Who is the maker of this shoe?
Another in an occasional series. Who is the maker of this shoe?
Another in an occasional series. Who is the maker of this shoe?
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Vegas and dive safety
A Dive-Demon showing her twin hose Mistral regulator housing
Las Vegas and dive safety: Dive crews accustomed to working at sea level and in shallow pools for ease of work and safety need to make some dive plan adjustments when diving at altitude. Avoiding Barotrauma on descent or ascent is a normal part of a diver’s day. At the bottom of the pit there are the problems associated with working at depth; pressure adjustments of the ears, sinuses, the type vaginal devices worn and ‘squeeze’ in drysuits and cups. Greater depth shortens bottom time so two additional four person actress/camera teams have been sent out to make up for shortened dive durations and days off between dive sessions. Since identity is hidden when wearing some styles of masks and regulators Taryn wanted us to help by modeling vintage suits and reg sets, but I pointed out that we would be taking work from the dive-girls so we aren’t doing it. Well, officially we aren’t. We are however wearing much of the same equipment as the actresses are, just so we can get a feel for what wearing and breathing vintage SCUBA is like and some of it is remarkably uncomfortable.
Because Vegas is 2000 feet above sea level diving here is considered altitude diving and altitude correcting dive computers (most computers are these days) must be used because atmospheric pressure is less resulting in a higher risk of decompression sickness or DCS. The Graphic Media crews did not dive for 24 hours prior to flying here and adjusted to the altitude for another twelve before starting dives. The surface time was spent going over story-board scenarios and getting gear set up in and acquainting everyone with the pool area. For safety with repetitive dives a 12 hour surface interval is required. An 18 hour surface interval is required if the dive requires decompression to reduce nitrogen gas loadings. Since they have been diving fresh water no correction was needed for the lower density of fresh vs sea water.
Dive computer: While diving the pit the shoot director is on the bottom diving the same profile as the rest of the crew and is responsible for watching her dive computer to ensure the crew stays within a safe dive profile. When the shoot is in shallow pools where there is little danger the director usually is on the surface at poolside rather than diving with the crew but at depth for safety the director goes along. That way the actresses, because of their relative inexperience with deep diving, don’t have to worry with wearing and interpreting computer readings and can concentrate on looking lovely, seductive, in trouble, scared or whatever the scenario calls for.
Las Vegas and fantasy: Las Vegas is undoubtedly the capital of fantasy in the U.S. Of course there is gambling, sex and debauchery elsewhere in the country, but nowhere else is it so readily available, publicly practiced and generally accepted. This town lives off the nation’s lust for gamboling, gambling and the players belief that ‘if I’m lucky this one last time I’ll stop’. All kinds of fetishes and BDSM are widely available and usually fairly safe if you stay in the large clubs. Even Cyndi’s mom, who should know better, keeps sending out titled Brits as possible boyfriends and marriage candidates since she wants Cyndi to marry the eldest son of a Duke, preferably a rich one. Cyndi, at 16 hasn’t had a steady boyfriend since her bodyguard, Chris, got her preggers and she miscarried last year when they were visiting Eve on Virgin Gorda. She is in no hurry to become monogamous so she just samples the candidates and sends them packing having taught them far more than they could ever teach her about sex.
Men! Being involved in various aspects of the adult entertainment business I understand I’m living what must seem to most people a fantasy. But then I have an elaborate support organization to call on to make me look good for both my business projects and in private life. Personally I feel so safe with Oves sucking on my cervix! I think Oves makes me much more sexually assertive than I would otherwise be. I’m more confident in my allure, my ability to seduce, my power to have a man do what I want. However, the more success I have the more I want. Not unusual my analyst says with sexual addiction. A man who doesn't seem to react to me immediately is a challenge to be conquered and I enjoy that sort of challenge! A physician whom I recently had an encounter with said the CDC told him there is no vaccine to ward of an attack from my charms. I think he was kidding when he said that. He has two young daughters whose pics he showed me while we were snuggling in the afterglow and I was still draining his semen all over my thighs and the sheets. The girls are in their early teens and taking ballet and so as I lay in his arms he asked me questions about why their pointe shoes were so expensive. I thought that was really inconsiderate of him. Not asking about pointes, I love talking about one of my fetishes, but telling me about his daughters. Why is it that men who fuck me feel the need to show me the pics of their children? And why is it that most of them seem to have daughters?
Las Vegas and dive safety: Dive crews accustomed to working at sea level and in shallow pools for ease of work and safety need to make some dive plan adjustments when diving at altitude. Avoiding Barotrauma on descent or ascent is a normal part of a diver’s day. At the bottom of the pit there are the problems associated with working at depth; pressure adjustments of the ears, sinuses, the type vaginal devices worn and ‘squeeze’ in drysuits and cups. Greater depth shortens bottom time so two additional four person actress/camera teams have been sent out to make up for shortened dive durations and days off between dive sessions. Since identity is hidden when wearing some styles of masks and regulators Taryn wanted us to help by modeling vintage suits and reg sets, but I pointed out that we would be taking work from the dive-girls so we aren’t doing it. Well, officially we aren’t. We are however wearing much of the same equipment as the actresses are, just so we can get a feel for what wearing and breathing vintage SCUBA is like and some of it is remarkably uncomfortable.
Because Vegas is 2000 feet above sea level diving here is considered altitude diving and altitude correcting dive computers (most computers are these days) must be used because atmospheric pressure is less resulting in a higher risk of decompression sickness or DCS. The Graphic Media crews did not dive for 24 hours prior to flying here and adjusted to the altitude for another twelve before starting dives. The surface time was spent going over story-board scenarios and getting gear set up in and acquainting everyone with the pool area. For safety with repetitive dives a 12 hour surface interval is required. An 18 hour surface interval is required if the dive requires decompression to reduce nitrogen gas loadings. Since they have been diving fresh water no correction was needed for the lower density of fresh vs sea water.
Dive computer: While diving the pit the shoot director is on the bottom diving the same profile as the rest of the crew and is responsible for watching her dive computer to ensure the crew stays within a safe dive profile. When the shoot is in shallow pools where there is little danger the director usually is on the surface at poolside rather than diving with the crew but at depth for safety the director goes along. That way the actresses, because of their relative inexperience with deep diving, don’t have to worry with wearing and interpreting computer readings and can concentrate on looking lovely, seductive, in trouble, scared or whatever the scenario calls for.
Las Vegas and fantasy: Las Vegas is undoubtedly the capital of fantasy in the U.S. Of course there is gambling, sex and debauchery elsewhere in the country, but nowhere else is it so readily available, publicly practiced and generally accepted. This town lives off the nation’s lust for gamboling, gambling and the players belief that ‘if I’m lucky this one last time I’ll stop’. All kinds of fetishes and BDSM are widely available and usually fairly safe if you stay in the large clubs. Even Cyndi’s mom, who should know better, keeps sending out titled Brits as possible boyfriends and marriage candidates since she wants Cyndi to marry the eldest son of a Duke, preferably a rich one. Cyndi, at 16 hasn’t had a steady boyfriend since her bodyguard, Chris, got her preggers and she miscarried last year when they were visiting Eve on Virgin Gorda. She is in no hurry to become monogamous so she just samples the candidates and sends them packing having taught them far more than they could ever teach her about sex.
Men! Being involved in various aspects of the adult entertainment business I understand I’m living what must seem to most people a fantasy. But then I have an elaborate support organization to call on to make me look good for both my business projects and in private life. Personally I feel so safe with Oves sucking on my cervix! I think Oves makes me much more sexually assertive than I would otherwise be. I’m more confident in my allure, my ability to seduce, my power to have a man do what I want. However, the more success I have the more I want. Not unusual my analyst says with sexual addiction. A man who doesn't seem to react to me immediately is a challenge to be conquered and I enjoy that sort of challenge! A physician whom I recently had an encounter with said the CDC told him there is no vaccine to ward of an attack from my charms. I think he was kidding when he said that. He has two young daughters whose pics he showed me while we were snuggling in the afterglow and I was still draining his semen all over my thighs and the sheets. The girls are in their early teens and taking ballet and so as I lay in his arms he asked me questions about why their pointe shoes were so expensive. I thought that was really inconsiderate of him. Not asking about pointes, I love talking about one of my fetishes, but telling me about his daughters. Why is it that men who fuck me feel the need to show me the pics of their children? And why is it that most of them seem to have daughters?
Fertility check!
Encased in black rubber, could this be where the myth of my being a winged succubus began?
Succubus or diver? During my time away my reputation as a succubus didn’t decrease to any appreciable extent, but it is morphing. Since I’ve been back and wearing my fitted black latex dive skin, helmet and mask and Mistral twin hose reg word is getting back to me that some of the Latino and Bosnian women in housekeeping think I’m Satan herself. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion as they rarely see me dressed in my black latex dive gear and I always try to be nice to housekeeping when I’m dealing with them because they can help make or break the reputation of a casino/hotel. I also stay away from their men though several Bosnian men have made passes. I try to stay away from Bosnian men as they seem to view women as personal property. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy draining Bosnian semen, but I’m not anyone’s possession so there is no point in becoming involved in that sort of relationship, especially since there are so many other men to choose from.
My fertility: We are all so different! Until a few weeks ago there was no doubt in my mind that I was very fertile. However, during an encounter with a relatively inexperienced stallion, he had performance problems – Pirate had asked me to take him for a test drive and he failed – and in his frustration he made some very unprofessional remarks about me being infertile because of the number of men I had been with. I thought given the profession he was trying to get started in that was a particularly inappropriate thing to say to a woman, especially to one who can affect his career. I tried to hide how much his questioning my fertility hurt me and I think I was successful, but his comments got me to thinking. At 38 after being sexually active for more than 24 years and fucking almost any man I’ve ever wanted (except my father of course) as well as dolphins, a Great Dane and a tiger I really didn’t know for sure that my reproductive tract was fully functional and that my eggs were of good quality and that bothered me. That bothered me a lot!
Fertility tests: Part of who I am is the psychological need to risk pregnancy each time I have sex with a man and I like sex with men with very high sperm counts. So my sudden uncertainty about my fertility really depressed me. To resolve the question I decided to have a series of tests that would determine how fertile I really am. So I had blood tests for luteinizing hormone (LH) Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to check that my fallopian tubes were functioning correctly. I also went through an egg donation regimen to test the quality of my eggs. After I had the blood drawn for the LH and FHS tests I began the egg donation process.
Egg harvesting: For egg donation I was given daily FHS injections to stimulate my ovaries to produce several eggs and was monitored by ultrasound to see when the follicles were ripe. That process took about twelve days and I was able to retain my normal menstrual cycle. If I was going to be a donor where my eggs would be used for IVF and would be inseminated and implanted in another woman I should have avoided sexual activity. However, since the reason for the test was to see if I could get preggers I saw no reason to abstain and didn’t change my level of sexual activity at all. I used an Oves cap of course, but felt quite safe and exceptionally sexually needy because of the FSH injections. When the ultrasound images showed my eggs were ripe I was sedated and the doctor using ultrasound images guided a thin needle through my vagina to harvest the eggs. The procedure is called ‘minimally invasive’ and I suppose that’s true because there is no incision, but it really is unpleasant. I was advised to take it easy for the next several days but I continued my usual schedule and with ibuprofen I managed to feel almost normal.
The good news: The good news is that my LH and FSH levels were normal, my HSG tests showed my fallopian tubes are clear and my In Vitro specialist said my eggs are ‘of a quality normally associated with a woman in her late 20s’! I was so pleased! As an added test I had five of my eggs fertilized with Pirate’s sperm. Yes, I have frozen sample of many of my stallion’s sperm just in case a need arises. It was worth using one of Pirate’s donations to test my fertility. And I was delighted when all five eggs were successfully fertilized. The embryos are now in the Cryobank with all my sperm samples. My self esteem which was badly shaken when a sexually frustrated man called my fertility into question is completely restored! Actually, I’m more sexually assertive now – if that’s possible - because I’m absolutely certain that I am extremely fertile each cycle and loving it!
Succubus or diver? During my time away my reputation as a succubus didn’t decrease to any appreciable extent, but it is morphing. Since I’ve been back and wearing my fitted black latex dive skin, helmet and mask and Mistral twin hose reg word is getting back to me that some of the Latino and Bosnian women in housekeeping think I’m Satan herself. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion as they rarely see me dressed in my black latex dive gear and I always try to be nice to housekeeping when I’m dealing with them because they can help make or break the reputation of a casino/hotel. I also stay away from their men though several Bosnian men have made passes. I try to stay away from Bosnian men as they seem to view women as personal property. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy draining Bosnian semen, but I’m not anyone’s possession so there is no point in becoming involved in that sort of relationship, especially since there are so many other men to choose from.
My fertility: We are all so different! Until a few weeks ago there was no doubt in my mind that I was very fertile. However, during an encounter with a relatively inexperienced stallion, he had performance problems – Pirate had asked me to take him for a test drive and he failed – and in his frustration he made some very unprofessional remarks about me being infertile because of the number of men I had been with. I thought given the profession he was trying to get started in that was a particularly inappropriate thing to say to a woman, especially to one who can affect his career. I tried to hide how much his questioning my fertility hurt me and I think I was successful, but his comments got me to thinking. At 38 after being sexually active for more than 24 years and fucking almost any man I’ve ever wanted (except my father of course) as well as dolphins, a Great Dane and a tiger I really didn’t know for sure that my reproductive tract was fully functional and that my eggs were of good quality and that bothered me. That bothered me a lot!
Fertility tests: Part of who I am is the psychological need to risk pregnancy each time I have sex with a man and I like sex with men with very high sperm counts. So my sudden uncertainty about my fertility really depressed me. To resolve the question I decided to have a series of tests that would determine how fertile I really am. So I had blood tests for luteinizing hormone (LH) Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to check that my fallopian tubes were functioning correctly. I also went through an egg donation regimen to test the quality of my eggs. After I had the blood drawn for the LH and FHS tests I began the egg donation process.
Egg harvesting: For egg donation I was given daily FHS injections to stimulate my ovaries to produce several eggs and was monitored by ultrasound to see when the follicles were ripe. That process took about twelve days and I was able to retain my normal menstrual cycle. If I was going to be a donor where my eggs would be used for IVF and would be inseminated and implanted in another woman I should have avoided sexual activity. However, since the reason for the test was to see if I could get preggers I saw no reason to abstain and didn’t change my level of sexual activity at all. I used an Oves cap of course, but felt quite safe and exceptionally sexually needy because of the FSH injections. When the ultrasound images showed my eggs were ripe I was sedated and the doctor using ultrasound images guided a thin needle through my vagina to harvest the eggs. The procedure is called ‘minimally invasive’ and I suppose that’s true because there is no incision, but it really is unpleasant. I was advised to take it easy for the next several days but I continued my usual schedule and with ibuprofen I managed to feel almost normal.
The good news: The good news is that my LH and FSH levels were normal, my HSG tests showed my fallopian tubes are clear and my In Vitro specialist said my eggs are ‘of a quality normally associated with a woman in her late 20s’! I was so pleased! As an added test I had five of my eggs fertilized with Pirate’s sperm. Yes, I have frozen sample of many of my stallion’s sperm just in case a need arises. It was worth using one of Pirate’s donations to test my fertility. And I was delighted when all five eggs were successfully fertilized. The embryos are now in the Cryobank with all my sperm samples. My self esteem which was badly shaken when a sexually frustrated man called my fertility into question is completely restored! Actually, I’m more sexually assertive now – if that’s possible - because I’m absolutely certain that I am extremely fertile each cycle and loving it!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Cycling, diving & protection
The purge button works, just be careful how it’s used!
The menstrual cycle and diving: As this is written I’m cycle day 25 (CD25) and in my luteal phase. I will get my period this coming Friday after a normal and very regular 28 day menstrual cycle. Dive-sex is great fun, but for a woman it takes a little extra care. When diving a cervical barrier of some sort, known in the trade as a ‘sports shield’ is a must for upper reproductive tract protection if there is any possibility that the woman could be involved in any sort of penetrative sex. That’s because (as returning readers know) there is a possibility of pelvic infection from having pool water forced into her uterus by the hydraulics of his thrusts or a life threatening embolism if a man or woman gets creative and s/he decides to fill his or her partner’s vagina with compressed air by hitting the purge button on a single hose regulator. Some regulator mouth pieces work better than others for doing that, but I’m not going to be an enabler by telling you which ones they are.
For women cycling naturally and in need of contraception condoms don’t work under water as they almost always come off. Either the guy pulls out of it or he leaves it wadded up inside her where they have to fish it out later. Fishing it out can be fun, but if the condom was being used for birth control the woman could end up being both literally and figuratively fucked! If she’s just diving typical swimming pools that aren’t more than 15 feet deep she can use a diaphragm both for contraception and as a sports shield for upper repro tract protection. But diaphragms are only effective protection when diving no deeper than 10 meters. That’s because the hollow steel spring rim begins to distort from the water pressure below that depth and the distorted rim will cause the seal to fail allowing sperm, water and air to get into the uterus. So, below 10 meters the only safe barrier to use is a properly fitted cervical cap of one sort or another. The only cervical barrier generally available in the U.S. right now is FemCap www.femcap.com. Our clinic fits a lot of FemCaps which most women can wear and with the removal strap trimmed off are more comfortable to use. For really dedicated professional women who need the smallest and best barrier protection possible Oves is available. But a woman’s cervix has to be perfectly smooth and symmetrical for Oves to develop suction properly so a high percentage of women who want Oves shouldn’t be fitted with one. Any unintended pregnancies while using Oves are almost always due to the user being a poor candidate for the device. However, a cervical cap should not be worn while menstrual because the small dome can fill with flow and dislodge compromising the woman’s protection.
Diving while menstrual: Dive-sex while menstrual should be limited to depths above ten meters. That’s because a diaphragm must be used as a sports shield to collect the flow in the much larger dome and as I mentioned above diaphragms are only effective to a depth of ten meters. Not that there is much likelihood of sex below that depth around here. Other than my 64 foot deep pool, the pit, the only other place nearby is Lake Mead which is plenty deep in spots but the visibility at that depth is extremely poor and there is often a lot of particulate matter in the water which can cause friction problems even when using plenty of Dive-Gel. To minimize the likelihood of menstrual cramps a diver can take 800 mg of ibuprofen an hour before diving. Of course if she has disabling cramps she shouldn’t dive at all while menstrual. Unlike urine menstrual flow seems to slow while under water but will release with a gush after reaching the surface.
There is an exception to the ten meter rule for dive-sex while menstrual. That is if the woman has been fitted with an IUD. Then, since contraception is assured by the IUD she can wear a cap for short duration dives where the dome hasn’t time to fill and dislodge. When the diver reaches the surface and no longer requires over-pressure protection she can remove the cap and reinsert a diaphragm or Diva cup for flow control.
Diva Cups: A brand of silicone menstrual cup that can collect flow for up to twelve hours is called Diva Cup, www.divacup.com . There are others but Diva is very popular and worn by most of my friends when they have no plans to have sex. It dives well but of course you can’t have sex with a menstrual cup inserted and removing it leaves the woman totally unprotected. Because my partners and I are so spontaneous when I’m menstrual I’ll wear a Cooper Surgical Milex wide seal diaphragm. A Milex wide seal has a slightly deeper dome that takes longer to fill and the wide flange around the inner lip of the rim creates a stronger seal so that a thrusting penis is less likely to cause it to lose suction. With a Milex inserted I’m ready when he is, ‘when the moment is right’ as the Cialis commercials say.
Divers and urination: All divers regardless of sex urinate in their dive gear, swimsuits, wetsuits, drysuits or whatever. That’s because the additional pressure compresses body tissue forcing more fluid out and through the kidneys that is excreted as urine. Women seem to be a bit more troubled by this because, generally, we are shyer about bodily functions. But when you are intimate enough with a man to be having sex what is there to be shy about when you have to pee? Any woman who has tried having sex with a full bladder knows how miserable that is, so when diving I always pee when ever I feel the need. In the case of the video crew in the pit where there are sometimes eight women were on the bottom during videoing we have an area in a far corner over a drain where we go to pee and the pumps sucked the urine clouds into the filters almost instantaneously. That way we don’t have to have to break the flow of work. The sexes are pretty much even in having to deal with the urination problem except for drysuits. Men in drysuits have an optional device that fits over the penis to collect their urine. With women the only collection options are to be catheterized or wear a diaper neither is particularly appealing but the other option of urinating in your thong and splashing around with pee in your booties is seldom chosen. There can be the possibility of bladder infections from catheters and you need someone trained to insert them under sterile conditions so the option of choice for women in drysuits is to wear an adult diaper. Because diving is so dehydrating, all divers should stay well hydrated with sports drinks to replace nutrients squeezed out by water pressure.
Diving while fertile: Most women usually know when they are fertile. That’s because when we are fertile our estrogen peaks and we are far more easily aroused, often more creative and we are draining fertile cervical fluid that wets our thongs. Our fertile interval is the few days – as many as 10-12 for some women – each cycle during which we can become pregnant and so to avoid conceiving we need the best possible method of contraception. For some that’s an IUD. The GyneFix IUD implant is especially effective and nearly impossible to expel, which is why it’s the fave IUD for use by teens at St Lucy’s and for our casino performers. For others, like me, the method of choice is a cervical barrier. In my case my primary method is an Oves cap. I’ve been wearing Oves for the last seven years (I’m on my 90th cycle being protected by Oves) and haven’t had a single pregnancy scare so I’m certain that I have an amazingly effective fit. However, there may be times I don’t know the size of the man’s genital equipment ahead of time and want to protect against a man who might be much too large for me. In that case I will ‘double bag’ and wear a large strapless FemCap as a thrust buffer over my Oves to provide some protection if he is too long. If I’m unsure I’ll wear a FemCap just in case.
The menstrual cycle and diving: As this is written I’m cycle day 25 (CD25) and in my luteal phase. I will get my period this coming Friday after a normal and very regular 28 day menstrual cycle. Dive-sex is great fun, but for a woman it takes a little extra care. When diving a cervical barrier of some sort, known in the trade as a ‘sports shield’ is a must for upper reproductive tract protection if there is any possibility that the woman could be involved in any sort of penetrative sex. That’s because (as returning readers know) there is a possibility of pelvic infection from having pool water forced into her uterus by the hydraulics of his thrusts or a life threatening embolism if a man or woman gets creative and s/he decides to fill his or her partner’s vagina with compressed air by hitting the purge button on a single hose regulator. Some regulator mouth pieces work better than others for doing that, but I’m not going to be an enabler by telling you which ones they are.
For women cycling naturally and in need of contraception condoms don’t work under water as they almost always come off. Either the guy pulls out of it or he leaves it wadded up inside her where they have to fish it out later. Fishing it out can be fun, but if the condom was being used for birth control the woman could end up being both literally and figuratively fucked! If she’s just diving typical swimming pools that aren’t more than 15 feet deep she can use a diaphragm both for contraception and as a sports shield for upper repro tract protection. But diaphragms are only effective protection when diving no deeper than 10 meters. That’s because the hollow steel spring rim begins to distort from the water pressure below that depth and the distorted rim will cause the seal to fail allowing sperm, water and air to get into the uterus. So, below 10 meters the only safe barrier to use is a properly fitted cervical cap of one sort or another. The only cervical barrier generally available in the U.S. right now is FemCap www.femcap.com. Our clinic fits a lot of FemCaps which most women can wear and with the removal strap trimmed off are more comfortable to use. For really dedicated professional women who need the smallest and best barrier protection possible Oves is available. But a woman’s cervix has to be perfectly smooth and symmetrical for Oves to develop suction properly so a high percentage of women who want Oves shouldn’t be fitted with one. Any unintended pregnancies while using Oves are almost always due to the user being a poor candidate for the device. However, a cervical cap should not be worn while menstrual because the small dome can fill with flow and dislodge compromising the woman’s protection.
Diving while menstrual: Dive-sex while menstrual should be limited to depths above ten meters. That’s because a diaphragm must be used as a sports shield to collect the flow in the much larger dome and as I mentioned above diaphragms are only effective to a depth of ten meters. Not that there is much likelihood of sex below that depth around here. Other than my 64 foot deep pool, the pit, the only other place nearby is Lake Mead which is plenty deep in spots but the visibility at that depth is extremely poor and there is often a lot of particulate matter in the water which can cause friction problems even when using plenty of Dive-Gel. To minimize the likelihood of menstrual cramps a diver can take 800 mg of ibuprofen an hour before diving. Of course if she has disabling cramps she shouldn’t dive at all while menstrual. Unlike urine menstrual flow seems to slow while under water but will release with a gush after reaching the surface.
There is an exception to the ten meter rule for dive-sex while menstrual. That is if the woman has been fitted with an IUD. Then, since contraception is assured by the IUD she can wear a cap for short duration dives where the dome hasn’t time to fill and dislodge. When the diver reaches the surface and no longer requires over-pressure protection she can remove the cap and reinsert a diaphragm or Diva cup for flow control.
Diva Cups: A brand of silicone menstrual cup that can collect flow for up to twelve hours is called Diva Cup, www.divacup.com . There are others but Diva is very popular and worn by most of my friends when they have no plans to have sex. It dives well but of course you can’t have sex with a menstrual cup inserted and removing it leaves the woman totally unprotected. Because my partners and I are so spontaneous when I’m menstrual I’ll wear a Cooper Surgical Milex wide seal diaphragm. A Milex wide seal has a slightly deeper dome that takes longer to fill and the wide flange around the inner lip of the rim creates a stronger seal so that a thrusting penis is less likely to cause it to lose suction. With a Milex inserted I’m ready when he is, ‘when the moment is right’ as the Cialis commercials say.
Divers and urination: All divers regardless of sex urinate in their dive gear, swimsuits, wetsuits, drysuits or whatever. That’s because the additional pressure compresses body tissue forcing more fluid out and through the kidneys that is excreted as urine. Women seem to be a bit more troubled by this because, generally, we are shyer about bodily functions. But when you are intimate enough with a man to be having sex what is there to be shy about when you have to pee? Any woman who has tried having sex with a full bladder knows how miserable that is, so when diving I always pee when ever I feel the need. In the case of the video crew in the pit where there are sometimes eight women were on the bottom during videoing we have an area in a far corner over a drain where we go to pee and the pumps sucked the urine clouds into the filters almost instantaneously. That way we don’t have to have to break the flow of work. The sexes are pretty much even in having to deal with the urination problem except for drysuits. Men in drysuits have an optional device that fits over the penis to collect their urine. With women the only collection options are to be catheterized or wear a diaper neither is particularly appealing but the other option of urinating in your thong and splashing around with pee in your booties is seldom chosen. There can be the possibility of bladder infections from catheters and you need someone trained to insert them under sterile conditions so the option of choice for women in drysuits is to wear an adult diaper. Because diving is so dehydrating, all divers should stay well hydrated with sports drinks to replace nutrients squeezed out by water pressure.
Diving while fertile: Most women usually know when they are fertile. That’s because when we are fertile our estrogen peaks and we are far more easily aroused, often more creative and we are draining fertile cervical fluid that wets our thongs. Our fertile interval is the few days – as many as 10-12 for some women – each cycle during which we can become pregnant and so to avoid conceiving we need the best possible method of contraception. For some that’s an IUD. The GyneFix IUD implant is especially effective and nearly impossible to expel, which is why it’s the fave IUD for use by teens at St Lucy’s and for our casino performers. For others, like me, the method of choice is a cervical barrier. In my case my primary method is an Oves cap. I’ve been wearing Oves for the last seven years (I’m on my 90th cycle being protected by Oves) and haven’t had a single pregnancy scare so I’m certain that I have an amazingly effective fit. However, there may be times I don’t know the size of the man’s genital equipment ahead of time and want to protect against a man who might be much too large for me. In that case I will ‘double bag’ and wear a large strapless FemCap as a thrust buffer over my Oves to provide some protection if he is too long. If I’m unsure I’ll wear a FemCap just in case.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
A Dive-Chick tests positive
After a pill failure Anna stresses her implants during ‘quiet time’ as she considers her options.
Pregnant: Katrina, one of the adult media actresses here videoing in the pit, tested positive for hCG Friday morning. Her staring scenes were pretty much completed for the next few days, but she was still doing background work so Cyndi filled in for her the rest of the day since we don’t allow pregnant women to dive, even if they do intend to have a termination. That’s because they might change their minds and then there would be the possibility of pressure related birth defects. Since she wanted to be back at work as soon as possible we called ahead to the clinic and they were ready for her when we got there. I went with her and after signing the necessary releases she had a menstrual extraction and should be working-diving again by Monday. She felt fine an hour or two afterward and is wearing a diaphragm to collect the residual bleeding. She is on an antibiotic for ten days and Chuck, the Gyn who did her ME, said she could have sex as soon as she felt like it. She worked as a surface assistant (gofer) that afternoon. I’m just glad that if it had to happen it happened three days after she arrived so there is no doubt that she conceived before she arrived and none of my guys was responsible. The paperwork for an unintended pregnancy caused by a Pool Stallion, regardless of the releases previously signed, is a real headache! She said she thinks her pills failed because she was on antibiotics for a few days 7 weeks or so ago. An antibiotic decreasing the effectiveness of BCPs is such a common problem, especially when the woman is taking a very low dose (20mcg of estrogen) pill as Katrina is. I’m really surprised why there aren’t more prominent warnings.
A ‘wet-dream shop’ career: She’s a darling girl and at 19, blond with lovely long legs and a natural C-cup bust she is a man’s fantasy, which of course is why she is working for what Pirate calls a ‘wet-dream shop’ like Graphic Media. Working for that sort of org the money is good for now, but her career will be very short as her looks change with age. As far as moving up in the organization, there are so few jobs in management in that line of work and she isn’t built to be a security asset. She could work in industrial espionage penetrating similar organizations if she shows the guile for that sort of thing. The down side of industrial espionage in the Adult Media business is that agents often disappear never to be heard from again.
Vegas fetish rubber: To be in the trade the girls aren't all that experienced so Pirate loaned us a pride of Pool Stallions to make sure the girls had a good solid Vegas fetish experience and since they work a lot of rubber we went to one of Gepetto's rubber clubs Friday night. It was a rush but he outfitted all three in lovely Polymorphe butterscotch latex and boots. I didn't want any of them injured by random riders at the club so each having an experienced escort was the safest way to show them a good time. That way when they got drilled at least they knew he was clean and they wore their strapless FemCaps as thrust buffers, except Katrina who was wearing her silicone diaphragm. But since two are on the pill the FemCaps were secondary back-up. I had all three insert an applicator of Dive-Gel before we left for the club so they would be well lubed because their pills had reduced their ability to lubricate naturally. Katrina was wearing Semécide (an N9 spermicide made with Dive-Gel) in the dome of her diaphragm so she was quite safe. I don't think this crew had been doing much if any xxx work but their experiences here Friday night can't but help with their overall explicit media fetish education.
We spent four hours with the girls in Polymorphe latex, gasmasks; the Mil-Spec version of the Mestel SGE 400-3BB, and with their toes taped, padded and packed into pairs of Gepettos loaned high-end leather ballet boots. They only had to remove them three times in the four hours to relax cramping muscles which I thought amazing for girls not used to wearing BBs. But their diets and mineral levels are closely monitored so they won’t cramp while diving which probably explains why they did so well.
After they watched fascinated as girls in bar harnesses were being routinely drilled by random riders picked up in the club it was time for some action. Pirate and I started as he paraded me around the room so everyone got a good look at us before he led me up to the bar, unzipped my crotch and while I bent over the bar and he penetrated me. I gasped and arched my back as he entered me and the globe of my helmet briefly fogged over on the inside as I started panting and screamed when he took me to orgasm. After I’d lead the way the girls were taken onto the floor paraded around so everyone got a good look at their costumes and then in turn led to the bar and drilled. All three were drilled at least twice while standing in their BBs bent over the bar. One was still reluctant at first to have sex in a club, but we convinced her that with our male escorts she was quite safe. None are in monogamous relationships so the issue of ‘cheating’ and guilty consciences never came up. The custom double ended micro-zip back is a really nice feature of the Polymorphe that allows complete access for penetration from the rear. Given the girls relative inexperience they handled being drilled on their toes and walking in their BBs very well, with natural confident strides as the starlets they hope to become not the fearful mincing steps that make so many BB wearers look like repressed subs.
I had a 10:30 PM dinner reservation and took the entire party to the casinos high end restaurant, all still encased in Polymorphe latex, and we listened to the orchestra as we ate fillet mignon and salads. I was glad to see all the girls had good appetites because being an actress-diver takes a lot of energy. Afterward we stayed and danced for a while. We were all wearing heel guards so our spikes didn’t scar the floors and the footing was a bit more stable for the newbies. When we took the floor everyone else stopped dancing and watched. Even for Vegas it’s unusual to see four couples encased in Polymorphe latex in a mainstream restaurant-club aside from the fact that we looked like we knew what we were doing and were enjoying ourselves.
Pool stallions: A specialist sub group of escorts, which became known as Pool Stallions, was started in February of this year to care for the demand of female executives for strong male partners for dive-sex during recreational retreats from their business and family responsibilities. The pool stallions that Pirate lent us are marine biology graduate students spending the summer in Vegas doing research on the human female and her relationship with water - swimming pools – here and so will be gathering research data on the women they have been assigned to while on loan for the rest of the shoot. The end date for the shoot now seems in flux as they have asked for it to be extended twice as the writer-producer team thinks of more scenarios to video in the pit. Pirate thinks it’s worth the cost because of the good will it will bring his company and the possibility of paying contracts when Graphic Media needs more talent.
Pregnant: Katrina, one of the adult media actresses here videoing in the pit, tested positive for hCG Friday morning. Her staring scenes were pretty much completed for the next few days, but she was still doing background work so Cyndi filled in for her the rest of the day since we don’t allow pregnant women to dive, even if they do intend to have a termination. That’s because they might change their minds and then there would be the possibility of pressure related birth defects. Since she wanted to be back at work as soon as possible we called ahead to the clinic and they were ready for her when we got there. I went with her and after signing the necessary releases she had a menstrual extraction and should be working-diving again by Monday. She felt fine an hour or two afterward and is wearing a diaphragm to collect the residual bleeding. She is on an antibiotic for ten days and Chuck, the Gyn who did her ME, said she could have sex as soon as she felt like it. She worked as a surface assistant (gofer) that afternoon. I’m just glad that if it had to happen it happened three days after she arrived so there is no doubt that she conceived before she arrived and none of my guys was responsible. The paperwork for an unintended pregnancy caused by a Pool Stallion, regardless of the releases previously signed, is a real headache! She said she thinks her pills failed because she was on antibiotics for a few days 7 weeks or so ago. An antibiotic decreasing the effectiveness of BCPs is such a common problem, especially when the woman is taking a very low dose (20mcg of estrogen) pill as Katrina is. I’m really surprised why there aren’t more prominent warnings.
A ‘wet-dream shop’ career: She’s a darling girl and at 19, blond with lovely long legs and a natural C-cup bust she is a man’s fantasy, which of course is why she is working for what Pirate calls a ‘wet-dream shop’ like Graphic Media. Working for that sort of org the money is good for now, but her career will be very short as her looks change with age. As far as moving up in the organization, there are so few jobs in management in that line of work and she isn’t built to be a security asset. She could work in industrial espionage penetrating similar organizations if she shows the guile for that sort of thing. The down side of industrial espionage in the Adult Media business is that agents often disappear never to be heard from again.
Vegas fetish rubber: To be in the trade the girls aren't all that experienced so Pirate loaned us a pride of Pool Stallions to make sure the girls had a good solid Vegas fetish experience and since they work a lot of rubber we went to one of Gepetto's rubber clubs Friday night. It was a rush but he outfitted all three in lovely Polymorphe butterscotch latex and boots. I didn't want any of them injured by random riders at the club so each having an experienced escort was the safest way to show them a good time. That way when they got drilled at least they knew he was clean and they wore their strapless FemCaps as thrust buffers, except Katrina who was wearing her silicone diaphragm. But since two are on the pill the FemCaps were secondary back-up. I had all three insert an applicator of Dive-Gel before we left for the club so they would be well lubed because their pills had reduced their ability to lubricate naturally. Katrina was wearing Semécide (an N9 spermicide made with Dive-Gel) in the dome of her diaphragm so she was quite safe. I don't think this crew had been doing much if any xxx work but their experiences here Friday night can't but help with their overall explicit media fetish education.
We spent four hours with the girls in Polymorphe latex, gasmasks; the Mil-Spec version of the Mestel SGE 400-3BB, and with their toes taped, padded and packed into pairs of Gepettos loaned high-end leather ballet boots. They only had to remove them three times in the four hours to relax cramping muscles which I thought amazing for girls not used to wearing BBs. But their diets and mineral levels are closely monitored so they won’t cramp while diving which probably explains why they did so well.
After they watched fascinated as girls in bar harnesses were being routinely drilled by random riders picked up in the club it was time for some action. Pirate and I started as he paraded me around the room so everyone got a good look at us before he led me up to the bar, unzipped my crotch and while I bent over the bar and he penetrated me. I gasped and arched my back as he entered me and the globe of my helmet briefly fogged over on the inside as I started panting and screamed when he took me to orgasm. After I’d lead the way the girls were taken onto the floor paraded around so everyone got a good look at their costumes and then in turn led to the bar and drilled. All three were drilled at least twice while standing in their BBs bent over the bar. One was still reluctant at first to have sex in a club, but we convinced her that with our male escorts she was quite safe. None are in monogamous relationships so the issue of ‘cheating’ and guilty consciences never came up. The custom double ended micro-zip back is a really nice feature of the Polymorphe that allows complete access for penetration from the rear. Given the girls relative inexperience they handled being drilled on their toes and walking in their BBs very well, with natural confident strides as the starlets they hope to become not the fearful mincing steps that make so many BB wearers look like repressed subs.
I had a 10:30 PM dinner reservation and took the entire party to the casinos high end restaurant, all still encased in Polymorphe latex, and we listened to the orchestra as we ate fillet mignon and salads. I was glad to see all the girls had good appetites because being an actress-diver takes a lot of energy. Afterward we stayed and danced for a while. We were all wearing heel guards so our spikes didn’t scar the floors and the footing was a bit more stable for the newbies. When we took the floor everyone else stopped dancing and watched. Even for Vegas it’s unusual to see four couples encased in Polymorphe latex in a mainstream restaurant-club aside from the fact that we looked like we knew what we were doing and were enjoying ourselves.
Pool stallions: A specialist sub group of escorts, which became known as Pool Stallions, was started in February of this year to care for the demand of female executives for strong male partners for dive-sex during recreational retreats from their business and family responsibilities. The pool stallions that Pirate lent us are marine biology graduate students spending the summer in Vegas doing research on the human female and her relationship with water - swimming pools – here and so will be gathering research data on the women they have been assigned to while on loan for the rest of the shoot. The end date for the shoot now seems in flux as they have asked for it to be extended twice as the writer-producer team thinks of more scenarios to video in the pit. Pirate thinks it’s worth the cost because of the good will it will bring his company and the possibility of paying contracts when Graphic Media needs more talent.
High-Tech Swimsuits Banned
Dara Torres in banned swimsuit made by Jaked
The New York Times
July 25, 2009
Swimming Bans High-Tech Suits, Ending an Era
By KAREN CROUSE
ROME — In an effort to clean up its sport, the international governing body of swimming will require its athletes to show more skin. By an overwhelming vote Friday at its general congress, FINA officials decided to ban the high-tech swimsuits that have been likened to doping on a hanger.
The ban does not start until 2010, but the polyurethane-based swimsuit era that the swimwear giant Speedo introduced in the lead-up to last year’s Beijing Olympics will effectively be ushered out, presumably with a bang, at the swimming world championships that start here Sunday.
In the 17 months since the LZR Racer hit the market and spawned a host of imitators, more than 130 world records have fallen, including seven (in eight events) by Michael Phelps during the Beijing Olympics.
Phelps, a 14-time Olympic gold medalist, applauded FINA’s proposal that racing suits be made of permeable materials and that there be limits to how much of a swimmer’s body could be covered. The motion must be approved by the FINA Bureau when it convenes Tuesday.
“I like it,” Phelps said. “I think it’s going to be good.”
In the Olympic individual events, only four world records remain from the pre-2008, pre-polyurethane era: the men’s 400- and 1,500-meter freestyles, and the women’s 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly.
As setting world records became almost commonplace, the swimsuit controversy spread beyond issues of performance into the territory of morality.
The Briton Rebecca Adlington, who won gold medals in the 400 and 800 freestyles in Beijing, is sticking with the LZR Racer, but was critical of swimsuits that have recently been developed. “I would never in a million years take a drug to help me, so why would I wear a suit just to improve my performance?” she told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s just not who I am.”
Jaked, an Italian-based manufacturer, is one of nearly two dozen companies that dived into the swimsuit race. Its 01 model has fewer panels and seams and more polyurethane than Speedo’s high-tech offering.
There were concerns that swimsuit technology was encroaching on the sport’s integrity as far back as 2000 when full-body suits were introduced, replacing men’s lycra briefs and women’s lycra one pieces.
At that time, the United States Swimming Board of Directors convened a conference call. Dave Salo, the University of Southern California swim coach who was on the board then, said the members spent two hours discussing technology’s slippery slope.
In a news conference Friday, Corel Marculescu, the executive director of FINA, said, “We’ve been looking at this issue for six months only, trying to solve the problems.”
Before this week, FINA did not have a bylaw expressly forbidding swimsuits that might aid speed, buoyancy and endurance. Some retired swimming greats were openly questioning the governing body’s stewardship of the sport. Franziska Van Almsick, a former world-record holder in the 200 freestyle, recently told the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, “They can’t allow the full-body condom where all you see is the swimmer’s face.”
Salo, who coaches the American Rebecca Soni, the world-record holder in the women’s 200 breaststroke, said Friday, “I think when FINA didn’t define the rules, it opened this quagmire for all the swimsuit companies because they looked around and said, ‘Oh, there are no rules.’ ”
Not all the high-tech suits were created equal. But they enabled swimmers without an ideal physique or impeccable conditioning to be more competitive. Squeezed into the corset-like suit, a muscled and stocky body is as streamlined as a long and lean one; a soft abdomen as effective as six-pack abs. “The thing that’s really hurt more than anything else is the whole suit situation has devalued athleticism,” Salo said. “A lot of kids who aren’t in very good shape can put on one of these suits and be streamlined like seals.”
FINA officials arranged for buoyancy tests on nearly 400 suit models and approved 202 in May for these world championships. Ten suits were rejected, including the B8 polyurethane model created by the California-based Tyr Sport and favored by the American sprint freestyler and backstroker Matt Grevers. Tyr has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the hopes of having the suit approved before the meet’s start. Come January, the polyurethane era will have gone the way of square-grooved clubs in men’s professional golf. “Basically, when we roll back, racers are going to hurt a lot more than they hurt currently, which is not something I’m looking forward to,” Grevers said. He added, “Mentally, I think everyone’s prepared to go slower.”
Grevers, the silver medalist in the 100 backstroke in Beijing, spoke after warming up in the outdoor competition pool at the Foro Italico Sports Complex. At the end of his practice, he shed his full-body polyurethane suit like a snake does a second skin to reveal nylon briefs he wore for modesty’s sake. The next debate will revolve around the world records broken by athletes wearing the soon-to-be banned suits. Should 2008-9 be remembered as swimming’s asterisk era?
“The rules that were in there at that moment, we accept it,” said Uruguay’s Julio Maglione, who was elected president of FINA at Friday’s congress. “No change.”
Mark Schubert, the general manager of the United States national team, disagreed. Earlier this month he said the records should be stricken because they were artificially aided. “I just don’t think we’ve been good stewards of the sport to allow what’s happened,” he said.
The New York Times
July 25, 2009
Swimming Bans High-Tech Suits, Ending an Era
By KAREN CROUSE
ROME — In an effort to clean up its sport, the international governing body of swimming will require its athletes to show more skin. By an overwhelming vote Friday at its general congress, FINA officials decided to ban the high-tech swimsuits that have been likened to doping on a hanger.
The ban does not start until 2010, but the polyurethane-based swimsuit era that the swimwear giant Speedo introduced in the lead-up to last year’s Beijing Olympics will effectively be ushered out, presumably with a bang, at the swimming world championships that start here Sunday.
In the 17 months since the LZR Racer hit the market and spawned a host of imitators, more than 130 world records have fallen, including seven (in eight events) by Michael Phelps during the Beijing Olympics.
Phelps, a 14-time Olympic gold medalist, applauded FINA’s proposal that racing suits be made of permeable materials and that there be limits to how much of a swimmer’s body could be covered. The motion must be approved by the FINA Bureau when it convenes Tuesday.
“I like it,” Phelps said. “I think it’s going to be good.”
In the Olympic individual events, only four world records remain from the pre-2008, pre-polyurethane era: the men’s 400- and 1,500-meter freestyles, and the women’s 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly.
As setting world records became almost commonplace, the swimsuit controversy spread beyond issues of performance into the territory of morality.
The Briton Rebecca Adlington, who won gold medals in the 400 and 800 freestyles in Beijing, is sticking with the LZR Racer, but was critical of swimsuits that have recently been developed. “I would never in a million years take a drug to help me, so why would I wear a suit just to improve my performance?” she told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s just not who I am.”
Jaked, an Italian-based manufacturer, is one of nearly two dozen companies that dived into the swimsuit race. Its 01 model has fewer panels and seams and more polyurethane than Speedo’s high-tech offering.
There were concerns that swimsuit technology was encroaching on the sport’s integrity as far back as 2000 when full-body suits were introduced, replacing men’s lycra briefs and women’s lycra one pieces.
At that time, the United States Swimming Board of Directors convened a conference call. Dave Salo, the University of Southern California swim coach who was on the board then, said the members spent two hours discussing technology’s slippery slope.
In a news conference Friday, Corel Marculescu, the executive director of FINA, said, “We’ve been looking at this issue for six months only, trying to solve the problems.”
Before this week, FINA did not have a bylaw expressly forbidding swimsuits that might aid speed, buoyancy and endurance. Some retired swimming greats were openly questioning the governing body’s stewardship of the sport. Franziska Van Almsick, a former world-record holder in the 200 freestyle, recently told the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, “They can’t allow the full-body condom where all you see is the swimmer’s face.”
Salo, who coaches the American Rebecca Soni, the world-record holder in the women’s 200 breaststroke, said Friday, “I think when FINA didn’t define the rules, it opened this quagmire for all the swimsuit companies because they looked around and said, ‘Oh, there are no rules.’ ”
Not all the high-tech suits were created equal. But they enabled swimmers without an ideal physique or impeccable conditioning to be more competitive. Squeezed into the corset-like suit, a muscled and stocky body is as streamlined as a long and lean one; a soft abdomen as effective as six-pack abs. “The thing that’s really hurt more than anything else is the whole suit situation has devalued athleticism,” Salo said. “A lot of kids who aren’t in very good shape can put on one of these suits and be streamlined like seals.”
FINA officials arranged for buoyancy tests on nearly 400 suit models and approved 202 in May for these world championships. Ten suits were rejected, including the B8 polyurethane model created by the California-based Tyr Sport and favored by the American sprint freestyler and backstroker Matt Grevers. Tyr has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the hopes of having the suit approved before the meet’s start. Come January, the polyurethane era will have gone the way of square-grooved clubs in men’s professional golf. “Basically, when we roll back, racers are going to hurt a lot more than they hurt currently, which is not something I’m looking forward to,” Grevers said. He added, “Mentally, I think everyone’s prepared to go slower.”
Grevers, the silver medalist in the 100 backstroke in Beijing, spoke after warming up in the outdoor competition pool at the Foro Italico Sports Complex. At the end of his practice, he shed his full-body polyurethane suit like a snake does a second skin to reveal nylon briefs he wore for modesty’s sake. The next debate will revolve around the world records broken by athletes wearing the soon-to-be banned suits. Should 2008-9 be remembered as swimming’s asterisk era?
“The rules that were in there at that moment, we accept it,” said Uruguay’s Julio Maglione, who was elected president of FINA at Friday’s congress. “No change.”
Mark Schubert, the general manager of the United States national team, disagreed. Earlier this month he said the records should be stricken because they were artificially aided. “I just don’t think we’ve been good stewards of the sport to allow what’s happened,” he said.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Switching regulators
Above: The Aqua Lung Mistral twin-hose regulator showing the tank mounted two-stage reg housing and the mouthpiece with lip shield
Above: The Aqua Lung Mistral twin-hose regulator showing exhalation bubbles exiting regulator unit on the tank
The Aqua Lung Mistral twin-hose regulator showing exhalation bubbles exiting regulator in rear and cold water lip shield
The Mistral twin-hose regulator: I had been coming around to the decision to change for months. But before I tell you why and before someone asks; no, the pictures of the girl wearing a Mistral twin-hose are not of me. I have green eyes and auburn hair.
Tanaquil, who is managing Taryn’s European business holdings, has been after me to try a Mistral regulator for more than a year. It is very popular with professional women divers in Europe and its popularity is spreading to the general population of recreational divers there as well. And so I had a familiarization course here and then took two Mistral twin-hose regs to Virgin Gorda when we went at the first of July.
The Mistral twin hose two stage regulator, with its retro look, is based on the Aqualung Titan design and the new version (in production since 2005) has upgraded (silicone) diaphragms and seals and all the latest improvements for the balanced diaphragm first stage. The housing that contains both regulator stages is environmentally sealed and mounted on the top of the tank which makes it very rugged and low maintenance. Some divers have complained that the Mistral is hard to ‘breathe’ but I had mine tuned at our local dive shop and find as easy to breathe as the Mares Abyss that I’ve been using for years and the Mistral is good down to at least 300 feet which is a good bit more depth capability than I’m likely to need. In addition to being rugged and low maintenance the feature I really like is that the exhalation bubbled vent from the reg housing behind the diver on top of the tank providing much clearer vision and it has an adjustable mouthpiece and lip shield. For that reason it’s the favorite of photographers who need a clear view of their subjects and not to scare subjects with their bubbles. One of the main reasons I switched to the Mistral is so I can get an unobstructed view of my lovers during dive-sex. When I reach orgasm I sometimes have problems with breath control and the bubbles from a mouth held second stage regulator obscure my view of the pool stallion who is drilling me.
With a twin-hose reg it’s not nearly as easy to share air with someone who runs out, but for the wearer the main difference in using a twin-hose rather than a single hose reg (after adjusting to the different breathing of the unit) is that there is no purge on a twin-hose regulator so a flooded mouthpiece is cleared by raising it up or by blowing into the mouthpiece while leaning slightly to left. That took a bit of getting used to, but I’ve found I’ve become comfortable with it in just a few days and the visibility at strategic times is nearly perfect if I’m aware of my surroundings then.
I got to talk about the advantages of using a twin-hose regs last week when a video crew and actresses were shooting videos in ‘the pit’, my 64 foot deep pool. One of Taryn’s companies had been after me to let them use it again since I had done it once some time ago. They really liked working in the pit because it is ideal for making videos and still shoots. There is enough bottom room to stage equipment, the pool is well lit and the water is filtered using a special sphagnum moss and bromine so there is no eye irritation from harsh pool chemicals when the girls get their masks flooded or pulled off or are working w/o masks and swimsuit colors stay bright much longer.
The girls told me they often use and prefer twin-hose rigs because the bubbles are dispersed behind the diver so don’t obscure their facial expressions and there is no second stage protruding from the mouth so they can perform more intimately close-up. Twin-hose rigs also make a more interesting struggle as two girls fight to breathe from a single regulator. A twin-hose is also quieter if a diver is trying to minimize distraction or hide her presence.
I found that the actresses were surprisingly inexperienced with pool sex – they have been doing mostly ‘Disney-porn’. You know the sort of thing I mean; posing provocatively while being squeezed in deflated drysuits, baring their breasts in Speedo FastSkins and bikinis or girl-on-girl scenarios. So to show them Vegas hospitality I fitted all three (the two actresses and the camerawoman) with FemCaps and introduced them to a group of Pirate’s pool-stallions specifically chosen for the task and put the cost on my expense account as good will for the casino.
Hair care: Hair care is such a hassle for dive actresses because the producers often want them diving with their hair loose which if the girl is just using a snorkel isn’t a problem aside from the pool chemicals which is common to all dive situations to a greater or lesser extent. But if she is using a SCUBA set then loose hair while beautiful and sexy can be a problem and occasionally a hazard. That’s because even when it’s slippery with conditioner which we all use before a dive loose hair can get tangled in the regulator, octopus and hoses on the tank and when that happens it can be very painful or cause neck injuries from the girl trying to pull loose. Often the strands have to be cut out with a knife if the woman is on a recreational dive. On a shoot there is a production assistant with a pair of scissors to cut the actress loose, but a lot of that can ruin a beautiful thick mane of hair. My long auburn hair is one of my best features so to prevent a hair scare I always wear a swim cap or helmet when I’m wearing a SCUBA set.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Volunteering at the clinic
A Miltex Vaginal speculum
Fitting sports shields: My time fitting sports shields at the clinic this morning was very busy. A woman’s water polo team was in town, for pleasure, and came in for fittings because one of their moms had been fitted here last year. Each had to have a pelvic exam first to make certain her cervix was healthy. That’s because while wearing a cap will not hurt a healthy cervix for women who have cervical dysplasia a cap will make the condition worse. Chuck let me insert the speculums (warmed and lubed before insertion) and I think that’s the part of the pelvic exam women like the least, having our introitus stretched and held open. Five took 22mm FemCaps and 2 took 26mm and they all wanted strapless caps so afterward I taught a short class about the easiest way to remove them and I made sure each girl could properly insert, to make certain she had her cervix covered, and remove her shield. It was pretty much a communal thing with them all standing around watching as they all got fitted. I’d never had that happen before where a room full of women watched one another being fitted. Usually it’s just the occasional mom with a daughter coming in for her first FemCap for dive-sex. But they were very quiet and none of them was shy so it worked out well and it was certainly a bonding experience for the team.
Contraceptive challenges: After I finished fitting sports shields I assisted Chuck as he saw a series of patients. All had birth control problems of one sort or another; pill side effects, an IUD expulsion, incorrect barrier sizes one that was too large and two that were too small and three abortions, two by Mifeprex and one EVA, electric vacuum aspiration.
Hormones: Of the women with pill side effects two were experiencing heavy irregular bleeding while using progestin-only-pills called the mini-pill or POPs. Chuck had them stop hormones and switch to GyneFix IUD implants. The other has started using Ortho Evra (the patch) a month ago and her breasts were so badly swollen that she could hardly stand to wear a tee much less a bra. Chuck took her off the patch – because of the high estrogen dose administered transdermally by the patch breast tenderness is a common complaint – and because she still wanted an extremely low maintenance method, inserted Implanon, a single rod implant the size of a matchstick, in her upper arm.
ParaGard expulsion: The girl with the IUD expulsion was a rubber-chick who had such a brutal sexual encounter at a fetish club that it caused uterine cramping severe enough to bend the frame of her ParaGard, copper IUD. The IUD was protruding from her cervix so Chuck tugged gently and it pulled out painlessly. An ultrasound showed the arms of the frame hadn’t perforated the uterine wall but she was bleeding so he didn’t want to insert a GyneFix until her uterus had healed. So he fitted her with a Milex diaphragm which she had wanted as protection during pool-sex.
Diaphragms: The girl with the diaphragm that was too large (it kept popping out of her pubic notch and she couldn’t pee very well when it was inserted) had gained 15 lbs and the weight had caused her to need a smaller diaphragm, which she was fitted with. Of the two girls who had the diaphragms that were too small one had been miss-fitted by another clinic in Nevada, not here in Vegas, and the other was 16 and had been fitted a year earlier with a 60mm coil spring. She should have returned for a refit in 6 months because she is still growing and because a year ago she was newly sexually active and a woman’s pelvic anatomy stretches with use. That stretching has nothing to do with how tight she feels to a partner which is a function of the strength of her pelvic muscles. She was fitted with a larger Cooper Surgical (the old Milex) Omniflex which is the only coil spring rim diaphragm still made in the U.S.
Terminations: Of the three abortions, the two medical ones were started with the women taking the first pills in the Mifeprex regimen and they were given the rest of the pills to take two days later. We keep in touch with these patients to make sure they are doing well and schedule them to come back two weeks later as follow-up. The other woman had waited too late to take Mifeprex so she came in scheduled for an electric vacuum aspiration which is a bit more invasive than a menstrual extraction because it requires cervical dilation because a larger diameter cannula is used. The EVA went well and in an hour the woman was on her way with Ibuprofen for any discomfort and doxycycline to prevent possible infection. I’m CD 21 today, so I’m looking forward to my menstrual extraction this time next week.
Fitting sports shields: My time fitting sports shields at the clinic this morning was very busy. A woman’s water polo team was in town, for pleasure, and came in for fittings because one of their moms had been fitted here last year. Each had to have a pelvic exam first to make certain her cervix was healthy. That’s because while wearing a cap will not hurt a healthy cervix for women who have cervical dysplasia a cap will make the condition worse. Chuck let me insert the speculums (warmed and lubed before insertion) and I think that’s the part of the pelvic exam women like the least, having our introitus stretched and held open. Five took 22mm FemCaps and 2 took 26mm and they all wanted strapless caps so afterward I taught a short class about the easiest way to remove them and I made sure each girl could properly insert, to make certain she had her cervix covered, and remove her shield. It was pretty much a communal thing with them all standing around watching as they all got fitted. I’d never had that happen before where a room full of women watched one another being fitted. Usually it’s just the occasional mom with a daughter coming in for her first FemCap for dive-sex. But they were very quiet and none of them was shy so it worked out well and it was certainly a bonding experience for the team.
Contraceptive challenges: After I finished fitting sports shields I assisted Chuck as he saw a series of patients. All had birth control problems of one sort or another; pill side effects, an IUD expulsion, incorrect barrier sizes one that was too large and two that were too small and three abortions, two by Mifeprex and one EVA, electric vacuum aspiration.
Hormones: Of the women with pill side effects two were experiencing heavy irregular bleeding while using progestin-only-pills called the mini-pill or POPs. Chuck had them stop hormones and switch to GyneFix IUD implants. The other has started using Ortho Evra (the patch) a month ago and her breasts were so badly swollen that she could hardly stand to wear a tee much less a bra. Chuck took her off the patch – because of the high estrogen dose administered transdermally by the patch breast tenderness is a common complaint – and because she still wanted an extremely low maintenance method, inserted Implanon, a single rod implant the size of a matchstick, in her upper arm.
ParaGard expulsion: The girl with the IUD expulsion was a rubber-chick who had such a brutal sexual encounter at a fetish club that it caused uterine cramping severe enough to bend the frame of her ParaGard, copper IUD. The IUD was protruding from her cervix so Chuck tugged gently and it pulled out painlessly. An ultrasound showed the arms of the frame hadn’t perforated the uterine wall but she was bleeding so he didn’t want to insert a GyneFix until her uterus had healed. So he fitted her with a Milex diaphragm which she had wanted as protection during pool-sex.
Diaphragms: The girl with the diaphragm that was too large (it kept popping out of her pubic notch and she couldn’t pee very well when it was inserted) had gained 15 lbs and the weight had caused her to need a smaller diaphragm, which she was fitted with. Of the two girls who had the diaphragms that were too small one had been miss-fitted by another clinic in Nevada, not here in Vegas, and the other was 16 and had been fitted a year earlier with a 60mm coil spring. She should have returned for a refit in 6 months because she is still growing and because a year ago she was newly sexually active and a woman’s pelvic anatomy stretches with use. That stretching has nothing to do with how tight she feels to a partner which is a function of the strength of her pelvic muscles. She was fitted with a larger Cooper Surgical (the old Milex) Omniflex which is the only coil spring rim diaphragm still made in the U.S.
Terminations: Of the three abortions, the two medical ones were started with the women taking the first pills in the Mifeprex regimen and they were given the rest of the pills to take two days later. We keep in touch with these patients to make sure they are doing well and schedule them to come back two weeks later as follow-up. The other woman had waited too late to take Mifeprex so she came in scheduled for an electric vacuum aspiration which is a bit more invasive than a menstrual extraction because it requires cervical dilation because a larger diameter cannula is used. The EVA went well and in an hour the woman was on her way with Ibuprofen for any discomfort and doxycycline to prevent possible infection. I’m CD 21 today, so I’m looking forward to my menstrual extraction this time next week.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The advantages of thongs
A heavily embroidered fishnet and lace thong
The advantages of thongs: If you must wear something for pelvic protection then a thong can be hidden under a tight skirt or shorts. No panty lines and you can be confident that fertile fluid and a certain amount of coitial discharge will be absorbed by the cotton liner. I like to wear nothing under a skirt or shorts in warm weather that way I’m more readily accessible in case an opportunity with a man arises. Of course in cold weather I’m in tights and leather or latex so then my accessibility becomes part of foreplay. In warm weather I carry a thong along with condoms at parties or private dinners. That way if I have a quickie he can use a condom. The thong is in case the condom bursts I can Kegel out most of his load and slip into the thong so I won’t be draining all evening on my skirt and the hostess’s upholstery. Of course for that application I use a G-string with a microfiber cup and very absorbent liner.
Choose carefully: Care needs to be taken in choosing heavily embroidered thongs because body type and weight will determine what will be comfortable. For starters of course your pubes should be totally waxed as there is nothing more off-putting to a man than to see pubic hair sticking out around a tiny jewel of a thong meant to sheathe the most intimate and beautiful part of an aroused woman, her vulva. Ideally, to wear a deeply embroidered crotch, the wearer should have a wide pelvis and well toned thighs. There is nothing worse than being trapped in a thong the embroidery on which is scratching your thighs when you are trying to be seductive or are in public where you can’t get out of it.
An attention getter: A deeply embroidered front panel is helpful when rubbing yourself against a man’s thigh to get his attention. The texture of the embroidery increases friction significantly – even through thick wool trousers - so you are impossible to ignore. Another fun thing about a heavily embroidered front panel is that the stitching on back of the embroidery presses against the clitoris, even through the soft cotton crotch liner so it can be a massive turn-on for some girls and quite distracting to others. Women were distracted by our thongs while driving long before cell-phones and text messaging came along.
Thongs as scent pads and favors: Thongs make wonderful scent pads. I use my different natural scents at various times in my cycle to attract men I’m near. My estrogenic pheromones just seem to work really well that way and I teach my ballet students to be confident while dancing en pointe in their thongs. A thong is marvelous for use in showing off our glutes beautifully toned and clenched when we are balanced on our pointes. And, a thong scented by our natural pelvic musk as well as coitial discharge makes a wonderful gift, a memento of a memorable encounter to a fave man! I suppose it’s natural to wonder as a new man penetrates me for the first time, will he will be thongworthy?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Pull and Pray
I trusted him to withdraw and now I’m 3 weeks late!
One more time: I know I’ve covered this before, but it bears emphasizing again. For an unthinking woman withdrawal can seem such a seductive ‘method’. No need for condoms or cervical barriers or hormonal birth control, just leave it to your boyfriend to pull out and finish by splattering semen on your belly or breasts or in your face and everything will be fine. Well, quite often it doesn’t work that way. Really! And then you have to choose. A menstrual extraction, Mifeprex or carry the baby to term. In matters involving contraception it works a lot better if as women we take responsibility for controlling our own fertility.
The New York Times
July 21, 2009
Withdrawal Method Finds Ally
By PAM BELLUCK
Which birth-control method is more effective: condoms or withdrawal?
For sex educators and others, the answer is glaringly obvious. Withdrawal before ejaculation, the so-called pullout method, is a last resort, they say — something to be used only if there are no other options. The effectiveness of condoms, on the other hand, is well known.
So reproductive experts were taken aback by a paper in the June issue of Contraception magazine. Based on an analysis of studies, the paper pronounced withdrawal “almost as effective as the male condom — at least when it comes to pregnancy prevention.”
“If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time a couple has vaginal intercourse, about 4 percent of couples will become pregnant over the course of a year,” the authors write.
For condoms, used optimally, the rate is about 2 percent. But more significant, the authors say, are the rates for “typical use,” because people can’t be expected to use any contraception method perfectly every time. Typical use of withdrawal leads to pregnancy 18 percent of the time, they write; for typical use of condoms 17 percent of the time.
(There are other, more effective methods. Failure rates for the pill and the patch are about 8 percent; for Depo-Provera injections, about 3 percent; and for diaphragms, about 16 percent. Intrauterine devices fail less than 1 percent of the time.)
The lead author, Rachel K. Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health matters, said she and her co-authors were motivated to write the paper because it seemed to them the pullout method was getting short shrift.
“We had all noticed that social science researchers and health care providers just kind of dismiss withdrawal and don’t seem to realize that it can prevent pregnancy,” Ms. Jones said. “Most people seem to be under the impression that you might as well do nothing.”
Even she used to think of withdrawal as “cheating,” she said. But “most women have used withdrawal at some point in their lives” and it seemed logical to compare the method to condoms, because health care providers “have no problem advocating the use of condoms as a method even though those are flawed.”
Some educators and physicians said they worried that putting out a message that withdrawal is effective would just give teenagers encouragement to have unprotected sex. And many underscored what the authors themselves point out: that unlike condoms, withdrawal does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, a strong reason to encourage condoms.
But Ms. Jones said the intention was not to advocate withdrawal, but to advocate talking about it.
“Health care providers and health educators should discuss withdrawal as a legitimate, if slightly less effective, contraceptive method in the same way they do condoms and diaphragms,” the authors write. “Dismissing withdrawal as a legitimate contraceptive method is counterproductive for the prevention of pregnancy and also discourages academic inquiry into this frequently used and reasonably effective method.”
Ms. Jones and her co-authors said they were dismayed to see that withdrawal had not been exhaustively studied.
“Despite its role in the European fertility decline, and relatively high levels of use, acceptability and effectiveness,” they write, “most studies of withdrawal since that time have been small in scale (e.g., married Turkish men), or have focused on specific populations (e.g., Israeli Jews or Chinese Canadians obtaining abortions).”
The authors say there has been a bias against studying or legitimizing withdrawal, partly because of “preference for modern methods and the strongly held belief that pre-ejaculate fluid contains sperm, despite the lack of supporting evidence.”
Studies may underreport withdrawal use “because respondents do not consider it a ‘method,’ ” they write. “One study found that only 3 of 62 Turkish factory workers reported on a questionnaire that they used withdrawal. However, in face-to-face interviews, an additional 17 reported current use of this method.”
Two of the authors also conducted their own interviews to gather anecdotal information on people’s sexual practices. The interviews indicated that many people did not consider withdrawal a serious method. One woman, said she used no birth control, adding: “Sometimes we use condoms. But for the most part just the withdrawal method. Which I know is, like, the worst thing.”
Many people preferred withdrawal to condoms. As one said, “you can still have sex, it doesn’t smell bad, it doesn’t have chemicals in it.”
The research convinced the authors that “it is unfortunate that some couples do not realize they are substantially reducing their risk of pregnancy when using withdrawal, as these misperceptions may cause unnecessary levels of anxiety. More speculatively, if more people realized that correct and consistent use of withdrawal substantially reduced the risk of pregnancy, they might use it more effectively.”
Some experts said they did not dispute the findings but worried that young people would construe the article’s conclusion’s too liberally. “Those data don’t necessarily translate to youth today,” said Dr. Melissa Gilliam, chief of family planning and contraceptive research in the University of Chicago’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, who is on the board of the Guttmacher Institute. “In terms of a reliable method used over and over again, the risk of failure is quite high.”
Martha Kempner, vice president for information and communications at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, said withdrawal, while less problematic for married or long-term monogamous couples, is not as acceptable in other circumstances because “well-intentioned young men can get it wrong, or somebody can just not do it after they said they would.”
Spirited comments on blogs largely agreed. “I wouldn’t want to trust a dude to get it right every time,” read one comment on the blog CollegeCandy.
Still, Ms. Kempner said: “It has made some classroom teachers nervous to give out the truth in this instance, but we do have to tell the truth. People, kids in particular, they’re using it. It is better than nothing, and it is always available. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I didn’t have one.’ ”
Personal comment: I think it is insanity to suggest stressing the ‘effectiveness’ of withdrawal when many couples can’t even use condoms and the pill correctly! To expect an inexperienced young man to be able to time withdrawal correctly at the very moment his biological drive is telling him to thrust harder and deeper is absurd. Many men have problems with premature ejaculation as it is. ‘If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time’ Good luck with that! What woman in her right mind and serious about avoiding pregnancy would trust her partner to get it right every time? And, there is a bit more to it than just withdrawing if he is penetrating her for the second and subsequent acts of intercourse. To be ‘safe’ he needs to have urinated between each act which resulted in ejaculation. That’s because his urethra was left filled with semen and if he penetrates his partner again w/o urinating to flush the sperm out of his urethra the next time he penetrates her his precum will push the semen into her vagina and she will be well and truly screwed regardless of whether he withdraws in time or not. Married couples or mature couples in a monogamous relationship might be in a position to risk an unplanned pregnancy from mistiming withdrawal, but for anyone intent on avoiding pregnancy withdrawal is something to use only as a last resort. It’s not called ‘pull and pray’ for nothing!
One more time: I know I’ve covered this before, but it bears emphasizing again. For an unthinking woman withdrawal can seem such a seductive ‘method’. No need for condoms or cervical barriers or hormonal birth control, just leave it to your boyfriend to pull out and finish by splattering semen on your belly or breasts or in your face and everything will be fine. Well, quite often it doesn’t work that way. Really! And then you have to choose. A menstrual extraction, Mifeprex or carry the baby to term. In matters involving contraception it works a lot better if as women we take responsibility for controlling our own fertility.
The New York Times
July 21, 2009
Withdrawal Method Finds Ally
By PAM BELLUCK
Which birth-control method is more effective: condoms or withdrawal?
For sex educators and others, the answer is glaringly obvious. Withdrawal before ejaculation, the so-called pullout method, is a last resort, they say — something to be used only if there are no other options. The effectiveness of condoms, on the other hand, is well known.
So reproductive experts were taken aback by a paper in the June issue of Contraception magazine. Based on an analysis of studies, the paper pronounced withdrawal “almost as effective as the male condom — at least when it comes to pregnancy prevention.”
“If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time a couple has vaginal intercourse, about 4 percent of couples will become pregnant over the course of a year,” the authors write.
For condoms, used optimally, the rate is about 2 percent. But more significant, the authors say, are the rates for “typical use,” because people can’t be expected to use any contraception method perfectly every time. Typical use of withdrawal leads to pregnancy 18 percent of the time, they write; for typical use of condoms 17 percent of the time.
(There are other, more effective methods. Failure rates for the pill and the patch are about 8 percent; for Depo-Provera injections, about 3 percent; and for diaphragms, about 16 percent. Intrauterine devices fail less than 1 percent of the time.)
The lead author, Rachel K. Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health matters, said she and her co-authors were motivated to write the paper because it seemed to them the pullout method was getting short shrift.
“We had all noticed that social science researchers and health care providers just kind of dismiss withdrawal and don’t seem to realize that it can prevent pregnancy,” Ms. Jones said. “Most people seem to be under the impression that you might as well do nothing.”
Even she used to think of withdrawal as “cheating,” she said. But “most women have used withdrawal at some point in their lives” and it seemed logical to compare the method to condoms, because health care providers “have no problem advocating the use of condoms as a method even though those are flawed.”
Some educators and physicians said they worried that putting out a message that withdrawal is effective would just give teenagers encouragement to have unprotected sex. And many underscored what the authors themselves point out: that unlike condoms, withdrawal does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, a strong reason to encourage condoms.
But Ms. Jones said the intention was not to advocate withdrawal, but to advocate talking about it.
“Health care providers and health educators should discuss withdrawal as a legitimate, if slightly less effective, contraceptive method in the same way they do condoms and diaphragms,” the authors write. “Dismissing withdrawal as a legitimate contraceptive method is counterproductive for the prevention of pregnancy and also discourages academic inquiry into this frequently used and reasonably effective method.”
Ms. Jones and her co-authors said they were dismayed to see that withdrawal had not been exhaustively studied.
“Despite its role in the European fertility decline, and relatively high levels of use, acceptability and effectiveness,” they write, “most studies of withdrawal since that time have been small in scale (e.g., married Turkish men), or have focused on specific populations (e.g., Israeli Jews or Chinese Canadians obtaining abortions).”
The authors say there has been a bias against studying or legitimizing withdrawal, partly because of “preference for modern methods and the strongly held belief that pre-ejaculate fluid contains sperm, despite the lack of supporting evidence.”
Studies may underreport withdrawal use “because respondents do not consider it a ‘method,’ ” they write. “One study found that only 3 of 62 Turkish factory workers reported on a questionnaire that they used withdrawal. However, in face-to-face interviews, an additional 17 reported current use of this method.”
Two of the authors also conducted their own interviews to gather anecdotal information on people’s sexual practices. The interviews indicated that many people did not consider withdrawal a serious method. One woman, said she used no birth control, adding: “Sometimes we use condoms. But for the most part just the withdrawal method. Which I know is, like, the worst thing.”
Many people preferred withdrawal to condoms. As one said, “you can still have sex, it doesn’t smell bad, it doesn’t have chemicals in it.”
The research convinced the authors that “it is unfortunate that some couples do not realize they are substantially reducing their risk of pregnancy when using withdrawal, as these misperceptions may cause unnecessary levels of anxiety. More speculatively, if more people realized that correct and consistent use of withdrawal substantially reduced the risk of pregnancy, they might use it more effectively.”
Some experts said they did not dispute the findings but worried that young people would construe the article’s conclusion’s too liberally. “Those data don’t necessarily translate to youth today,” said Dr. Melissa Gilliam, chief of family planning and contraceptive research in the University of Chicago’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, who is on the board of the Guttmacher Institute. “In terms of a reliable method used over and over again, the risk of failure is quite high.”
Martha Kempner, vice president for information and communications at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, said withdrawal, while less problematic for married or long-term monogamous couples, is not as acceptable in other circumstances because “well-intentioned young men can get it wrong, or somebody can just not do it after they said they would.”
Spirited comments on blogs largely agreed. “I wouldn’t want to trust a dude to get it right every time,” read one comment on the blog CollegeCandy.
Still, Ms. Kempner said: “It has made some classroom teachers nervous to give out the truth in this instance, but we do have to tell the truth. People, kids in particular, they’re using it. It is better than nothing, and it is always available. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I didn’t have one.’ ”
Personal comment: I think it is insanity to suggest stressing the ‘effectiveness’ of withdrawal when many couples can’t even use condoms and the pill correctly! To expect an inexperienced young man to be able to time withdrawal correctly at the very moment his biological drive is telling him to thrust harder and deeper is absurd. Many men have problems with premature ejaculation as it is. ‘If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time’ Good luck with that! What woman in her right mind and serious about avoiding pregnancy would trust her partner to get it right every time? And, there is a bit more to it than just withdrawing if he is penetrating her for the second and subsequent acts of intercourse. To be ‘safe’ he needs to have urinated between each act which resulted in ejaculation. That’s because his urethra was left filled with semen and if he penetrates his partner again w/o urinating to flush the sperm out of his urethra the next time he penetrates her his precum will push the semen into her vagina and she will be well and truly screwed regardless of whether he withdraws in time or not. Married couples or mature couples in a monogamous relationship might be in a position to risk an unplanned pregnancy from mistiming withdrawal, but for anyone intent on avoiding pregnancy withdrawal is something to use only as a last resort. It’s not called ‘pull and pray’ for nothing!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Pointe shoe Quiz
Pointe shoe quiz
Another in an occasional series; what Maker made these shoes? This image should expand so you can get a good look at the sole pattern.
Another in an occasional series; what Maker made these shoes? This image should expand so you can get a good look at the sole pattern.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Transitionwear
A heavy rubber death-chick in her body-bag, is she or isn’t she?
Transitionwear: I collect ‘transitionwear’. For my friends who haven’t seen or heard the term before that’s because I coined it to describe clothing in which a woman died. I collect a subset of transitionwear, specifically what the woman was wearing when she was killed or died while having sex. It has to be in my size because I want to wear it while I’m having sex since I can feel the aura of the dead woman whose clothing I’m wearing especially while I’m penetrated by a man. Most of the transitionwear is of latex or leather. The shoes are usually stripper heels (5 inches or more) ballet-boots or pointe shoes thought I do have one or two pairs of leather slippers and a full range of helmets and gags. And I collect their birth control devices as well pulling diaphragms, FemCaps and IUDs out of vaginas still filled with semen. I don’t collect the restraints in which many of them die as I have no interest in or place for that much chain and rope.
For those who are wondering what the frequency is of women dieing during sex or dieing violently while dressed in fetishwear I’ll have to say that here in Vegas it is fairly common, about once a week from what I’ve been able to determine. Mostly it seems to be women in their late teens and early 20s who were so inexperienced in wearing the equipment in which they died that it was almost as though they committed suicide. You know the sort of things I mean; corsets that were too tight, masks that clogged and couldn’t be unfastened, filters that failed in a hostile environment, gags that were swallowed and so on. Then there are the few who have died from overexertion that triggered a previously unsuspected heart condition or burst an aneurysm and the ones who were strangled or suffocated by intentionally leaving them at the bottom of a pool to run out of air. That seems to be a common way to get rid of a pregnant teen out here. They are more and more frequently found in the swimming pools of houses in foreclosure here and God knows there are enough of them these days. Houses in foreclosure I mean. Occasionally there will be the professional hit on a working girl who wanted to go out on her own or accidentally got preggers and wanted to keep the baby or tried to blackmail a client. In the trade that sort of behavior is really bad for business so it’s quickly and brutally dealt with. The professional girls are usually dressed in their very best rubber or leather and left to die in creative ways in relatively public places as warnings to other women in the trade.
Friends in high places: I have a contact in the Council of Families that control the secondary economy here. There is a schism in the Council; some members think the public hits on working girls are more frequent than is good for business. To help decrease the body count in that category our arrangement is that my contact will let me know where a body is or will be and I get right of first refusal to clean it up. If she is my size and wearing something I want for myself (my contact usually knows how the girl is clothed) then I’ll take the job and harvest the transitionwear I want, and occasionally Taryn will come along to help. It’s tricky doing cleanup for a hit like that because of the locations the bodies are left in. Actually, I’ll almost always do the job if I’m available as it’s not a good idea to refuse a member of the Council too often. Because of my position and wealth I’m protected to some extent, but even with excellent security it is so easy to successfully hit a target, especially a relatively young sexually active female like me. So I’m under no illusion that I’m immortal. What is probably keeping me alive is the information I have on Council members who know if something happens to me everyone on the Council goes down. On the plus side many of the best and most overly ambitious girls in the business are my size rather than the big-breasted showgirl cows that appear in all the Vegas casino and show adverts. So proportionally there are a lot more beautiful and ambitious girls killed wearing unique and unbelievably expensive fetishwear in my size. There is a very, very high failure rate for entrepreneurs in the fetish sex trade here unless you have the proper connections.
Transitionwear: I collect ‘transitionwear’. For my friends who haven’t seen or heard the term before that’s because I coined it to describe clothing in which a woman died. I collect a subset of transitionwear, specifically what the woman was wearing when she was killed or died while having sex. It has to be in my size because I want to wear it while I’m having sex since I can feel the aura of the dead woman whose clothing I’m wearing especially while I’m penetrated by a man. Most of the transitionwear is of latex or leather. The shoes are usually stripper heels (5 inches or more) ballet-boots or pointe shoes thought I do have one or two pairs of leather slippers and a full range of helmets and gags. And I collect their birth control devices as well pulling diaphragms, FemCaps and IUDs out of vaginas still filled with semen. I don’t collect the restraints in which many of them die as I have no interest in or place for that much chain and rope.
For those who are wondering what the frequency is of women dieing during sex or dieing violently while dressed in fetishwear I’ll have to say that here in Vegas it is fairly common, about once a week from what I’ve been able to determine. Mostly it seems to be women in their late teens and early 20s who were so inexperienced in wearing the equipment in which they died that it was almost as though they committed suicide. You know the sort of things I mean; corsets that were too tight, masks that clogged and couldn’t be unfastened, filters that failed in a hostile environment, gags that were swallowed and so on. Then there are the few who have died from overexertion that triggered a previously unsuspected heart condition or burst an aneurysm and the ones who were strangled or suffocated by intentionally leaving them at the bottom of a pool to run out of air. That seems to be a common way to get rid of a pregnant teen out here. They are more and more frequently found in the swimming pools of houses in foreclosure here and God knows there are enough of them these days. Houses in foreclosure I mean. Occasionally there will be the professional hit on a working girl who wanted to go out on her own or accidentally got preggers and wanted to keep the baby or tried to blackmail a client. In the trade that sort of behavior is really bad for business so it’s quickly and brutally dealt with. The professional girls are usually dressed in their very best rubber or leather and left to die in creative ways in relatively public places as warnings to other women in the trade.
Friends in high places: I have a contact in the Council of Families that control the secondary economy here. There is a schism in the Council; some members think the public hits on working girls are more frequent than is good for business. To help decrease the body count in that category our arrangement is that my contact will let me know where a body is or will be and I get right of first refusal to clean it up. If she is my size and wearing something I want for myself (my contact usually knows how the girl is clothed) then I’ll take the job and harvest the transitionwear I want, and occasionally Taryn will come along to help. It’s tricky doing cleanup for a hit like that because of the locations the bodies are left in. Actually, I’ll almost always do the job if I’m available as it’s not a good idea to refuse a member of the Council too often. Because of my position and wealth I’m protected to some extent, but even with excellent security it is so easy to successfully hit a target, especially a relatively young sexually active female like me. So I’m under no illusion that I’m immortal. What is probably keeping me alive is the information I have on Council members who know if something happens to me everyone on the Council goes down. On the plus side many of the best and most overly ambitious girls in the business are my size rather than the big-breasted showgirl cows that appear in all the Vegas casino and show adverts. So proportionally there are a lot more beautiful and ambitious girls killed wearing unique and unbelievably expensive fetishwear in my size. There is a very, very high failure rate for entrepreneurs in the fetish sex trade here unless you have the proper connections.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Cervical Orgasms
A rubber-chick between rear entry encounters cooling down from a hyper-intense cervical orgasm
Safety during deep thrust Orgasms: I occasionally teach women techniques to minimize the likelihood of injury during cervical orgasms. Cervical orgasms are definitely an acquired taste because getting past the pain of having your cervix rammed is something most women can not do and have no interest in attempting. So to be a student in my class you have to be a masochist and be able to work through the few minutes of cervical pain in order to enjoy the ecstasy of a hyper-intense cervical orgasm. Other criteria for admission is not to be using a conventional IUD (a ParaGard or Mirena) because they will deform and dislodge or perforate the uterus during severe uterine contractions and before each lesson the student must test for pregnancy to ensure she isn’t preggers as the uterine contractions of a cervical orgasm are so strong that they frequently cause miscarriages, especially during the first trimester. Cervical orgasms while unbelievably intense aren’t for sissies since as I mentioned there is a good bit of pain before getting to the fun part but if a girl is a masochist (as I am) she can enjoy both!
During training a student uses only an Oves (the smallest cervical cap made) or no barrier device at all is used so she can feel the full power of her partner’s thrusts and her partner is usually unprotected, but has been screened and is free of STIs. I first start a student by fitting her with a dildo which she uses to thrust into her cervix to get used to the feeling and the pain at her own pace – that also separates the serious students from the merely curious. That way she has some idea what it will be like when a man whose equipment is too large for her pelvic anatomy is shoving himself as deep as he can get inside her. I measure her depth unaroused and aroused both in missionary and when positioned for rear entry doggie style. On average a woman is about an inch to an inch and a half deeper in doggie style because gravity pulls the uterus and therefore the cervix down and deeper, and some vaginas expand more (tent) during arousal that others. Because of these differences in depth it is important to have a man long enough to thrust into the cervix and this might require trying out several men to make sure the man can reach her cervix to take care of her needs.
Protective equipment: Proper use of an effective form of contraception is a prerequisite for the course. Students in cervical orgasm training usually wear pointe shoes for being taken from behind en pointe bent over holding on to the barre. If they don’t wear pointes then ballet boots are an equivalent that takes almost no training, or failing that 5 inch stiletto (strippers) heels. As I mentioned the cervix can be unprotected but we advise women to use some form of over-pressure protection in case their partner gets creative with pressurized fluids or gasses and protection is a must for dive-sex so an Oves cap is the barrier of choice. Lastly there is a need for head and neck protection. This is something that is almost unknown because it isn’t talked about since it will scare off the few women wanting cervical orgasms, but a woman sustaining head or neck injuries during a cervical orgasm is very common. Deaths from broken necks while I wouldn’t call them common are the most frequent cause of death while engaged in that sort of hyper-intensive encounter. When taken from the rear the safest way is to use a bed altar for the woman to be positioned on which would protect her head and neck. In the dance studio or on location special helmets can be used for protection. During training to minimize the likelihood of serious head or neck injury I have my students fitted with protective helmets.
Ramming helmets: Since Cyndi came of age, 16 in Nevada, she can put all her sexual experience to use legally now. She had been after me almost since she came to school at St Lucy’s this past January to teach her how to safely have a cervical orgasm. She started after walking in on Pirate and me when he had me helpless in ecstasy screaming into my ball-gag while he battered my cervix. In a moment of weakness I said I would teach her once she reached the age of consent. I keep telling her that it’s not a given that she will be able to tolerate the initial pain before oxytocin floods her bloodstream and she’s plunged into ecstasy, but she was insistent and her mother and grandmother (Eve) were in favor of letting her try. I’ve never taught a woman younger that 19 the techniques so I’m not certain how well she will do. Though I’ll admit that she has passed every sexual challenge she has faced so far and she does enjoy very rough sex.
So, before we left for NYC and Virgin Gorda I took her to Gepettos to have her fitted for a ramming helmet, known in the trade as a ‘ram’. A ram is a piece of safety equipment that I insist students and a lot of inexperienced women use during intense sexual encounters to prevent concussions and sometimes broken necks when there is the likelihood of having their heads rammed into a wall, seat back or the headboard of a bed. A woman in that sort of orgasm has no control over her body and with a man at the peak of his sexual energy plunging into her as hard as he can her head can easily be forced into a nearby object and severely injured. A Ram consists of a custom fitted polymer shell with thick internal padding that covers the shoulders, neck, and head and can be covered by a standard fetish latex helmet/mask so the protection is hidden and it appears the wearer is just in a stylish Polymorphe latex fetish helmet. We went by Gepettos and picked Cyndi’s ram up yesterday afternoon and she tried it on there, and then wore it home. The craftsmanship with the exquisite snug fit with her hair in French braids, the flush clasps and smooth exterior all reflect quality and instill confidence in the wearer. She bought a new zip-back black Polymorphe helmet - with which she can wear a ball-gag - to wear over it and has been prancing around working in her Grishkos at the barre in it. Teens! Sigh! Now that I’ve run out of valid reasons I can’t delay any longer so I’ll probably start her deep thrust training in the next few days.
Safety during deep thrust Orgasms: I occasionally teach women techniques to minimize the likelihood of injury during cervical orgasms. Cervical orgasms are definitely an acquired taste because getting past the pain of having your cervix rammed is something most women can not do and have no interest in attempting. So to be a student in my class you have to be a masochist and be able to work through the few minutes of cervical pain in order to enjoy the ecstasy of a hyper-intense cervical orgasm. Other criteria for admission is not to be using a conventional IUD (a ParaGard or Mirena) because they will deform and dislodge or perforate the uterus during severe uterine contractions and before each lesson the student must test for pregnancy to ensure she isn’t preggers as the uterine contractions of a cervical orgasm are so strong that they frequently cause miscarriages, especially during the first trimester. Cervical orgasms while unbelievably intense aren’t for sissies since as I mentioned there is a good bit of pain before getting to the fun part but if a girl is a masochist (as I am) she can enjoy both!
During training a student uses only an Oves (the smallest cervical cap made) or no barrier device at all is used so she can feel the full power of her partner’s thrusts and her partner is usually unprotected, but has been screened and is free of STIs. I first start a student by fitting her with a dildo which she uses to thrust into her cervix to get used to the feeling and the pain at her own pace – that also separates the serious students from the merely curious. That way she has some idea what it will be like when a man whose equipment is too large for her pelvic anatomy is shoving himself as deep as he can get inside her. I measure her depth unaroused and aroused both in missionary and when positioned for rear entry doggie style. On average a woman is about an inch to an inch and a half deeper in doggie style because gravity pulls the uterus and therefore the cervix down and deeper, and some vaginas expand more (tent) during arousal that others. Because of these differences in depth it is important to have a man long enough to thrust into the cervix and this might require trying out several men to make sure the man can reach her cervix to take care of her needs.
Protective equipment: Proper use of an effective form of contraception is a prerequisite for the course. Students in cervical orgasm training usually wear pointe shoes for being taken from behind en pointe bent over holding on to the barre. If they don’t wear pointes then ballet boots are an equivalent that takes almost no training, or failing that 5 inch stiletto (strippers) heels. As I mentioned the cervix can be unprotected but we advise women to use some form of over-pressure protection in case their partner gets creative with pressurized fluids or gasses and protection is a must for dive-sex so an Oves cap is the barrier of choice. Lastly there is a need for head and neck protection. This is something that is almost unknown because it isn’t talked about since it will scare off the few women wanting cervical orgasms, but a woman sustaining head or neck injuries during a cervical orgasm is very common. Deaths from broken necks while I wouldn’t call them common are the most frequent cause of death while engaged in that sort of hyper-intensive encounter. When taken from the rear the safest way is to use a bed altar for the woman to be positioned on which would protect her head and neck. In the dance studio or on location special helmets can be used for protection. During training to minimize the likelihood of serious head or neck injury I have my students fitted with protective helmets.
Ramming helmets: Since Cyndi came of age, 16 in Nevada, she can put all her sexual experience to use legally now. She had been after me almost since she came to school at St Lucy’s this past January to teach her how to safely have a cervical orgasm. She started after walking in on Pirate and me when he had me helpless in ecstasy screaming into my ball-gag while he battered my cervix. In a moment of weakness I said I would teach her once she reached the age of consent. I keep telling her that it’s not a given that she will be able to tolerate the initial pain before oxytocin floods her bloodstream and she’s plunged into ecstasy, but she was insistent and her mother and grandmother (Eve) were in favor of letting her try. I’ve never taught a woman younger that 19 the techniques so I’m not certain how well she will do. Though I’ll admit that she has passed every sexual challenge she has faced so far and she does enjoy very rough sex.
So, before we left for NYC and Virgin Gorda I took her to Gepettos to have her fitted for a ramming helmet, known in the trade as a ‘ram’. A ram is a piece of safety equipment that I insist students and a lot of inexperienced women use during intense sexual encounters to prevent concussions and sometimes broken necks when there is the likelihood of having their heads rammed into a wall, seat back or the headboard of a bed. A woman in that sort of orgasm has no control over her body and with a man at the peak of his sexual energy plunging into her as hard as he can her head can easily be forced into a nearby object and severely injured. A Ram consists of a custom fitted polymer shell with thick internal padding that covers the shoulders, neck, and head and can be covered by a standard fetish latex helmet/mask so the protection is hidden and it appears the wearer is just in a stylish Polymorphe latex fetish helmet. We went by Gepettos and picked Cyndi’s ram up yesterday afternoon and she tried it on there, and then wore it home. The craftsmanship with the exquisite snug fit with her hair in French braids, the flush clasps and smooth exterior all reflect quality and instill confidence in the wearer. She bought a new zip-back black Polymorphe helmet - with which she can wear a ball-gag - to wear over it and has been prancing around working in her Grishkos at the barre in it. Teens! Sigh! Now that I’ve run out of valid reasons I can’t delay any longer so I’ll probably start her deep thrust training in the next few days.
Friday, July 17, 2009
NYC-BVI trip preparation
A pair of Oves Cervical Caps
Capping Cyndi’s cervix: In preparation for our trip to the BVIs I needed to get Cyndi fitted for an Oves. I had promised I would fit her for an Oves cap when she turned 16 if her cervix was capable of being properly fitted for one. And she was very anxious that she be able to wear one as Oves is much smaller and a far more sophisticated device than a FemCap and she viewed being able to successfully wear an Oves as a rite of passage for a sexually active young woman, which it certainly is. So I had booked her a fitting appointment at the clinic and while I was going to be her fitter I had Chuck there with me to get his concurrence in my judgment. He thought there was no need for him to concur as I had fitted hundreds of Oves type caps by then but I wanted to be sure so he was there. I knew from fitting her for Milex and Semina diaphragms that she had a smooth walled symmetrical cervix which is required to use a cavity rim cap like Oves. I gave her a ThinPrep pap test to make certain her cervix was healthy before I fitted her because if a woman has cervical dysplasia wearing a tight fitting cap will make the condition worse. Her cervix was very healthy.
The fitting itself took just a few minutes and it turned out that Cyndi took a 19mm Oves a much smaller one than the smallest size (22mm) when it was being manufactured by Veos, but we had found there was a niche market for a smaller size for petite women so we have a license to produce the 19mm size. The 19mm fit her perfectly and I taught her to screw it on to her cervix by giving it a turn to make sure the cavity rim sealed securely against the walls of her cervix. Then, after she had worn it for 30 minutes I had her remove it and I felt for the raised ring of tissue – and had her feel the ring as well - where the vacuum had pulled a bit of the cervical wall into the cavity in the rim, the sign of a very secure fit. Since Cyndi is protected by a GyneFix implant she only needs the Oves if she and her partner are playing with compressed fluids or gasses or when she is having dive-sex. There is something different about her since she turned 16 and was fitted for Oves. She now seems a much more mature, confident and a strikingly beautiful young woman than the girl she was only 2 months ago.
Morning routine: At our rented house in the Hamptons and at my place on Virgin Gorda we all took morning class, then pointe while wearing ‘drilling rigs’. The name ‘drilling rig’ to describe my practice costume came from one of the petroleum engineers who were evacuated from the Gulf oil drilling platforms last year during hurricanes and spent their idle time in Vegas. The term seemed to stick among my inner circle, Anya, Taryn, Diané and Cyndi, primarily because of the ease of access for rear entry sex. A drilling rig consists of a thong-back leo, pointe-shoes and a sports shield. No undies of course which means that I have to have my leos custom made to support my B/C cup breasts since I’m still lactating. After our menstrual extractions (more about that below) and once we got to Virgin Gorda since we were diving deep water we all had cervical caps inserted which provide protection at any depth.
The wedding/BVI trip and our periods: The trip was timed around Anya’s cousin’s wedding so we had to decide how we wanted to handle our periods this cycle. Because we have menstrual synchrony we would all be traveling from cycle day 24 of one cycle to cycle day 4 of the next 28 day cycle and all of the girls but me bleed through CD5. Returning readers will remember that I have a menstrual extraction procedure (an ME) done at the first of every cycle so that I only bleed for 1 ½ to 2 days and after that I can go back to safely wearing my Oves cervical cap. The problem was that since we are all cycling naturally we can’t have dive-sex below 10 meters while bleeding because we would be protected by diaphragms that distort due to water pressure below 10m. And since we wanted to dive the cove from CD28 through CD4 (an interval of 5 days) we needed to come up with a solution for the other girls. There were two possibilities. The first option was to take a 5mg tablet of Aygestin, the progestin norethisterone, each day starting a day or two before their periods were supposed to start and continue until the day before they wanted to start their periods. The Aygestin will mask the drop in a woman’s natural progestin level and prevent her period starting as long as she takes a pill each day. That method is used by my friends who are SCUBA divers and travel on live-aboard dive trips where there is no privacy for a girl to have her period. The down side of taking Aygestin is that my friends would have shifted their cycles by 5 days and would have taken the hormone progestin which we all have stayed away from hormonal birth control to avoid.
The other possibility was to have Chuck, a Gyn and Taryn’s boyfriend who was accompanying us, to give Anya, Taryn, Diane and Cyndi all menstrual extractions. That way we would all be using Milex or Semina diaphragms to collect the residual flow for 2 days and then when I was able to wear Oves they would be able to wear their strapless FemCaps again and our cycles would still be synchronized and they would avoid putting artificial hormones in their bodies. They each decided to have an ME even though it was an invasive method compared to Aygestin, so we had Chuck take along enough small sterile cannulas (small enough that there was no need to dilate the cervix) and other bits and pieces to perform the procedures. The extractions went well and Chuck put us all on doxycycline for a few days afterward to minimize any possibility of pelvic infection from pool or sea water. So all of us had our periods shortened and we had the full 5 days of protection we needed for deep dive sex.
Capping Cyndi’s cervix: In preparation for our trip to the BVIs I needed to get Cyndi fitted for an Oves. I had promised I would fit her for an Oves cap when she turned 16 if her cervix was capable of being properly fitted for one. And she was very anxious that she be able to wear one as Oves is much smaller and a far more sophisticated device than a FemCap and she viewed being able to successfully wear an Oves as a rite of passage for a sexually active young woman, which it certainly is. So I had booked her a fitting appointment at the clinic and while I was going to be her fitter I had Chuck there with me to get his concurrence in my judgment. He thought there was no need for him to concur as I had fitted hundreds of Oves type caps by then but I wanted to be sure so he was there. I knew from fitting her for Milex and Semina diaphragms that she had a smooth walled symmetrical cervix which is required to use a cavity rim cap like Oves. I gave her a ThinPrep pap test to make certain her cervix was healthy before I fitted her because if a woman has cervical dysplasia wearing a tight fitting cap will make the condition worse. Her cervix was very healthy.
The fitting itself took just a few minutes and it turned out that Cyndi took a 19mm Oves a much smaller one than the smallest size (22mm) when it was being manufactured by Veos, but we had found there was a niche market for a smaller size for petite women so we have a license to produce the 19mm size. The 19mm fit her perfectly and I taught her to screw it on to her cervix by giving it a turn to make sure the cavity rim sealed securely against the walls of her cervix. Then, after she had worn it for 30 minutes I had her remove it and I felt for the raised ring of tissue – and had her feel the ring as well - where the vacuum had pulled a bit of the cervical wall into the cavity in the rim, the sign of a very secure fit. Since Cyndi is protected by a GyneFix implant she only needs the Oves if she and her partner are playing with compressed fluids or gasses or when she is having dive-sex. There is something different about her since she turned 16 and was fitted for Oves. She now seems a much more mature, confident and a strikingly beautiful young woman than the girl she was only 2 months ago.
Morning routine: At our rented house in the Hamptons and at my place on Virgin Gorda we all took morning class, then pointe while wearing ‘drilling rigs’. The name ‘drilling rig’ to describe my practice costume came from one of the petroleum engineers who were evacuated from the Gulf oil drilling platforms last year during hurricanes and spent their idle time in Vegas. The term seemed to stick among my inner circle, Anya, Taryn, Diané and Cyndi, primarily because of the ease of access for rear entry sex. A drilling rig consists of a thong-back leo, pointe-shoes and a sports shield. No undies of course which means that I have to have my leos custom made to support my B/C cup breasts since I’m still lactating. After our menstrual extractions (more about that below) and once we got to Virgin Gorda since we were diving deep water we all had cervical caps inserted which provide protection at any depth.
The wedding/BVI trip and our periods: The trip was timed around Anya’s cousin’s wedding so we had to decide how we wanted to handle our periods this cycle. Because we have menstrual synchrony we would all be traveling from cycle day 24 of one cycle to cycle day 4 of the next 28 day cycle and all of the girls but me bleed through CD5. Returning readers will remember that I have a menstrual extraction procedure (an ME) done at the first of every cycle so that I only bleed for 1 ½ to 2 days and after that I can go back to safely wearing my Oves cervical cap. The problem was that since we are all cycling naturally we can’t have dive-sex below 10 meters while bleeding because we would be protected by diaphragms that distort due to water pressure below 10m. And since we wanted to dive the cove from CD28 through CD4 (an interval of 5 days) we needed to come up with a solution for the other girls. There were two possibilities. The first option was to take a 5mg tablet of Aygestin, the progestin norethisterone, each day starting a day or two before their periods were supposed to start and continue until the day before they wanted to start their periods. The Aygestin will mask the drop in a woman’s natural progestin level and prevent her period starting as long as she takes a pill each day. That method is used by my friends who are SCUBA divers and travel on live-aboard dive trips where there is no privacy for a girl to have her period. The down side of taking Aygestin is that my friends would have shifted their cycles by 5 days and would have taken the hormone progestin which we all have stayed away from hormonal birth control to avoid.
The other possibility was to have Chuck, a Gyn and Taryn’s boyfriend who was accompanying us, to give Anya, Taryn, Diane and Cyndi all menstrual extractions. That way we would all be using Milex or Semina diaphragms to collect the residual flow for 2 days and then when I was able to wear Oves they would be able to wear their strapless FemCaps again and our cycles would still be synchronized and they would avoid putting artificial hormones in their bodies. They each decided to have an ME even though it was an invasive method compared to Aygestin, so we had Chuck take along enough small sterile cannulas (small enough that there was no need to dilate the cervix) and other bits and pieces to perform the procedures. The extractions went well and Chuck put us all on doxycycline for a few days afterward to minimize any possibility of pelvic infection from pool or sea water. So all of us had our periods shortened and we had the full 5 days of protection we needed for deep dive sex.
Green birth control
CONDOMS
How Green Is Your Birth Control? (POLL)
Huffington Post July 17, 2009 Barbara Fenig
With the abundance of contraceptive products available, many have begun to examine the environmental ramifications of their birth control. The fear of condom wrappers clogging our landfills and birth control hormones afflicting our waterways has caused many to reassess their options in the quest for the most eco-friendly birth control.
According to Slate's Nina Shen Rastogi, in 2008, 437 million condoms were sold, resulting in 2.75 million pounds of used-condom refuse in landfills nationwide.
Given that the condoms represent only about 0.001 percent of the 152 million tons of trash American households produce annually--and that we still need a lot of research into the precise effects that pharmaceuticals are having on our water supply--condoms seem to be the greener choice.
The Blog CafeMom provides the following environmental considerations about condoms:
* Avoid condoms made of polyurethane, a plastic material that will not break down. And no one is recycling condoms at this point. Condom boxes can be recycled. Yay!
* For the most friendly condom disposal, DO NOT flush condoms down the toilet. Simply wrapping the condom in a paper (not plastic) bag, tissues, or toilet paper is probably your best bet.
Planet Green's How to Go Green: Sex edition breaks down the condom debate.
For safer, baby-free sex, nothing beats a latex condom. Vegans looking for a latex option (though derived from trees, most latex has a milk enzyme added) can check out Glyde condoms. The jury is still out as to whether latex condoms are biodegradable and what effects additives and lubricants have on biodegradability. According to most sources, lambskin condoms are biodegradable but are only effective against pregnancy, not STDs. Polyurethane condoms are essentially plastic and not biodegradable. Used condoms are best sent to the landfill.
French Letter Condoms is the first condom company in the world to pay the Fair Trade premium for latex rubber. The rubber plantation's workers are provided workers benefits and appropriate wages to produce the biodegradable, vegan condoms.
While buying condoms in bulk can minimize excessive packaging, the diaphragm, the cervical cap and the intrauterine device (IUD) serve as reliable, reusable birth control. Slate's Rastogi champions the IUD as the most environmentally sound contraceptive choice.
Among the nonpermanent forms of contraception, the one that is least wasteful and most effective--that is to say, the greenest--is the copper intrauterine device. The copper IUD is hormone-free; made from a small amount of a cheap, plentiful metal; and can last up to 10 years. It's also 99 percent effective in typical use, as compared with 82.6 percent for condoms and 91.3 percent for the pill. Nevertheless, less than 2 percent of contraception-using women in the United States use copper IUDs.
There's widespread concern among eco-friendly experts that birth control pills could be the least green form of birth control. The Daily Green examines the problem behind the Pill.
One of the common culprits is estrogen [...] released into sewers through the urine of women taking birth control. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that human breast cancer cells grew twice as fast when exposed to estrogen taken from catfish caught near untreated sewage overflows. "There is the potential for an increased risk for those people who are prone to estrogenic cancer," said Conrad Volz, lead researcher on the study. What may be more troubling is the mixture of contaminants and how they might interact to cause health problems. "The biggest concern is the stew effect," says Scott Dye of the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels program. "Trace amounts of this mixed with trace amounts of that can equal what? We don't know."
While the debate over the greenest birth control options continues, one thing is for sure, any form of birth control still trumps the environmental resources necessary to support a human life.
Quick Poll
What is you or your partner’s preferred method of birth control?
Condoms
The pill
A cervical barrier – diaphragm or cap
IUD
The sponge
Other – please explain
(Please leave a comment with your answer)
Personal comment: I’ve never met a partner who liked to wear a condom though many do for STI protection and to protect themselves against accidental fatherhood. I’m thinking ‘green’ just hasn’t entered the picture as far as birth control is concerned, at least here in Vegas. I’ve written about the popularity of the frameless GyneFix (copper) IUD implant which is more effective than the ParaGard because there is no frame to distort and expel from uterine contractions during hyper-intensive sex. GyneFix is the most popular form of contraception among professional entertainers because no hormones are involved, there is no maintenance and it is more than 99% effective and it is super rugged. Of course if a partner has an unknown sexual history and hasn’t passed a full panel of STI tests then the only sensible thing to do is use condoms.
How Green Is Your Birth Control? (POLL)
Huffington Post July 17, 2009 Barbara Fenig
With the abundance of contraceptive products available, many have begun to examine the environmental ramifications of their birth control. The fear of condom wrappers clogging our landfills and birth control hormones afflicting our waterways has caused many to reassess their options in the quest for the most eco-friendly birth control.
According to Slate's Nina Shen Rastogi, in 2008, 437 million condoms were sold, resulting in 2.75 million pounds of used-condom refuse in landfills nationwide.
Given that the condoms represent only about 0.001 percent of the 152 million tons of trash American households produce annually--and that we still need a lot of research into the precise effects that pharmaceuticals are having on our water supply--condoms seem to be the greener choice.
The Blog CafeMom provides the following environmental considerations about condoms:
* Avoid condoms made of polyurethane, a plastic material that will not break down. And no one is recycling condoms at this point. Condom boxes can be recycled. Yay!
* For the most friendly condom disposal, DO NOT flush condoms down the toilet. Simply wrapping the condom in a paper (not plastic) bag, tissues, or toilet paper is probably your best bet.
Planet Green's How to Go Green: Sex edition breaks down the condom debate.
For safer, baby-free sex, nothing beats a latex condom. Vegans looking for a latex option (though derived from trees, most latex has a milk enzyme added) can check out Glyde condoms. The jury is still out as to whether latex condoms are biodegradable and what effects additives and lubricants have on biodegradability. According to most sources, lambskin condoms are biodegradable but are only effective against pregnancy, not STDs. Polyurethane condoms are essentially plastic and not biodegradable. Used condoms are best sent to the landfill.
French Letter Condoms is the first condom company in the world to pay the Fair Trade premium for latex rubber. The rubber plantation's workers are provided workers benefits and appropriate wages to produce the biodegradable, vegan condoms.
While buying condoms in bulk can minimize excessive packaging, the diaphragm, the cervical cap and the intrauterine device (IUD) serve as reliable, reusable birth control. Slate's Rastogi champions the IUD as the most environmentally sound contraceptive choice.
Among the nonpermanent forms of contraception, the one that is least wasteful and most effective--that is to say, the greenest--is the copper intrauterine device. The copper IUD is hormone-free; made from a small amount of a cheap, plentiful metal; and can last up to 10 years. It's also 99 percent effective in typical use, as compared with 82.6 percent for condoms and 91.3 percent for the pill. Nevertheless, less than 2 percent of contraception-using women in the United States use copper IUDs.
There's widespread concern among eco-friendly experts that birth control pills could be the least green form of birth control. The Daily Green examines the problem behind the Pill.
One of the common culprits is estrogen [...] released into sewers through the urine of women taking birth control. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that human breast cancer cells grew twice as fast when exposed to estrogen taken from catfish caught near untreated sewage overflows. "There is the potential for an increased risk for those people who are prone to estrogenic cancer," said Conrad Volz, lead researcher on the study. What may be more troubling is the mixture of contaminants and how they might interact to cause health problems. "The biggest concern is the stew effect," says Scott Dye of the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels program. "Trace amounts of this mixed with trace amounts of that can equal what? We don't know."
While the debate over the greenest birth control options continues, one thing is for sure, any form of birth control still trumps the environmental resources necessary to support a human life.
Quick Poll
What is you or your partner’s preferred method of birth control?
Condoms
The pill
A cervical barrier – diaphragm or cap
IUD
The sponge
Other – please explain
(Please leave a comment with your answer)
Personal comment: I’ve never met a partner who liked to wear a condom though many do for STI protection and to protect themselves against accidental fatherhood. I’m thinking ‘green’ just hasn’t entered the picture as far as birth control is concerned, at least here in Vegas. I’ve written about the popularity of the frameless GyneFix (copper) IUD implant which is more effective than the ParaGard because there is no frame to distort and expel from uterine contractions during hyper-intensive sex. GyneFix is the most popular form of contraception among professional entertainers because no hormones are involved, there is no maintenance and it is more than 99% effective and it is super rugged. Of course if a partner has an unknown sexual history and hasn’t passed a full panel of STI tests then the only sensible thing to do is use condoms.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Hormones and creativity
A Semina ‘Barbie Barrier’ diaphragm
Hormonal birth control and creativity: I’ve commented before on the fact that at St Lucy’s we try to minimize the number of ballet students during the normal school year as well as at the summer ballet intensives, who use hormonal contraceptives. That’s not only because of the annoying side effects of hormones like breast swelling and tenderness, weight gain and estrogen withdrawal headaches during pill-periods, but also because suppressing a woman’s ovulation can rob her of some of her most creative moments when both mind and body stretch to perfect her artistry and reach new goals. Allowing a student to extend her capabilities by training while fertile and at her hormonal peak is one of the strengths of the dance program. There is some slight increase in the injury rate of dancers during their fertile days because of the loosening of joints due to the estrogen peak but that is more than offset by the increased creative genius unleashed by an estrogen stimulated mind. There are a few women of course who for medical reasons (other than contraception) need to be on birth control hormones but they are often put at a creative disadvantage when competing with ballet students who are cycling naturally.
To maximize a students creative potential we try where possible to have her use a GyneFix IUD – a very effective and low maintenance method - or a cervical barrier for contraception so that she can experience the surge of creative energy released during her fertile days. Most students have a GyneFix implanted but still need a barrier as a sports shield. Our dancers prefer a Semina diaphragm for contraception and for flow control during menstrual sex and a strapless FemCap as a sports shield and thrust buffer for dive-sex. I’m pleased to say that in the 24 months we have been offering dive-sex at St Lucy’s there have been no women injured nor have there been any unplanned pregnancies for students using their cervical barriers correctly.
Hormonal birth control and creativity: I’ve commented before on the fact that at St Lucy’s we try to minimize the number of ballet students during the normal school year as well as at the summer ballet intensives, who use hormonal contraceptives. That’s not only because of the annoying side effects of hormones like breast swelling and tenderness, weight gain and estrogen withdrawal headaches during pill-periods, but also because suppressing a woman’s ovulation can rob her of some of her most creative moments when both mind and body stretch to perfect her artistry and reach new goals. Allowing a student to extend her capabilities by training while fertile and at her hormonal peak is one of the strengths of the dance program. There is some slight increase in the injury rate of dancers during their fertile days because of the loosening of joints due to the estrogen peak but that is more than offset by the increased creative genius unleashed by an estrogen stimulated mind. There are a few women of course who for medical reasons (other than contraception) need to be on birth control hormones but they are often put at a creative disadvantage when competing with ballet students who are cycling naturally.
To maximize a students creative potential we try where possible to have her use a GyneFix IUD – a very effective and low maintenance method - or a cervical barrier for contraception so that she can experience the surge of creative energy released during her fertile days. Most students have a GyneFix implanted but still need a barrier as a sports shield. Our dancers prefer a Semina diaphragm for contraception and for flow control during menstrual sex and a strapless FemCap as a sports shield and thrust buffer for dive-sex. I’m pleased to say that in the 24 months we have been offering dive-sex at St Lucy’s there have been no women injured nor have there been any unplanned pregnancies for students using their cervical barriers correctly.
Problems with birth control pills – continued
Yaz birth control pills
Suits brought against big Pharma over allegedly risky birth control pill
PLI SmartBrief 07/14/2009
A pharmaceutical corporation faces four federal lawsuits over the hazards associated with a birth-control drug. Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals was required in 2008 by the Food and Drug Administration to mount a $20M ad campaign outlining risks presented by the drugs Yaz and Yasmin because they contain the progestin drospirenone, associated with elevated potassium levels. Observers said more suits are likely. National Law Journal (free registration) (07/13)
Personal comment: Returning readers know I’m no friend of big Pharma; however, I have to say in Bayer’s defense that a possible increase in a Yaz/Yasmin user’s potassium level has been known since the pills were put on the market. The maker recommends that anyone taking a pill containing drospirenone have regular checks for the first few months after starting it to ensure that her potassium levels aren’t elevated and if they are to stop taking it. It’s just normal contraceptive maintenance for a woman who is taking drospirenone. St Lucy’s girls who take Yaz, and it is the most popular pill at St Lucy’s, are required to get monthly potassium level checks for the first 6 months after they begin the pill or 3 months if they transfer in while already on it.
Los Angeles Times
July 14, 2009
The pill is less effective in the obese
Obese women starting to take the birth control pill should also use an alternative method of contraception for at least 10 days, and perhaps for as long as 20 days because it takes that long for effective levels of the drug to build up in the blood, Oregon researchers reported today. In women of normal weight, such a buildup only requires about five days, they found.
Epidemiological research has suggested that the pill does not work as well in obese women -- those with a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30. For a woman 5 foot, 6 inches tall, that is a weight greater than 190 pounds. Some experts had thought the problem was that the hormones in the pill were selectively deposited in fat cells and didn't get into the blood stream, but pharmacologist Ganesh Cherala of Oregon State University and his colleagues reported in the journal Contraception that that is not the case. Instead, it simply takes longer for the drug to build up in the blood stream.
Suits brought against big Pharma over allegedly risky birth control pill
PLI SmartBrief 07/14/2009
A pharmaceutical corporation faces four federal lawsuits over the hazards associated with a birth-control drug. Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals was required in 2008 by the Food and Drug Administration to mount a $20M ad campaign outlining risks presented by the drugs Yaz and Yasmin because they contain the progestin drospirenone, associated with elevated potassium levels. Observers said more suits are likely. National Law Journal (free registration) (07/13)
Personal comment: Returning readers know I’m no friend of big Pharma; however, I have to say in Bayer’s defense that a possible increase in a Yaz/Yasmin user’s potassium level has been known since the pills were put on the market. The maker recommends that anyone taking a pill containing drospirenone have regular checks for the first few months after starting it to ensure that her potassium levels aren’t elevated and if they are to stop taking it. It’s just normal contraceptive maintenance for a woman who is taking drospirenone. St Lucy’s girls who take Yaz, and it is the most popular pill at St Lucy’s, are required to get monthly potassium level checks for the first 6 months after they begin the pill or 3 months if they transfer in while already on it.
Los Angeles Times
July 14, 2009
The pill is less effective in the obese
Obese women starting to take the birth control pill should also use an alternative method of contraception for at least 10 days, and perhaps for as long as 20 days because it takes that long for effective levels of the drug to build up in the blood, Oregon researchers reported today. In women of normal weight, such a buildup only requires about five days, they found.
Epidemiological research has suggested that the pill does not work as well in obese women -- those with a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30. For a woman 5 foot, 6 inches tall, that is a weight greater than 190 pounds. Some experts had thought the problem was that the hormones in the pill were selectively deposited in fat cells and didn't get into the blood stream, but pharmacologist Ganesh Cherala of Oregon State University and his colleagues reported in the journal Contraception that that is not the case. Instead, it simply takes longer for the drug to build up in the blood stream.
.
The researchers studied 20 women, ages 18 to 35, all healthy and seeking contraception. Ten were of normal weight and 10 had a BMI above 30. The women stayed in the clinic for 48 hours at the beginning and end of the birth control cycle and blood levels of reproductive hormones were measured during those periods and twice per week on an outpatient basis.
They found that the drugs took an average of about five days to achieve their maximum levels in the women of normal weight, but an average of 10 days in the heavier women. Some took even longer -- one woman took more than 20 days. The situation can be further complicated, the team noted, because many physicians prescribe lower-than-normal doses of the pill to obese women in an effort to reduce their risk of developing venous thrombosis -- blood clots in their legs and elsewhere that can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Dr. Alison Edelman of the Oregon Health and Science University, senior author of the study, cautioned that the team did not study enough women to make definitive clinical recommendations, "other than choosing a contraceptive option that works better for both normal weight women and obese women, like an intrauterine device."
Personal comment: I agree that very low dose pills (anything with less than 35mcg of estrogen) shouldn’t be taken by women who are very overweight. Not mentioned in the article above is the likelihood that the effectiveness of their pills is decreased much more for women who are very overweight if they miss a pill or pills and during the hormone free interval when they have their pill-periods. In the case of Yaz the hormone-free interval is only 4 days but very few tests for effectiveness have been run using overweight women.
The researchers studied 20 women, ages 18 to 35, all healthy and seeking contraception. Ten were of normal weight and 10 had a BMI above 30. The women stayed in the clinic for 48 hours at the beginning and end of the birth control cycle and blood levels of reproductive hormones were measured during those periods and twice per week on an outpatient basis.
They found that the drugs took an average of about five days to achieve their maximum levels in the women of normal weight, but an average of 10 days in the heavier women. Some took even longer -- one woman took more than 20 days. The situation can be further complicated, the team noted, because many physicians prescribe lower-than-normal doses of the pill to obese women in an effort to reduce their risk of developing venous thrombosis -- blood clots in their legs and elsewhere that can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Dr. Alison Edelman of the Oregon Health and Science University, senior author of the study, cautioned that the team did not study enough women to make definitive clinical recommendations, "other than choosing a contraceptive option that works better for both normal weight women and obese women, like an intrauterine device."
Personal comment: I agree that very low dose pills (anything with less than 35mcg of estrogen) shouldn’t be taken by women who are very overweight. Not mentioned in the article above is the likelihood that the effectiveness of their pills is decreased much more for women who are very overweight if they miss a pill or pills and during the hormone free interval when they have their pill-periods. In the case of Yaz the hormone-free interval is only 4 days but very few tests for effectiveness have been run using overweight women.
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About Me
- Jill
- Powys , Wales, United Kingdom
- I'm a classically trained dancer and SAB grad. A Dance Captain and go-to girl overseeing high-roller entertainment for a major casino/resort