Welcome back, spring breakers! I hope that by now your hangover has worn off and you’ve started the countdown until summer.
While many of you spent your break getting tan on a cruise or getting drunk at Panama City Beach, I was at home with latex slushies taped to my back. And yes, before you ask, it’s every bit as sensual as it sounds.
Let me explain. The latex slushies — probably not the scientifically correct term — were part of an allergy patch test I did last week to test for, you guessed it, latex.
It started a few years ago when I would have allergic reactions to my bathing suits or to things made out of spandex-like material. I didn’t think much of it, as it didn’t bother me too much, so I brushed off the issue.
But in the past few months, I started to have reactions to latex condoms. That’s when I became concerned. I guess my reasoning was that I didn’t care if something affected my regular everyday life, but as soon as it messes with my sex life, we’ve got a problem.
So I started using non-latex condoms — which, by the way, are really awesome even if you’re not allergic to latex — and started visiting doctors to get the problem figured out.
Which is where my story turns into an important message: Please, talk to your doctor. More specifically, please talk to your doctor about your sexual health.
Normally when you go to the doctor, it’s for things like a cold or because you broke a bone — and not the one I want you to talk to your doctor about. It’s not as common to think about doctor visits for sex-related reasons.
Not everyone has the means to visit a doctor. If you do, please take advantage of that privilege.
I get it; it can be super embarrassing to talk about sex with your health care provider, who is in most ways a stranger to you. No one wants to tell a stranger, “Hey, yeah, so I have this weird rash and, uh, do you mind looking at it and telling me if I have herpes?”
If you are truly too uncomfortable with your doctor, find a new one if that’s an option, or see if there’s a different person at the same medical practice who can see you.
Make sure you are comfortable discussing these topics with your doctor because sexual health issues are just as important as any other health issue. You would go to the doctor if you had bronchitis; go to the doctor if you have an STI. You would go to the doctor if you had problems seeing, so go the doctor if you have problems getting hard.
Your sexual health should be important to you as a responsible — alright, semi-responsible — adult. Plus, your sexual health directly affects your quality of life. If you have an issue that’s making sex painful or more difficult than it should be, you probably won’t have sex as often, which probably won’t be as fun for you.
So what should you talk to your health care provider about? It could be something directly related to sex, like difficulties getting or maintaining an erection, lack of self-lubrication or decreased sex drive.
It could be something that you don’t think is a big deal now but could develop into a much larger issue later. After my allergy test confirmed I wasn’t allergic to latex, my doctor suggested I might be allergic to semen, which would be a real boner-killer — literally.
It could be something that you think is unrelated to sexuality. A lot of health concerns affect sex and vice versa, so make sure to tell your doctor anything that might affect your health history.
So here’s some advice: Relax. No matter how weird your health concern, your doctor has heard and seen worse. And as embarrassing or awkward as it may be, the appointment won’t last forever, but a health problem may.
If I can make it through an appointment of sitting shirtless in a cold exam room with tape on my back and looking up condom ingredients with my very old doctor, you can do it too.
Robyn Smith is a UF journalism junior. Her column appears on Fridays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 3/13/2015 under the headline “Sex health as important as other issues”]
