S3 E4: PrEP Supports: Reflections on the Campaign
Coming Together for Sexual Health
Release Date: 06/15/2022
The Clitoris and Its Friends with Rachel Gross
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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 floor. Afterall, it is not common knowledge that (gasp) all sexual organs differentiate from the same embryonic root, or that close to 10,280 nerve endings were counted in one clitoris. By taking an interdisciplinary approach to sexual health, Rachel reveals how pleasure is...
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Dr. Ina Park Unwraps the CDC’s New 2023 STI Report
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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 slow, while prevalence continues to be high in certain “STI microclimates." Dr. Park stresses the importance of maintaining momentum through increased testing, focused prevention efforts for...
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Vagina Obscura: A Conversation with Rachel E. Gross
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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 Tammy's favorite read of the year! Rachel highlights the often-overlooked clitoris and vagina, exploring how these body parts are still unfamiliar or awkward for many, including healthcare...
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Harm Reduction Compilation
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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
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Trailer
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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S4 E9 From Red Ribbons to Leather Straps: Rodney McCoy’s Trailblazing Tale of HIV Prevention and Pleasure
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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 self-discovery and empowerment. The episode explores the link between pleasure, power dynamics, and HIV prevention, highlighting the importance of honest conversations, sex positivity training, and...
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S4 E8 Intimacy Starts with I: Women, Self-Love, and HIV with Michelle Lopez
Coming Together for Sexual Health
CW: 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 her daughter were diagnosed with HIV, and it was her mission to get clean, understand her own trauma, and help others with similar stories. Michelle, a bisexual Caribbean woman,...
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S4 E7 Dan Savage on the Magic Question “What are you into?” & Dr. Ina Park on How Providers Can Help
Coming Together for Sexual Health
Dan Savage is a sex-advice columnist and podcaster, 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 communicate 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 experiences as a provider, having conversations with patients around sex and pleasure as bodies, needs, and abilities change. Dan says that gay people might be better at sex, “not because we're...
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S4 E6 Family Planning as Gender Affirming Care with Trans and Nonbinary Patients
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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 “so much of gender affirming care is not about hormones” 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 misconceptions: hormone therapy and contraception for trans folks is relatively simple, taking testosterone and not having a period does not prevent pregnancy, and there are no contraceptive methods...
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S4 E5 Lesser-Known Forms of Birth Control and Downplayed Side-effects: Providing Empowering Contraceptive Care
Coming Together for Sexual Health
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 always named, such as changes in mood and blood pressure. Mariana shares how she has supported clients who’ve faced coercive birth control practices in getting the care they want and how her background helps her connect with monolingual Spanish-speaking...
info_outlineWe speak with Terrance Wilder and Nikole Trainor, two people who were intimately involved in PrEP Supports, a campaign launched by the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 2018. PrEP Supports was a community-engaged campaign that specifically focused on PrEP access and education in Black communities in San Francisco.
Download the transcript of this episode.
Resources:
See images and video from the PrEP Supports campaign at Ask About PrEP or by texting “Ask PrEP” to 21201
Instituto Familiar de la Raza and Sí a la Vida
Get connected to Have Good Sex on Instagram and their website
Get free at-home testing kits from takemehome.org
Learn more about San Francisco’s Getting to Zero Campaign
PrEP and PEP self-paced online learning opportunities from the CAPTC
PrEP printable pocket guide for providers
View the CAPTC’s HIV and PrEP resources
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Terrance Wilder is an Equity Training Coordinator at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation where he’s worked for 5 years. In addition to putting in work at SFAF, Terrance is an avid basketball player, hiker, and comedy fan.
Nikole Trainor currently works full-time for the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) as the Getting to Zero Program Coordinator/Contract Manager, while also teaching part-time at SJSU in the School of Public Health. Nikole has worked for SFDPH in the STD Prevention and Control Branch for the past 13 years. She is responsible for spearheading several innovative initiatives which included the launch of the San Francisco PrEP Supports Campaign (2019), launch of Have Good Sex Campaign (2020), implementation of the first Pharmacist Delivered One-Stop PrEP Program at Mission Wellness Pharmacy in San Francisco CA (2018-present), and the implementation of the first official lab-based HIV/STI/HCV home-testing program (2021). For the past 15 years, Nikole has been dedicated to improving quality of life for all communities of color and speaking boldly about inequities that negatively impact the communities in which she serves.