Are you a doctor/nurse/midwife/therapist/other type of health care provider? Do you ask you patients about their sex lives? Are you ever stumped by their problems or questions? Need resources? Then you missed a great night at our Seattle store this week. My esteemed colleagues held a fantastic event for medical professionals that went over tons of information. (If you are a medical professional, what questions stump you? I’ll try to answer them in the comments.)
Sadly, I wasn’t there so I’ll let our Education Coordinator tell you all about it in her words:

A few minutes before we started a small crowed had gathered by the community resource board. Just before we began, a customer asked if he could have a conversation about condoms with me. He said that he was having trouble with condoms repeatedly breaking and that his partner was blaming him for buying the wrong ones and he kept trying to “sneak” not using a condom. After talking about some trust issues, I asked what kind of lube they were using. He didn’t know about lube! They were using hand lotion. After I helped him chose a variety of condoms and some lube samples, he thanked me profusely and said how comfortable I made him feel and how much I helped him. All of this was in front of the group of medical professionals. It was like I paid the guy to do this little role play with me. I hope none of them thought that.

I explained to the group that we get a lot of folks in the store asking borderline medical questions that they didn’t get good info on from their doctor or that their doctor had sent them in to get something specific which is why I wanted to do this class. So we launched into a little Sex Toys 101, lots of info on lube, some suggestions for menopausal and post menopausal women, great toys for couples and emphasis on ways to have sex without it being all about the penis in vagina way (including guys with erection issues strapping it on for their partners) we talked about great toys for trans folks and how to talk about changing bodies and maintaining a sex life through transition. They LOVED the G-spot info, and unlike any medical tour I have given before, they wanted tons of info on anal sex. One of the residents said that all he learned about anal sex was horror stories and scare tactics to tell patients NOT to do it and he wanted to know what to tell people so they could do it safely. We also covered a lot of info on kegels and I learned a few things too.

Afterwards one of the nurses came up to me and said she never heard that glycerin in lube could cause yeast infections, but that she always got yeast infections until they had miraculously stopped a few years ago. During my lube talk she put 2 and 2 together and realized that she had always used Astroglide and when she stopped using it a few years ago she never had a yeast infection again. Amazing!

The one patient that was sent to the info night by her doctor I think was my most favorite customer interaction ever. She came up to me and said that she has never enjoyed sex, that she has always been paranoid about it hurting, getting her pregnant, or causing some kind of infection. She had basically heard every scare tactic ever told about why NOT to have sex and could never get past that to enjoy it with her husband. She was post menopausal and felt that now she no longer had to worry about getting pregnant so she should finally enjoy it, but didn’t know how. At one point I made a comment like “well you know, people do all kinds of things…” and she said “like what? What do other people do? How would I know?” awww…we talked about sensual stuff leading up to sex, how to apply lube in a fun and sexy way (she didn’t use lube either), different positions to try and then I showed her some books to look at. After looking them over with her hubby (who I didn’t even know was there) they bought The Good Vibes Guide to Sex, The Clitoral Truth, the video Female Ejaculation for Couples, and Sliquid H2O! She told me she never felt comfortable talking with anyone like that before and that I reassured her that she wouldn’t hurt herself or get an infection and that she could finally try to have fun. Seriously, it made my heart all warm and fuzzy and I think I got a little verklempt *sigh*. Another day spreading the good word of Babeland by providing an honest, open and fun environment and encouraging personal empowerment, community education, and supporting a more passionate world for all of us.