Evening Minute: Removing Your Pubic Hair Is Linked To A Heightened Risk Of STIs, Study Finds

Study: Removing Your Pubic Hair Is Linked To A Heightened Risk Of STIs

Who knew that getting a bikini wax could possible put you at risk for an STD?

According to the Huffington Post, a new study found that folks who remove all of their pubic hair more than 11 times per year or trimmed their pubic hair daily or weekly had a 3.5- to four-fold heightened risk for contracting herpes, HPV and syphilis compared to those who had never groomed their pubes. Researchers also found that if you grew your hair out for months that wouldn’t reduce your risk.

So what’s going on?

Here’s the deal: They’re not really all that sure. Researchers think it could be that the nicks grooming leaves could be an entryway for STDs to enter one’s body; or that groomers were more likely to have more sexual partners; or that groomers are more sexually active than non-groomers. Either way, continue to use condoms and be careful when trimming and waxing down there.

That and get tested for STDs every year.

Yaaasss! Black Woman Named Head Of The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post has tapped New York Times Senior Editor Lydia Polgreen to be their new Editor-In-Chief.

According to the Huff Po, Polgreen, 41, will succeed Arianna Huffington, the news site’s co-founder who left the company in August to launch Thrive Global, a company and website focused on health and wellness.

Polgreen said that while she loved working at the Times, she knew that to lead the Huff Po was a chance of a lifetime.

“I feel like we’re living in a moment right now where media has to fundamentally rethink its position vis-a-vis power,” she said.

“I think that the election of Donald Trump and the basic difficulty that the media had in anticipating it tells us something really profound about the echo chamber in which we live, the ways in which journalism has failed to reach beyond its own inner limits.”

Polygreen who grew up in West Africa is also an out as a “queer” woman. And her vision for the future of her website is clear: “The DNA of The Huffington Post is fundamentally progressive, but I think that has a really capacious meaning and comes to include so many of the things that motivated not just the people who were rah rah Bernie or who voted for Hillary Clinton, but also many, many people in the United States who voted for Trump, who have fundamental concerns about the way the country is moving and the future,” she said.

Congrats, Lydia!

Ohio Bans Abortions As Early As Six Weeks Past Conception

In this continued war on women, Pro-Life advocates have won a huge victory in Ohio: State legislators have passed a controversial bill that would ban women from having abortions as early as six weeks after conception, NPR reports. The legislation has been called the“Heartbeat Bill” because six weeks is around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by a doctor.

The bill, which doesn’t have exceptions for rape and incest, is currently sitting on the desk of Gov. John Kasich to either sign or veto. He has 10 days to do before it becomes state law. But Pro-choice advocate are ready to fight.

“If Gov. Kasich signs that bill, we will absolutely challenge that in federal court,” Mike Brickner, senior policy director of ACLU Ohio, said. “We believe that it is unconstitutional.”

Other opponents of the bill stress that it would essentially ban abortion in Ohio given that most women are unaware that they are pregnant until they have missed two periods, which happens at around eight weeks.

In a statement, Planned Parenthood wrote: “This bill could take away a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions before she would have known she had a decision to make.”