Q: Can a man have unprotected sex with his wife?

Also, can he have unprotected anal sex with his wife without contracting any disease? Can a man get a disease like HIV if he gets menstrual blood on his penis by having during the woman’s period? And what’s the safe period to have unprotected sex with one’s wife in order to avoid pregnancy? Harjit, Kolkata

Outside a dog, a condom is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s a choking hazard! But really, they help us prevent STDs and complications in relationships.

Still I hear that recently a gentleman in Mumbai almost divorced his wife over her love for the latex friend. Couldn’t this idiot come up with a better excuse? Most men I know swear by condoms. Or maybe not.

Amit and Sandhya, both 17, fell in love on their first day at college. They made love for the first time on Valentine’s Day.

It wasn’t something they planned, it just happened. “We didn’t know how to handle it,” says Amit candidly. As for birth control, they had nothing ready. Part two in our First Times series.

Many young people take risks with birth control because they hugely overestimate the chances that they're infertile, a survey in the US found.

Just six percent of young women can't get pregnant – yet nearly four times as many believe they’re infertile. “I’m only 16 and I’ve always had a gut feeling I’m infertile,” writes one girl in an online post.

Happy Dampatti, or Happy Couples, is a hit reality show all about birth control.

It’s keeping thousands of slum-dwellers in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh glued to their TVs or radios, eager to hear their neighbours talk about their family planning decisions. The couples who use contraception in the most impressive ways win prizes like fridges – and gain role-model status in their community.

Making birth control sexy works better than using scare tactics, says family planning organisation DKT International.

DKT uses social marketing to provide cheap contraceptives and safe abortions, and help prevent HIV/AIDS. Doesn't this encourage young people to have more sex? “Condoms don’t promote sex,” says DKT’s Chris Purdy. “It’s as if umbrellas promote rain.”

Christian women in Nigeria talk about birth control more than Muslim women do, a new study found.

Women are often nervous of bringing up family planning with their husbands, especially in the mainly Muslim north where polygamy is quite common. God is the provider and women have no right to stop giving birth, people say.

Eighty percent of women in India undergo sterilisation as a birth control method, the Earth Policy Institute revealed.

They usually opt for a tubectomy when they’re only in their mid-20s. People aren’t aware of alternative contraception methods, says public and community health professional Dr Payal Laad. And men just aren’t willing to get involved in family planning.

Getting a girl isn't the problem in the steamy city of Iquitos in Peru, says 21-year-old student Pablo. But buying a condom is a different matter.

“It’s true that we young people often follow our hormones instead of our heads,” he says. “The trouble is that although we do want to be responsible, we're too embarrassed to buy condoms.”

“Cutting my tubes is like ending my virility” protests one Rwandan man, who’s unhappy with a new government campaign.

Rwanda’s population is growing too fast for the country to cope. So the government’s decided to encourage men to have a vasectomy. But there’s plenty of resistance to the idea.