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Life

17th Sep 2019

UCC students! Join us in the Creative Zone to talk sex, stigma, and taking the morning-after pill

Anna Daly

pill

Brought to you by ellaOne

Let’s smush that stigma.

It’s 2019, ladies. Actually, we’re not too far from 2020 now and STILL there’s a whole stigma attached to women, sex and, in particular, the morning-after pill.

Well, we’ve decided enough is enough. We’ve teamed up with ellaOne and we’re heading around universities to talk about everything that makes those backward-thinkers squirm.

That’s right. For #MyMorningAfter in association with the morning-after pill brand ellaOne, our very own Niamh Maher from Girls With Goals will be heading to UCC on Thursday, September 26 to get into the nitty-gritty details of why the morning-after pill is such a taboo topic and what we can do to change that. We already brought the talk to DCU a few months ago and it was a HUGE success.

Joining Niamh on the panel this time will be Ireland AM’s Brianna Parkins,Irish model and influencer, Shauna Lindsay and Kelly Coyle, UCC Students Union Equality Officer. And you can bet that they’re going to bring the talk.

A while ago, ellaOne asked the Her readers to let us know their morning-after experiences and the results were pretty interesting.

The survey showed that 59 percent of women aged 18 to 24 who have had unprotected sex said that they have felt judged in real life, or through the media, for their decisions when it comes to emergency contraception.

Almost 9 in 10 females aged 18 to 24 claim to have had sex previously where the contraception failed or where no contraception was used.

While 91 percent of those surveyed say they feel empowered to make the decisions that affect their body by themselves, 76 percent of those surveyed believe there is still a stigma associated with taking the morning-after pill.

Now, that’s just not acceptable in this day and age, ladies. A stigma around a topic that’s all about looking after ourselves and making our own life and health decisions? Nah. So we’re starting the discussion.

So much has happened in the past few years in terms of women’s voices being heard but there’s still a lot more progress to be made. So join us in the Creative Zone in UCC at 5pm this September 26 for a bit of banter, some great discussion, and (of course) some nice little treats to munch on too.

Register for the event here (it’s free!) and we’ll see you there, ladies!

We will also be heading to the University of Limerick in a few weeks on October 3, so keep your eyes peeled for that event soon.

Brought to you by ellaOne

ellaOne is an emergency contraceptive pill that is available from pharmacies without a prescription. No other morning-after pill is more effective at preventing pregnancy after unprotected sex.

ellaOne consists of one film-coated tablet which should be taken as soon as possible, but no later than 5 days (120 hours) after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure. Each film-coated tablet of ellaOne contains 30 mg ulipristal acetate. Always read the label.