Ep. 3 STIs and Safer Sex Supplies

Let's talk about sex, baby! This episode is a little longer but our guests love talking about sex. In fact, it's their job! Join Jordan McCann (our interim Associate Director for Health Promotion and Well-Being), Mikayla Comer (our Health Promotion Coordinator), and Andrew O'Brien (our Well Peers Practicum Student) in a conversation about STIs and Safer Sex Supplies that will help you stay healthy and keep your peace of mind throughout your sexual experiences! They'll go into topics such as what types of safer sex supplies we have free for students at JMU, what differentiates STIs from each other, and how STI prevention draws some strikingly similar parallels to some other current events related to health that we have going on...

A full transcript with links to resources can be found here.

Resources
Interested in scheduling a sexual health coaching appointment or have a specific question about sex? Email our sexpert, Jordan, at mccan3jl@jmu.edu.

Want free condoms? Order here --> JMU Safer Sex Stations
Need more information on STI testing? Check out UHC STI Testing Info

Be Well Dukes!

All episodes of Season 1 (2020 - 2021) were recorded  when The Office of Health Promotion or, The Well, was a part of the University Health Center and located in the Student Success Center. As of summer 2021, The Well no longer exists and we are now UREC Health Promotion. Check out Season 2 Episode 1 to learn more about these changes or visit JMU University Recreation's website.

Transcript

Episode 3 Transcript & Resources

JMU Healthy Sexuality Website for information on safer sex supplies, sexual health coaching, and more found here. 

Safer Sex Supplies Custom Order Form found here.

JMU Well Peers Website

• Social Media: Instagram and Facebook: @JMUWellPeers

Intro: Hi there! Welcome to Well Dukes, brought to you by The Well. Each week, you’ll hear conversations from a variety of JMU staff and students that we hope challenge what you know, think, or do in regard to your own health and helps you be Well Dukes.

Andrew: Hey everyone and welcome to this episode of the Well Dukes podcast. I'm the host Andrew O'Brien, I'm currently the Health Promotion practicum student in the Well. I'm a senior health sciences major and I'm also a certified peer educator with the Well Peers and I can explain more about this group towards the end of the episode. I'm excited to be here to discuss this week's topic of STIs and Safer Sex Supplies. We are going to be debunking some common myths and misconceptions concerning STIs and we’re also gonna address the general question of why college students should care about this topic in the first place. Today, I have Jordan McCann and Mikayla Comer with me. Jordan, you're the Interim Associate Director for The Well. I know you 'cause I'm your TA for your class that you teach and I also met you when I joined the Well Peers, which was formally REACH last year. But can you tell us more about how your job relates to what we’re gonna be talking about today?

Jordan: Yes, absolutely. So I am also very excited to be on this episode. As it is a topic that I love talking about which probably sounds strange to some people. Um, I have been doing sexual health education with college students for almost eight years now about eight years. I started off by selling condoms on to not- not as like a side hustle. It was for my job when I was a peer educator in undergrad. And so it's just been something I've always been interested in. I've kind of progressed through my career I have also done a lot of just general sex education sexual health programming. I helped create the Sextacular program that we do every semester here at JMU and I also now serve as a sexual health coach, which is a service that we offer to students too. 

Andrew: So you're definitely doing a lot with the Well and definitely seem like you have the experience to be talking about this sort of topic. And Mikayla, why are you here today talking to us about this topic, specifically? 

Mikayla: Great question. Well, first off, yes my name is Mikayla Comer. My pronouns are she/her/hers, and my role with the Well is that of the Health Promotion Coordinator. So a part of my job is that I get to work with awesome students like Andrew with the Well Peers. I also oversee the Safer Sex Center operations and facilitate health promotion programming as well. And, shameless plug, we are now offering safer sex supplies custom ordering. We’re going to talk about that more later, but stay tuned that will be coming. As for why I’m here today. So working the Well actually was not my first introduction into sexual health. When I graduated from JMU, I started as a sex-ed middle school teacher. So that was a job I never thought I would have but it ended up being one that was such a great opportunity. But pretty much long story short, I would travel to middle schools in Harrisonburg City, Rockingham County, Page County, and I taught a sex-ed curriculum to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. And as nervous as I was to do that, I had no experience in teaching-- that was not my, my education. It came natural to me and I really enjoyed it and I was good at it. And so that really sparked a passion for me about health promotion, specifically sexual health. It’s something that I feel like a lot of people don’t talk about. People don’t talk about sex, they don’t talk about sexual health. When I tell people what my job is for the first time, I typically get this very blank stare look, like “Oh that’s nice.” But it’s cool to be able to have these conversations and normalize this conversation and provide information and answer students’ questions that otherwise wouldn’t be able to have that conversation. So that is why I’m here. 

Andrew: That's great. Yeah I definitely agree and, even as a college student, I have taken health science courses, human sexuality specifically relating to this topic, but I definitely think a lot of college students will like the talk we're gonna have and benefit from it a lot. I guess just to start off, something I’ve used to wonder before I came to college, and still something I hear around campus and from people I've met, but just to start off, what are STIs and how come the term is now “STI” because I used to hear it, and everyone else used to hear it as STD, so why the term (I guess) change sort of more recently from STI than STDs? 

Jordan: Yeah, so STI stands for sexually transmitted infections. The term STD-- the difference there is that the D is for diseases, so still sexually transmitted. These are different types of infections and health conditions that occur and are transmitted from (typically) sexual activity. We'll talk a little bit more about this specifics-- not all of them are transmitted only by sex but due to the way that they're transmitted, often times through fluid exchange or direct skin to skin contact those are things that are happening during sex. So we say STIs for a few reasons. One, just the word “infection” doesn't sound as stigmatizing as diseases. So we know that for most of them, we can easily treat the symptoms. People that have an infection or a sexually transmitted disease can still live fully normal productive lives and healthy lives and continue to have great sex lives so we don't want to stigmatize that. The more kind of medical and scientific reason that is also... that has also come up is when we talk about an infection, that usually means that someone is not showing any symptoms, so... Some STIs can be asymptomatic and - so, meaning they don't show any symptoms - versus a disease is when we actually do see symptoms presented. That's kind of the technical difference there is-- that diseases are once symptoms are presenting, infections doesn't mean that there are symptoms presenting. But again also it's just not as... it doesn't sound as scary, um, when we say sexually transmitted infection versus a disease. 

Andrew: I totally get that. Because even college and...  Not talked so much about in high school but it's definitely stigmatized in the past when people say someone has an STD people are definitely more reluctant to want to talk about it or there's more of a stigma around it just from the past thought of getting one or like everyone being afraid of getting one in general. And then I think another thing that college students can sometimes get confused about with STIs is the differences between them. So for STIs there's viral and bacterial ones. My question for this would be what is the main difference between these two categories of STIs regarding how they spread, which ones are in each category of the ones we've heard of, and how do the treatments vary between STIs? 

Mikayla: So as for the ones in each category, I always taught the viral STIs as the 4 H’s. And that was typically easy for students to catch on with. So I think about the four H's that's gonna include HPV, so human papilloma virus. HIV, so human immunodeficiency virus. Herpes and hepatitis B. And then for bacterial infections, the most common ones that you hear are going to be chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. So when you think about those two separate categories all of your viral infections start with an H and gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia are all bacterial in the separate category. 

Andrew: Okay, that's definitely a good way to remember it. Um and then between bacterial and viral infections, what is the difference between how long they last, how long... like how they are transmitted? 

Jordan: Yeah, so another big distinction between the two categories is that the bacterial infections can be treated with medicine. So meaning if someone finds out that they have one of those STIs that they can take in some sort of treatment regime or medication um and then be okay with it. Viral on the other hand, meaning that once we have it it stays in the body for life. That doesn't mean that if someone has one of those four H’s one of those viral infections that they're always going to be presenting symptoms or you know, it's something that they're gonna have to manage every day. That might be the case for some people and it's just gonna vary and so that's something else, I think, that's important to highlight in this episode is, as we can talk about normalizing it and also knowing that if it does happen if someone does get an STI or an STD that they're, like I said earlier, they can still fully live healthy normal sex lives. With others or not. 

Andrew: So when talking about bacterial STIs, a lot of college students don't really know or that they've heard that you can't get the same STI once you’ve gotten rid of it and treat it. Is that true?

Mikayla: That is false. So if you have chlamydia or if you contracted chlamydia in the past, you can get it again. You can get chlamydia and gonorrhea at the same time. So these, just because you've had them before you do not become immune to them, they are bacterial infections, so yes, you can go through treatment and if you're having unprotected sex again with an infected partner then you can absolutely get that infection again. So I think that’s something that students sometimes get tripped up on is “Oh I’ve already had it, I’m immune, I’m good to go.” That’s just not how it works unfortunately. So you can get it again, so keeping and being mindful of making sure to use protection and having those conversations with your partner as well. 

Andrew: And then we're talking about STIs-- bacterial viral-- when people get them, well college students, specifically like a lot of them will be reluctant to go get it checked out because they don't know how the treatment process is, they don't know what the health center has available for this or they are afraid to look and a lot of college students might think treatment is painful and expensive. I was wondering if you just tell us more about some of the common treatment options, like, for something like chlamydia or the pricing for the health center. 

Jordan: Yeah, so happy to give kind of a quick rundown of the process. So I want to back up just a little bit. I realized something I didn't mention and want to highlight a little bit more is touching on the fact that, like I said, is that some can be asymptomatic meaning that people do not show symptoms at all, which I totally get that that can seem scary meaning like “well if I don't have any symptoms, how would I even know that I have it.” And so that's also why we emphasize and work to highlight the importance of getting tested even if it's regularly. So the recommendations for getting tested for an STI is if someone is sexually active that they still get tested every six months or at least once a year. Um, getting tested if someone has changed sexual partners and then of course if they get tested if they are presenting any symptoms or they have been told that they've been in contact. So if they had a partner that says, they've been tested positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea. Some, especially like chlamydia, with people with a vagina that they often times don't show the common symptoms. So if someone with a vagina does have any symptoms, they might think it's something else like a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis or maybe just a UTI because the symptoms for chlamydia are things like painful urination, pain during sex, there might be a different kind of smell going on there. So it's important that no matter what if anything of someone's normal is feeling a little off that they should still go get tested. For a person with a penis they are more likely to show symptoms of having an STI like chlamydia or gonorrhea those symptoms look like um, again painful urination some discharge might again be a little bit of a different odor going on. 

Jordan: So basically, it's just - it's first it's important to know your body and know what your normal is and then if you're noticing something is a little off going to get tested and, Andrew like you said, some people don't know what that testing process looks like so that could be a barrier or deterrent to go. Getting tested here at the Health Center on JMU's campus, there are a few different options. If someone is getting tested for chlamydia, and gonorrhea, those are always tested together. If it's someone with a penis, it's just a urine test. So peeing in a cup, there's no insertion of a swab that I think might still be a myth that some people think that it can be really invasive. That is how it used to be tested. We don't do that here. It can detect it just in the urine itself. So yeah, if that makes you, understandably, that could scare someone off if they thought that's what was going on. And then for someone with a vagina it is we do a swab, a self-swab. So again, it's not invasive by any of our providers the person themselves will swab in the bathroom. And this is actually a bit more of an accurate test than peeing in a cup. So that's how we test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. To test for syphilis, while that is still bacterial STI, we have to test for that by doing the blood work, so they'll do a blood draw. 

Jordan: And oftentimes people can get that tested and opt to go ahead and do an HIV test because that is also how we can test for HIV is doing a blood draw. Currently. Those options are still available for someone to come in person to get that done but we are also now offering people to do at home testing so someone could come and pick up a testing kit and that would include either a cup to urinate in or a swab to do that self swab they do it at home there are instructions provided, there's a video that also can provide some instruction and then they just drop it back off at the health center and so we have those options again for chlamydia and gonorrhea. That's at home testing only but in person we can also do the blood draw for HIV and syphilis. Something else that's important to note is we also provide testing not only for vaginal sex but we want to make sure that students are getting tested for all types of sexual activity that they engage in. So, we say if you use it, test it! if someone is engaging in anal sex we can do… um we can also test that it is also a self-swab so again not a provider is not doing that at all. 

And then we can also test for the pharyngeal Infection, meaning a throat swab. With that if someone does it at home they can swap it themselves, but if it's done here in the clinic a nurse will swab it. 

Mikayla: And I want to add too. We are so fortunate to have such a great health center staff and that's some feedback that we've received consistently from students is: this experience was so much better than I thought it was going to be. I came in very nervous and I left feeling reassured. So just understand too that yes this can be a very scary time and maybe an area of unknown for somebody but knowing too that our staff they are kind they are going to treat you with the best care and our students always leave feeling like they've been listened to and well taken care of so keeping that in mind too if you are nervous. 

Andrew: Thank you guys for providing that information. I'm sure a lot of students will find that useful if they've been thinking about getting tested if they've never gone tested before or if they just didn't know where to get tested in the first place. A lot of... something a lot of students might also be concerned about with getting tested is maybe pricing so would you guys know off the top of your head what the pricing would be for testing in the health center?

Jordan: Yeah, that is... that's a great point because cost can be a barrier. Unfortunately, ours is not free but we do provide it as low as we can. So for someone to get tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea, like I said, they are tested together. It's $20 per site. So what that means is it's $20 to test, kind of, each part of the body that someone may need. So if someone has engaged in anal sex and they want to get that tested that would be $20. If they've also engaged in oral sex and want the pharyngeal test done that would be another $20 and then if they've engaged in vaginal sex that would be another $20. So it could cost someone up to $60 just to get tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea, depending on their sexual activity. To test for syphilis that is $4 and a test for HIV, that is $10. 

Andrew: So switching over to talking about safer sex supplies condoms dental dams lube that we  have available on campus. I'm first just gonna address the myth that I've heard since I came to JMU freshman year. I think I heard it from my FROG when I first got here and it's that: if you use the condoms or whatever safer sex supplies in the health center that they'll break, that they're cheap, what do you guys have to say about that? 

Mikayla: That is a myth. Absolutely, it is a myth. We provide a variety of different brands. So we do have the Trojan brand, which is a little bit more common. People have heard of it more. We also have a brand called One. We use Atlas, Lifestyles, a variety of different brands. And so, a part of that comes from students just not hearing the other brands, and this idea that Trojan is the only brand that works. And it’s a myth, it truly is, it’s a myth. They go through the same rigorous testing as Trojan condoms. We provide the best products for our students, and we go through a bulk ordering process in which we order from a company that specializes in safer sex supplies. So, definitely a myth. Not true. We do have a variety of different brands with Trojan being the more popular with students, but they do go through the same testing.

Jordan: Yeah and. So it does. It hurts my heart a little bit. And we're not just saying that. I get it that our listeners might be like, “oh they're just saying it because they have to.” No, we would not want our we wouldn’t be putting our personal, you know kind of name and brand on it as well as the health center’s name on it if we were putting out faulty, unreliable products. That's not that's not doing the service at all. So it's not to say that someone could not have -  couldn't experience a condom breaking during sex, but there are a lot of reasons that a condom may break during sex and it's not always - it's not just because it was a certain brand. Like Mikayla said they all go through the exact same FDA testing. So the condoms that we have yes just like all other kinds of products there's different brands and they brand them and they price them out differently, but they all have to go through the same exact testing. So, just to highlight some reasons that a condom may break if someone is using them. Could be a few different reasons. 

Jordan: Opening could cause a puncture so the way someone opens the package may cause it to tear. we recommend always just using your fingers. never use scissors to open the package. You always kind of want to push the condom to one side when opening it. This also goes for, uh...  I hope this is an urban legend that even though I have. I've heard it quite a few times - Don't take them off of the bulletin boards in the halls. Don't take them if they've been taped or stuck to something. Like that, there might be a puncture there. You don't know who could possibly have tampered with it before. Also making sure that it's not expired. so condoms typically have a shelf life of about two to three years. We are always going through our inventory to make sure that we never have expired products out there and so that might have been the reason too. We know sometimes someone has one and if they got it, hadn't been sexually active, still happen to have it laying around, don't check the expiration date, it could be that that condom has since expired and then that just makes it less effective meaning it might be more likely to break. Another reason is the type of lube people use with it. So the condoms that we have in the safer sex center-- most of them are made with silicone lube, they're already lubricated with silicone based lubricant. Some of them are lubricated with water-based lube. Silicone and water-based lubricant are perfectly fine to use on latex condoms. You do not want to use oil-based lubricant with latex condoms. Oil-based lubricant when rubbed on a latex condom will cause it to break immediately. Examples of oil-based lubricants are things like Vaseline, baby oil, certain food products that sometimes people think seem sexy in the time-- in the moment but it's... it's really not [laugh] we don't want any food inside of our body. So but yeah, so petroleum jelly so petroleum and oil-based lubricants do not work well or at all with latex that will cause the latex to break. 

Jordan: And at other times too if it's just if they are not lubricated well could cause it to break. Using more than one. so using an internal condom with an external condom is not recommended... The friction there between the two products can cause it to break. Sometimes if someone's not wearing the right size it might come off. So again if it's too small or if it's too big it doesn't fit properly and doesn't fit snugly onto the penis or the person wearing it, that could also cause it to come off so it's not necessary maybe breaking but... Definitely failing to do its job properly. 

Andrew: Okay, So continuing the conversation about why condoms may become faulty and defective or break… There's another myth that I've heard also in school like the last couple years that some people just keep condoms like in their wallet at all times and I guess Mikayla, would you say this is a smart thing to do because could the temperature- changing temperatures have something to do with it or cause it to break?

Mikayla: So that is something you see a lot in movies, someone just whips a condom out of a wallet but the reality with that is is if you keep a condom in your wallet that friction or that movement of the wallet constantly rubbing up against the wrapper the sitting on the wallet, the bending, the squishing. All of those movements can potentially wear down the latex or the material of the condom, so putting them in a wallet is not your best move. The best place to store condoms would be in a room temperature area, just like... like your nightstand would be good. not leaving them in a glove compartment in your car, that's-that's really bad. Condoms do not do well in extreme temperatures of extreme cold or extreme heat all of those conditions can again wear down the material so it's making sure that they are in a room temperature space not too damp space or dry space, just like a normal room any of those other extreme conditions can also decrease effectiveness as well. 

Andrew: Okay so I'm hearing just to keep it at home... keep them at home, keep it in a drawer, keep it somewhere safe until you're going to use them otherwise 

Jordan: Yeah and you made the good point Andrew saying like... Until you're going to use them and so I also want to say if someone has the intentions of using a condom like they're going out to a party, or somewhere on a date, or with a partner and they anticipate having sex it's totally okay to have that condom and to put it in your pocket or put it in your wallet. If having car sex is your thing and you put it in the console or glove box for that moment like that, it's okay, it's not like it's going to just deteriorate on its own in you know the 24 hours; but it's that prolonged exposure and prolonged friction. Because we still want to encourage that we know if someone has a condom on them then they're more likely to use it versus if they don't have one at all. So, we still want people to be prepared and carry one regardless of who you are in the relationship. 

Andrew: And then when we're talking about condoms all the other types of safer sex supplies, I work in the Well, so I am aware what we have. For those that do not know, which types barriers and other safe sex supplies do we have available in the Well or other locations? 

Mikayla: That is a great question. We have a variety of different supplies at our safer sex centers. And when someone visits these centers for the first time, it can be overwhelming so I'm going to try to break this down into different categories, so hopefully that explains a little bit better. But in terms of external condoms, so these are condoms again that are worn on the penis. We have ones that fall under the category of additional stimulation, so those would be our textured, studded, ribbed, pleasure plus, pleasure dome condoms. We also have condoms in different sizes so we know people come and all shapes and sizes and so do penises, so we have snugger fit condoms, we've got standard fit, and larger fit. We also have external condoms that are specific to oral sex so those are going to be our flavored condoms as well as our non-lubricated condoms. So with the flavored, we have chocolate covered strawberry, banana, mint, grape, fruit punch, we have a variety of different flavors. And in terms of non-lubricated condoms, those are just ones that don't have a flavor but they also do not have lubricant on them or prepackaged with lubricant and that is conducive to oral sex as well. In terms of condoms that just match someone's preference, so the ones that kind of fall under this category would be colored condoms, so we have condoms that are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, all fun colors. We have glow in the dark, which is surprisingly, or not that's not surprisingly, but overly popular at Halloween so we see that one go pretty quickly in October. We also have thin condoms. They are not less effective, they're just less material so they're just a smidge percentage smaller... not smaller, thinner than your standard condom which allows for that extra stimulation extra pleasure.

Jordan: Yeah and the thin, they also include oftentimes more lubrication so that helps with that natural feel. 

Mikayla: And we also have vegan condoms. So vegan condoms lack a byproduct called casein which is a milk-based ingredient so they are classified as vegan condoms. And we also have non-latex for our friends who have latex allergies. And then Andrew like you said internal condoms. We have these available at our safer sex centers as well. These are condoms that are worn inside the vagina. And aside from condoms, we have dental dams which are also scented so we have wild berry, grape, banana, vanilla, mint... Jordan. Am I missing any? 

Jordan: No. 

Mikayla: Okay That's all of them. Um, so we have dental dams and those are a sheet of latex that are a barrier between a person’s mouth and another person's vulva or a person's mouth and another person's anus. So that is for oral sex as well, but it's just a latex barrier sheet that protects the. It's just a latex barrier sheet, that is in between the mouth and those regions. In addition to those products, we also have lubricants which lubricant like Jordan mentioned earlier, it prevents the microtears from happening inside the vagina or the rectum we have water-based and silicone and we also have flavor lubricant as well which again is conducive for oral sex. In addition to those items, we have finger cots and gloves so yes all of these are barrier methods and we have those. You'll often hear finger cots referred to as finger condoms, and they're not technically wrong, but these are barrier methods you use for manual stimulation or hand play

Mikayla: SO, with all of these listed, the purpose of these products is to provide a barrier between individuals to prevent infections from spreading. I don't know about you all but that sounds pretty familiar. So like when we think about wearing masks, it's a different phenomenon, but a mask-- the idea is that if you wear the mask you're preventing spreading COVID to other people. So kind of the same idea applies here too. If there's a barrier between partners having sex, that prevents fluid exchange and it also prevents that skin-to-skin contact in which STIs can be spread. And when I talk about fluid exchange, I'm specifically talking about semen, vaginal fluids, and blood as well. 

Andrew: Great! thanks for that. I'm sure now people know the condoms that we do have in the Well and the health center etc. do not break and they are not faulty and they also know about the variety we have now.

Jordan: And! And they're free too. 

Mikayla: Yes!

Andrew: And they’re free.

Jordan: So that is something else to mention.  They are all free and students can take as many as they'd like and come as often as they'd like..  

Mikayla: Ooo good one [laughs].

Andrew: And we have name brands because that is what people care about now.

Andrew: When talking about the safer sex centers, we have on campus a lot of people might not know we have one like I said in the Well on the first floor of SSC, but where else on campus are they available for students?

Mikayla: Yeah, so the Well is by far our most popular location. So Andrew like you said, first floor of the Student Success Center. If you're looking at the pharmacy we are the door to the left we also have a safer sex centers at the University Health Center at the general medicine check out, and we also have them in the women's health as one. APC, that’s the athletic performance center-- if you are in that building in the advising wing, there's a safer sex center there. We also have a safer sex center at Student Learning Initiatives or SLI in Huffman Hall that is temporarily closed due to student move out; however, be sure to check their website and keep up to date because that will be reopening in the near future. And we have recently added a miniature safer sex center at TDU so Taylor Down Under at the pop-up pantry and the pop-up pantry currently is open Mondays and Wednesdays so students can go in there. It's a reduced variety that we typically offer at our larger locations, but there are supplies available for students there as well. 

Jordan: And, since we've had to adapt some, we are now also offering custom online ordering so if someone does not want to come into one of those spaces and pick out the different safer sex supplies that they want, they can visit our website or scan a QR code to access that form and just complete it anywhere on your phone. It's mobile friendly. You can pick up to 20 different safer sex supplies of external condoms, lubricant, dental dams, internal condoms, all of the things we offer, and then come and pick them up within the next business day. So that is something new that we've started this semester that we're really excited to be offering. 

Andrew: Thanks guys for talking to us about our resources, um, the safer sex centers. I think that's all the questions I have for you guys about STIs and safer sex supplies. I guess to wrap up, I would just ask what is something you want listeners to take away from today or what is something you want them to remember from this episode.

Mikayla: I would say that… It is okay to ask questions, it's okay to not have all of the answers, and it's okay to use your resources. So one of the resources that we offer here at the well is sexual health coaching and so Jordan, like she said earlier, she is our sexual health coach. This is a service available to students if you've never had this conversation before if you have questions about anatomy, how does sex work, if something's not working for you and you need to talk with somebody about it? Jordan is a fantastic resource to be able to have these conversations with. There is... there's no fee. You just make an appointment and we'll talk a little bit about that towards the end we list through our resources, but just knowing that it's okay to have those questions and it's okay not to know everything. One thing with sexual health in this field is information... there's always new information and there's things that are constantly coming up and there's always something new to learn. So if you don't have all the answers, that's okay, and it's okay to seek out resources as well.

Jordan: Yeah, as Mikayla was saying... What we like to think about is that sex is not intuitive for most people. It's a learning process. We don't... even though where sexual beings from womb to tomb as I like to say that there is a lot to still learn, and unfortunately for a lot of our students, they're not receiving the comprehensive sex education prior to coming to college and coming to JMU. So it's okay that they... that you don't know everything. It's okay that you don't - you may not know how common STIs are knowing that you are at a risk for that. And it's also okay that if someone ever does get an STI... That's fine too. So, what I would want people to take away from this is realizing that, as Mikayla said, there are resources here for students and there are... There are people that do care. Really it's just we want students if you're going to be having sex, we want you to be having good sex. If you're not having good sex, why are you even doing it at all? And I think even just the fact that there are some people saying that and verbalizing that I hope gets some students to be like, “Oh, yeah, maybe that's what I needed to hear like that's a good point”. Like I need to think about that as yet, why are we wasting our time before not getting something out of this, if we're not enjoying ourselves? And part of that comes with... to make sex enjoyable is we wanted that we're safe. Protecting ourselves and protecting our partners. I think given that we are-- that everyone is more aware of the spread of communicable diseases because of COVID, you know, there's a lot more awareness on protecting ourselves and protecting others, so I hope that maybe this carries into using barrier methods. 

Jordan: It was no surprise we know that people were still having sex and not everyone was using condoms. That's not a surprise at all but I'm curious and I'm hopeful to see that maybe that we've... now that we've seen how people are adopting and adapting to other protective behaviors like mask wearing, maybe that will carry over to using condoms more when-- in having sex so knowing that it's important to take a small precaution in order to help prevent, again, the spread of any infections. 

Andrew: All right. Thank you. I think that's all I have about STIs and safer sex supplies, but I have two final questions for you guys just to end the episode. The first one is what advice, looking back, would you give your undergrad self? 

Jordan: Hmm. 

Andrew: But you guys aren’t that old but it could have been kind of long ago.

[Laughs}

Mikayla: Thanks. 

Mikayla: My answer to that, specifically to my college self, I would say push yourself to try something new. And to share with the people that are listening, I would say when I look back at my time at JMU and the experience that... experiences that were the most impactful for me was working at the athletic ticket office, working my summers at conference services, and attending and leading alternative break programs. Those were all experiences that I applied to with the assumption that they weren't gonna pick me, but I tried and then I was able to have those experiences and I met fantastic people, learned great things, and have lifelong memories. So push yourself to try something new and the worst anyone can do is say no. 

Jordan: Yeah, I would say assert your independence more. That's probably what I would tell myself. There was a lot of things and undergrad that I wanted to do because I recognized that I had a lot of opportunities to do new things, but a lot of them I didn't do because I... My friends made it worn as interested or I didn't have someone go with me to do something so I then did not do it. And I would say that's something I, yeah, I wish I had a little bit more confidence back then, to still go and do things and that it's okay if I was the only one doing it because it was something I was interested in. 

Andrew: And then for my last question they, Mikayla and Jordan both thought I was gonna ask something else. I'm gonna switch it up and see what they say. What is both of your’s favorite music, artist, or song, you know, or both. 

Jordan: Another tough question. It’s just... it's tough to pick just one. Um...

Andrew: It could be current, all time, whatever.

Jordan: That's what makes it hard, um, I there are some great ones. I would have to say my... yeah initial response is still a tie. But Florence and the Machine and uh, Hozier for me. 

Mikayla: I would have to say, as not exciting as this is, I love Journey. Journey is my favorite band of all time and I also love the Eagles. So those be my two. 

Andrew: Well, Dukes. That's all we have for this episode. Thanks for listening to us talk about STIs and safer sex applies today and thank you Jordan and Michaela for having me on here today, 

Jordan: Thank you for having us.

Mikayla: Thank you.

Andrew: If you have any questions for us you can find our email in the episode description or message us on social media @JMUHealthCenter. If you're interested in being part of the Well Peers and participating in things like the podcast like I talked about earlier when I was introducing myself, you can follow us on Instagram @JMUWellPeers and DM us if you have any questions. Be sure to tune in next Wednesday to dive a little deeper into the role sex plays on a college campus and also for all of our future other episodes to come. It was great being a part of this week's episode and I hope you guys enjoyed. And remember: stay sexy, stay safe, and be well, Dukes. 
If you're listening to this episode for HTH100, the passcode is safer sex.