Aids a day late and contraception stories

So yesterday was AIDS day.

I belong to a generation who grew up with AIDS. Safe sex has been rammed into my head since I was about ten. (Anti smoking stuff started earlier but I can't say I followed that :D)

Well, it worked. I've never had unsafe sex. No condom is a no-go, even during the periods I'm on the Pill (I stopped it four months ago because I was tired of it-yes I was still with the Ex at that time and no he did not get a say in it.), except when we've both gone and been tested.
I don't make compromises with my health, or with someone else's for that matter. After all, I'm a slut! (irony inserted).
Truth be told, sex without a condom has only been suggested once, i think. Maybe twice. So the guys aren't too bad about it :D

I hear a lot these days about the younger generation being the most careless about that, and it drives me crazy. I don't understand how we can be less careful. After all, it's not as if anyone had found a vaccine or a cure(I shall celebrate that day).
My mother once told me she'd been lucky to grow up without this fear, although she didn't really. She had a few years, but she was still pretty young when it was made "official".(I wasn't around in any case).

We're lucky here, I really do think.

We're taught about reproduction early. This tends to include how one can fall pregnant, and no, not by giving blowjobs.

You can get contraception and a visit to the gynaecologist for free at the Planning Familial (I guess that might be something like Planned Parenthood?) as well as help to secure an abortion or simply a visit with a counselor. Especially if you don't want your parents knowing about your sex life.
Otherwise you can simply go and get it reimbursed by social security. Most contraception methods are reimbursed, except for the patch if I remember rightly, and how much you're reimbursed depends on the pill you use. In high school I used one that was 10 euros a month (that's REALLY expensive, but I was in high school, what did I care) and last year I was taking one that cost 1,30 euros for three months.
My roommate has one of those blue implant thingies but her dad's a european civil servant so she's under european social protection, it's not quite the same.
You can get the morning after pill free if you have a doctor's presciption, and it costs 7/8 euros over the counter.

Condoms of course are a lot more expensive, and not paid for, unfortunately^^But there are condom machines all over the place, and they give them out a lot. They gave them out in my high school every AIDS day, during the concerts and shows that were organised, they give them ou at concerts, as samples...Best Friend used to have a collection of them^^We'd get really funky ones with the name of the band we'd just been to see on them, that's always funny.

We had sex ed in middle school (~~12,13 years old if I remember right), and some doctor came to talk to us about AIDS, and I still have the poster I stole(actually, they were all stolen becaus ethey were so damn funky that year) from high school for AIDS prevention. It's bright pink and has "oui, oui, oui, ouiiiiiii" a zillion times on it and the "o"s of the "oui"s (that's yes, but I assume you know that) are made with condoms still in their packages, you know when you can see the circle? It's hanging in my kitchen, I should go take a photo.

They've a lot of special ads on at the moment, but they're on pretty often really. Nearly part of the background.

Although apparently there are less people in France contaminated this year. Which is some good news.
And our First Lady's brother died of Aids, so she has an interest in the problem.

I really do ramble.