This year, we’re going to do something a little bit different during Sex In Medicine Week. At your suggestion, we’re doing a special personal stories event.  In order to make it happen, we need your help!

We are looking for stories, long or short, about your experience with gender in medical, allied health and public health fields.

No matter who you are or where you came from, whether you are cisgender, transgender, male, female, or anything in between, you’ve all had experiences worth sharing, and we want to hear about it.

Here’s a few questions to ponder as you prepare to send us your stories:

When was the first time that you were aware of your gender at school or in your work in healthcare?

When were you proud of being your gender when you were at work or school in healthcare?

When have you faced barriers in the medical system because of your gender, if at all?  How have you addressed them?

Stories will be posted here, on our website. Stories will also be used in our event in February.

To submit stories: email to robin(dot)brehm(at)gmail(dot)com, or simply comment on this post. If you would like to remain anonymous, please let us know.

Events throughout the week. Scroll over selected dates on event calendar.

Monday Feb. 7^th @ Noon in Room Student Center Main Lounge

We kick off this year’s events with a frank discussion of sex and medicine.  As future health care professionals, we will likely be presented with a wide range of challenging questions from our patients.

Can an HPV infection really be cleared?  Is it safe for a patient’s partner to swallow the secretions or ejaculations of a patient on powerful chemotherapeutic drugs?  When is sexual activity contraindicated?  Is sexual function preserved in patients with quadriplegia or with other neurological injury?   Does washing the genitals before and/or after sexual activity increase or decrease transmission of STIs?

At this Q&A session, our panel of physician experts will field all of your clinical questions about sex.    What are some of your burning questions?  What will your future patients need to know?

Presenters: Q&A Panel Guest Speakers

	Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, LMSW, MPH, PhDFounder and Clinical Director of the Medical Center for Female Sexuality
	Dr. Richard Sadovsky, MDAssociate Professor Family Medicine SUNY-Downstate Medical Center
	Dr. Ridwan Shabsigh, MD Director of the Division of Urology at Maimonides Medical Center Associate Professor of Urology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University

Sponsors: Psychiatry Club

Tuesday Feb. 8^th @ Noon in Room Lecture Hall 1A

Chris Noel will be sharing his personal insights and experiences with sexuality as a person living with a spinal cord injury.  By sharing his story, he will shed light on some of the stereotypes and prejudice that are so often cast upon the sexuality of people with disabilities.  Chris will also be speaking to his work with Independence Care System (ICS), a nonprofit organization committed to assisting people with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in community life.  They serve as a model of integrated health care and social supports based on collaboration between consumers, providers and care coordinators.

Presenter:  Chris Noel, Outreach Manager, Independence Care System NYC

Sponsors:  SALUD

Tuesday Feb. 8^th @ 4pm in Room Carrel 6F

This is an informative and interactive two-part workshop focusing on abortion and contraception.  One hour of the workshop will be spent with Dr. Leighton giving an overview of the different contraceptive methods available to women today.  She will include a discussion of how each method works and address their individual advantages and disadvantages.  By the end of the session, we hope to arm you with knowledge that will enable you to help your patient select the best contraception option for her, to discuss contraceptive options with your patients in a meaningful way that leaves them feeling confident that you have a broad understanding of this complicated subject in reproductive health.

The other half of our time will be spent in a hands-on session, going through the process of a D&C pregnancy termination starting from when your patient walks into the room unsure of her options.  Dr. Leighton will engage in a role-play exercise that will demonstrate appropriate options counseling techniques that will allow us to educate our patients, enabling them to make an informed decision about which type of abortion to pursue.  Included in this session is a demonstration of a D&C on a papaya that seeks to demystify the procedure.  Papayas and D&C kits will be provided for workshop attendees who would like to see for themselves what this procedure entails.

Dr Lynette Leighton attended medical school at UC Davis. Her residency was at UCSF School of Medicine in the department of Family and Community Medicine. She is now a reproductive fellow at the Institute for Urban Family Medicine, at the Beth Israel hospital in Manhattan.

Presenters:  Dr. Lynette Leighton, MD, MS. Institute for Urban Family Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital

Sponsors: MSFC