceptive methods really prevent STIs, current edge products to make "safe sex" a reality, and misconceptions around current contraceptives.

Show Notes:

(02:20 )  Getting Real about Failure Rates with Contraception
(04:20 )  Why Failures Rates are So High
(06:14 )  Why Condoms Don’t Prevent STI’s
(07:28 )  HPV Vaccine: Should College Students Get It?
(08:44 )  Protection During Oral Sex
(09:36 )  Introducing a New, Superior Woman-Controlled Contraception
(13:08 )  What Makes the New LUWI Superior
(14:42 )  Does the LUWI have Lubrication?
(15:45 ) FDA Testing of the New LUWI
(17:32 )  Misconceptions Around Emergency Contraception
(19:11 )  Why the “Morning After” Pill Works for 5 Days
(20:26 )  Reproductive Rights and IUDs
(21:53 )  Why “The Pill” Can Fail
(25:17 )  Why the LUWI Will Be on College Campuses First
(27:40 )  Myth or Fact: Do You Gain Weight on “The Pill”
(28:32 )  Contraception and the Impact on Dating Apps

Pull Quotes:

Susan Stone: It has been approximately one year since the Dobbs opinion, and I'm still in shock. Are you? 

Kristina Supler: I, it was interesting over the weekend reading news stories and it's like, wow, a year has passed and it it's wild, wild. 

Susan Stone: And it's changing the election.

It's changing culture. We are really reverting back and, so the topic today is more important than ever. We're gonna talk about contraception post Dobbs. And we're gonna hopefully unpack myths and make sure students know what they need to do to be safe out there. You know, last week we had a guest and we were talking about the health issues of transgender.

We actually learned a new word larc. Remember that? 

Kristina Supler: I do. And I'm. Certain that our guest today has more to say. 

Susan Stone: I think she knows a larc is not a bird. It's a long acting reversible contraception. But today we have a repeat guest that we love to see. 

Kristina Supler: Yes, today we are really happy to be joined again by Dr. Lauren Streicher. Welcome, Dr. Streicher. Welcome back. I should say welcome back. 

Dr. Lauren Streicher is a clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University's Medical School. And she's the founder of Northwestern Medicine Center for Menopause and the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine. Dr. Streicher's, a medical correspondent for top rated news programs in Chicago and has been a guest on other national shows like the Oprah Winfrey Show, C N N, C B S.

2020 just to name a few. Dr. Streicher's also a bestselling author. She's written several books and she hosts the popular podcast called Dr. Streicher's Inside Information Podcast, Menopause, Midlife, and More. Welcome, Dr. Streicher.

Dr. Lauren Streicher: it's a pleasure to be back. 

Susan Stone: Anything new? What's different, on the horizon coming up? Birth control. Give us the landscape. 

Dr. Lauren Streicher: Yeah. first, let me tell you that there, there are always new things and I'm gonna tell you about some very exciting new things.

But I'm glad you started off with talking about larcs, L A R C, as you said, not l a r k, which is the bird. And this is actually not a new term. For us, new term for you, but we've been talking about long acting reversible contraception for a long time. And the reason is, is that we are in an era right now, which it is more important than ever to have reliable contraception. Because when we talk about contraception, we not only look at user, preference, but we look at failure rates. And we know that something that is not going to be controlled on a case by case basis is what's going to have the best rates of success. 

So when we look at a long acting reversible contraception, that is something that is not, as we say, user dependent. These are contraceptions that we set and forget, and as we go through the list of options for college students to use, that is certainly high on the list when it comes to the most reliable.

But before we get to the specific contraceptions, I just wanna kinda set the stage for why this is such an important conversation. Because please, absolutely, Dobbs, no question, but even before the Dobbs decision, when it became potentially life-threatening, you know, now it's, it's not just inconvenient or scary, it's, Life threatened to become pregnant. But beyond that, we know that women in college are very high risk for not only getting pregnant, but for getting a sexually transmitted infection.

We're talking one in four women will contract a sexually transmitted infection. We know that most college women, about at least 70% are sexually active. And when I'm talking sexually active, I am talking penile vaginal intercourse. Because sexually active of course you mean many things. A lot of different things.

But if we're talking about just the ability to get pregnant, we're looking at about 70% most people. 

Susan Stone: Is that just because you're more fertile in your twenties? 

Dr. Lauren Streicher: It's a combination of increased fertility. And it's a combination of complacency of not using contraception on a consistent basis or using it correctly.

And that's one of the things that is really the theme of today, is I think many college women are very much aware of what's available to them. But just because they're using a contraception does not mean that they use it correctly. And in fact, if you look at statistics for unplanned pregnancies, roughly 50% of pregnancies are unplanned.

And according to the Guttmacher Institute, 50% of those use some form of contraception in the month before. Now think about that. That's really wild. You know, so many people think that if someone gets pregnant it's because they were just complacent or they were lazy, or they, the worst is when people actually think that some people use abortion for contraception, which is simply not true.

50% of unplanned pregnancies are people who did use some form of contraception, but it failed. And some methods are more likely to fail than others. 

And at the top of the list, quite frankly, are male condoms. I'm currently doing a study with the Kinsey Institute that I will tell you about with male condoms.

And so I've been reading a lot about it and looking at these studies. And I was floored at the number of couples that even if they say, yeah, we use a condom, they don't use them properly and they have incomplete use of condom, meaning they're not using a condom from the start to the finish of sex.

And the 

Susan Stone: Question though, in terms of preventing sexually transmitted infections, Am I correct that the condom, 

Kristina Supler: the condom was the best way 

Susan Stone: or the only way? How else can you prevent an infection? 

Dr. Lauren Streicher:</strong