Coming Together for Sexual Health

A small leak during a big laugh might hint towards a bigger story .   I n this episode explori ng the pelvic floor , Dr. Olga Ramm and patient Nicole Curut che t answer the age-old quest io n- w ha t's really going on down there ? Nicole Curutchet s tarts off by sharing her experience of developing pelvic floor prolapse , which fe lt like a “ tampon that's halfway coming out . ” She tackles t...

In this episode, Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwartz and Dr. Kelly Treder discuss  misconceptions about tubal sterilization , including debunking notions that is it 100% fool-proof, that the surgery is reversible, that it is more effective than other contraceptive options, or that there is little to no pain post-surgery. “I think we do have fairly widespread misunderstanding of what it means to have y...

Marnina "the Queen" Miller, human rights activist and  c o- e xecutive d irector at the Positive Women’s Network (PWN), recounts her journey living with HIV as a you ng woman in the American South , finding a sense of belonging in the nation al community of PWN , and spearheading initiatives for HIV advocacy and treatment for people of all backgrounds. Marnina discusses some of the unique cha...

In this episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health , host Tammy welcomes Dr. Bethany Golden, a nurse midwife, to discuss the many ways midwives support sexual and reproductive health beyond childbirth. Bethany shares how midwives provide holistic, patient-centered care, including contraception, abortion, STI treatment, gender-affirming care, and primary healthcare for people of all genders and a...

Monica Gandhi, MD, reflects on her decades-long work in HIV care, from providing care early in the epidemic to leading implementation of today’s groundbreaking medical advances. She discusses the science behind HIV (including how 7 people have been cured), the groundbreaking shift from complex pill regimes to long-acting injectable therapies, and how these innovations help patients facing medicati...

Ina Park, MD, is back again for a focused look at her (second) favorite sexually transmitted infection: syphilis (favorite because it’s fascinating) . She says, “it’s one of the most challenging conditions to diagnose in clinical medicine because it literally can look like anything.”   Join Ina and Tammy as they explore how syphilis was almost eliminated around 2000 a nd then surged again to...

Check out a compilation of three previous episodes on reproductive justice and family planning. After you hear what each of our guests ha s to share, take a listen to one (or all!) of the full episodes:   S4 E4: When People Have or Are Denied Abortions: The Turnaway Study with Dr. Diana Greene Foster   S4 E5 Lesser-Known Forms of Birth Control and Downplayed Side-effects: Providing Empow...

Did you know the visible part of the clitoris is less than one-third of its actual size? Cliterally just the tip of the iceberg ! In this second part of our series with Rachel Gross, Rachel and Tammy’s excitement sparks an important conversation about this understudied organ and its friends--the vagina, vulva, and pelvic fl oor. Afterall, it is not common knowledge that (gasp) all sexual organs di...

CDC’s 2023 STI Report is in, and for the first time in years, there’s good news. Tune in to our latest episode with Dr. Ina Park, a nationally recognized expert on STIs, to learn why she is cautiously optimistic about the new data trends in chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Dr. Park expertly navigates the report with our host, Tammy Kremer, explaining how the previous surge in STIs has begun to...

Meet Rachel E. Gross, science journalist and author of  Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage . In this first part of a two–part conversation, Rachel shares how her personal experience with bacterial vaginosis inspired her to write a book that investigates what we know about different parts of female anatomy and how that knowledge (and lack thereof) has been developed. Vagina Obscura is T...

Check out a complilation of three previous episodes on harm reduction. Hear from each of our guests and then go back and listen to one of the full episodes:  S4 E1: Narcan Queen Kochina Rude on Drag and Harm Reduction S4 E2: Harm Reduction by Heart with Braunz Courtney S4 E3: America’s War on Drugs and Harm Reduction Around the World with Tanagra Melgarejo Pulido

In this episode, Rodney McCoy, a Black queer man with over four decades of experience in HIV prevention and education, shares his journey as a Leatherman of color and discusses the intersection of BDSM, kink, and HIV prevention. From his entry into the kink community to becoming a titleholder in the American Leatherman competition, Rodney emphasizes how the kink community provided a safe space for...

C W: Mention of abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, incest, molestation   At 24 years old, in the early 90’s, Michelle Lopez was riding a train in New York with her newborn baby and saw an advertisement that spoke to her. It said, “If you’re a woman and you’re enduring substance abuse, homelessness , or battery, call this number . ” Michelle picked up a phone and began her new life . Her and...

Dan Savage is a sex-advice columnist and p odcaster , and Ina Park is a sex positive STI researcher, physician, and author . The two come together in this episode to discuss desire, pleasure, and how to communicat e about what feels good with partners and providers . Dan delves into discovering kinks , pleasure as we age , and trying new things alone and with partners . Ina reflects on her experie...

Director of Gender-Affirming Care for UC Davis Health, Miles Harris , FNP-BC , advocates for the   integration of gender-affirming care with primary care and family planning . He shares that “ s o much of gender affirming care is n ot about hor mones ”  and that “it is often so easy as a health care provider to do the thing that someone needs that changes their life.” He breaks down misc...

Family doctor Jennifer Karlin, MD, PhD,   and health educator Mariana Horne , join host Tammy Kremer to talk through forms of birth control that are not as well-known , including self-injectable Depo Provera, internal condoms, and the fertility awareness method . They go into side effects of birth control methods that are not a lways named, such as changes in mood and blood pressure. Mar...

Welcome to  our mini- series on R eproductive J ustice and F amily P lanning ! Diana Greene Foster, PhD, a u thor of The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having - or Being Denied - an Abortion , sits down with host Tammy Kremer to   advo cate for   reproductive justice and bodily autonomy . She explains t h at the Turnaway S tudy found that,...

Tanagra Melgarejo Pulido, Director of Capacity Building at the National Harm Reduction Coalition, speaks with host Tammy Kremer about the landscape of harm reduction programs and policies around the world and in the US, with a focus on the impacts of racism and colonization. She explains how harm reduction began with “communities of people who used drugs looking at each other, saying wait a minute...

CW: Substance Abuse Braunz Courtney speaks  with host Tammy Kremer about  he practiced strategies of harm reduction at the age of 11 before he kn ew what the term meant . He w ent from d a n c i n g shirtless to r aise awareness of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in queer B la ck communities to serving as the E xecutive Director of the HIV Education Prevention Project of Alameda Count y . He...

CW: Opioid Overdose, Molestation   Welcome to  our mini- series on Harm Reduction! Host Tammy Kremer sits do wn with drag queen Kochina Rude   to share how she uses her performances to educate the LGBTQ+ community about N a l oxo ne administration, safer partying,   and overdose prevention . At her show “Princess , ” co host ed w it h Lisa Frankenstien, Kochin a Rude has pro vi...

Host Tammy Kremer chats with UCSF Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong about the current state of the Mpox outbreak: how it reflects contemporary health inequities, how stigma can be a barrier to people accessing treatment, and how lessons learned from past public health crises shaped the clinical and community response. Dr. Chin-Hong speaks about his experience caring for Mpox patien...

Host Tammy Kremer interviews Jenn Rogers, director of the National Coalition for Sexual Health (NCSH), and Bryce Furness, MD, CDC Epidemiologist, about their work developing a toolkit for primary care providers to use in order to center sexual pleasure, problems, and pride as a part of all wellness visits. The CDC encourages taking sexual history by asking about 5 Ps: Partners, Practices, Past STI...

Director of the CAPTC Dana Cropper sits down with Gail Bolan, MD, and Alice Gandelman to discuss the founding of the CAPTC and its work in supporting sexual healthcare providers over the last 33 years. We learn about the forces that shaped the sexual healthcare field. Our guests unpack how the CAPTC developed alongside the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, the surprising relationship between HI...

CW: Transphobia, Racism   Zami Hyemingway and Dr. Tatyana Moaton sit down with Tammy to discuss their personal and professional experiences with medical care for transgender folks and medical mistreatment. Together, they reflect on the need for medical providers to become responsive to transgender people's individual needs and advocate for them in a setting that has often been unsafe for...