Sex+Health

Compared to the U.S. overall, Native Americans/Alaska Natives have higher rates of syphilis but the disparity is most shocking with congenital syphilis (when newborns contract the infection). What’s driving these infections in Native communities, and what can we do to reverse the tide? We explore this with our guest, Meghan Curry O’Connell, a citizen of the Cherokee nation, who’s a physician and the Chief Public Health Officer with the Great Plains Tribal Leaders'Health Board, which represents18 tribal communities across South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.    Show Notes: Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board [https://www.greatplainstribalhealth.org/]   ASHA’s Syphilis Hub [https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/syphilis/]   CDC’s Syphilis Page [https://www.cdc.gov/syphilis/about/index.html]

Is romance dead? Is sex passé? How do we even start talking with our partners about intimacy and pleasure? Let’s add a convo about STI testing and prevention to the mix, too. Who can guide us to talk about all this? Julia Fowlkes, aka Sex Ed Miss Frizzle [https://www.tiktok.com/@sexedmissfrizzle], that’s who! Join us for a humorous and informative journey with our guest, who describes herself as “Just a broad who wants to talk about the stuff no one taught us.” Resources @SexEdMissFrizzle [https://www.tiktok.com/@sexedmissfrizzle] for Julia on TikTok YesMeansTest.org [https://yesmeanstest.org/] to find STI testing resources and prevention tips

In this episode of our doxy PEP series, we continue the conversation with Maxfield Haynes, discussing how to talk with your provider and how to know if doxy PEP is right for you. Doxy PEP—or doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis—is a sexual health strategy that involves taking an oral antibiotic after sex to prevent chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Doxy PEP is the first new prevention method for bacterial STIs, and many experts believe it will be an important tool in our fight against this epidemic. Learn more about doxy PEP at https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/doxy-pep-is-a-new-strategy-to-help-prevent-stis/

Doxy PEP [https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/new-study-add-to-evidence-that-doxy-pep-works-for-sti-prevention/]—or doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis—is a sexual health strategy that involves taking an oral antibiotic after sex to prevent chlamydia [https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/chlamydia-101/], gonorrhea [https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/gonorrhea/], and syphilis [https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/syphilis/]. Doxy PEP is the first new prevention method for bacterial STIs, and many experts believe it will be an important tool in our fight against this epidemic. In this episode, we speak to Oscar Alexis [https://linktr.ee/liquoricechix] to get the patient's perspective on doxy PEP. They share their experience, offer tips for others considering doxy PEP, and explain how they've helped educate providers about this new prevention method. Learn more about doxy PEP at https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/doxy-pep-is-a-new-strategy-to-help-prevent-stis/ [https://www.ashasexualhealth.org/doxy-pep-is-a-new-strategy-to-help-prevent-stis/] Hear more from Oscar on their podcast Liquorice Chix [https://linktr.ee/liquoricechix].

In honor of Cervical Health Awareness Month, the National Cervical Cancer Coalition presents the Cervical Cancer Survivor Series. Across eight episodes, we share stories from cervical cancer survivors across the country, touching on topics including diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship, as well as advice for others whose lives are impacted by this preventable disease. We also talked to providers in the field to answer questions about screening prevention and treatment. In this final episode, we hear from all of our survivors from this series—Jen English, Shaundra Hall, Aisha McClellan, Selena Rushton, and Cheryla Thompson. We talked to them about a range of topics, including advice they’ve received and would offer others after a diagnosis, how family and friends can best offer support to loved ones dealing with cancer, what they would say to anyone considering the HPV vaccine, and why they decided to become involved in advocacy. 568673