healthcare | Intimate Health Consulting

tattoo of a speculum holding a nectarine with the text "Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair"

What does your tattoo mean? Power in the Speculum

December 15, 2022

The last decade of my life has been devoted to pelvic health and the speculum exam in one way or another: first as a community sex educator, then a genitourinary teaching associate, a medical consultant, and finally a forensic nurse. These are not competing identities or stairsteps I used to get to my end goal, but part of a lifelong scaffolding of knowledge that allows me to teach and practice in ways I never could have imagined before. The text…

Sexual History Taking in the Age of Tiger King: Pt 2

April 28, 2020

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2020’s smash hit documentary, Tiger King is not likely to age well. BUT, through the haze of dubious animal handling, aggressive and dangerous interpersonal conflict, and all-around disorienting approach to life and personal finances… there’s a conversation worth opening up about sexual health. I’m using the CDC’s “5 P’s” method of taking a sexual history to examine missed opportunities and how we as providers can have better conversations with our patients. In the second part of this investigation, let’s pick…

Love is Good Medicine

February 2, 2018

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A love letter this valentine’s day to the doctors, nurses, therapists, and social workers who give of their precious time with loved ones to care for us at our most vulnerable. Please join me in supporting other sex educators this Valentine’s Day by checking out the rest of our “Love Is” blogs here. And don’t forget to tune in to O.school for more pleasure-centric, inclusive sex education every night of the week.

Are pap smears painful for people who never had kids?

January 27, 2018

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Intimate Health Consulting has started answering some questions on Quora about reproductive health, gynecology, and LGBTQ health. You can follow our answers here but we’ll be posting a few of them here on the blog. Are pap smears painful for women who never had kids? Should they be painful? No. Are they sometimes? Yes. The experience of pain has less to do with whether you’ve had kids and more to do with: 1. The size and shape of the…

Nosy Parents Mean Fewer Teens Get STI Tests

April 13, 2017

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What’s this? We need to trust young people and give them the privacy and freedom to access reproductive healthcare? Who knew that would improve STI infection rates! Privacy Concerns Prevent Some Youth from Getting STD Tests One of every eight sexually experienced teenagers and young adults on their parents’ health insurance plan said they would not seek out sexual or reproductive healthcare advice because their parents might find out, CDC researchers found. Overall, 12.7% of these adolescents ages 15-17 and…

Provider Spotlight: Emma Kupferman

March 8, 2017

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Emma Kupferman has always been the person her friends come to with questions about sex. “I think it’s because nothing embarrasses me, people know nothing is off-limits. I believe people can do whatever they want with their bodies, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.” Now she’s using her unflappable nature and more than a decade of experience in clinical social work to tackle a new challenge: sex therapy. Emma is the newest employee at Freed Bodyworks, a holistic health center…