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Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish. Yes you have tuned into the

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Speaker 1: daily podcasts from Body and Soul. I hope you are

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Speaker 1: feeling healthy ish. Of course I am Felicity Hawley. Now

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Speaker 1: it's been five years since Body and soulser at Australians

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Speaker 1: about their sex lives, so we thought it was due

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Speaker 1: time we did another. Our team us more than two

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Speaker 1: thousand Australians between eighteen and seventy five years, all sorts

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Speaker 1: of questions about sexual health, wellness, pleasure, dating and relationships.

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Speaker 1: And this week we are dedicating every episode to the

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Speaker 1: findings and perhaps some learnings we can all take home. Well,

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Speaker 1: I was going to say back to the bedroom with

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Speaker 1: us anyway. Joining me today is psychiatrist and author doctor

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Speaker 1: Kieran Kennedy, who is going to put a spotlight on

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Speaker 1: the ones around sexual health and help us have those

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Speaker 1: tricky conversations when it comes to that topic. Make sure

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Speaker 1: you're listening to Extra Healthy Ish as well, where we

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Speaker 1: go a bit deeper into all the findings. We share

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Speaker 1: some well perhaps reassuring ones, some surprising ones, and doctor

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Speaker 1: Kieran joins me on that as well. You can grab

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Speaker 1: that wherever we get your podcasts. Karen Nice to have

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Speaker 1: you back on the podcast.

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Speaker 2: Welcome, thank you, so nice to be here once again.

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Speaker 2: I love these chats with you guys. Soah, I'm excited

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Speaker 2: to be here and especially excited for this topic.

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Speaker 3: Do you see what we're going to be diving into.

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Speaker 4: I know, spicy, I'm looking forward to it.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's always great having you and our listeners love

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Speaker 1: well listening to you, So thanks for coming on. As

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Speaker 1: you say, Body and Soul's Sex Senses as we're calling

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Speaker 1: it has. We've done a survey across all aspects of

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Speaker 1: sex and sexual health. What were some of the key

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Speaker 1: takeaways that interested you and why?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? So many really interesting points, you know, and we've

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Speaker 3: got the actual sexual health nuts and bolts side of it,

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Speaker 3: which is interesting. As a doctor, obviously, I found it

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Speaker 3: really interesting to see how many people have had an STI,

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Speaker 3: for example, and then how many people actually haven't potentially

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Speaker 3: shared with their partner when they've had an STI.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I found that really concerning.

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Speaker 3: And really quite interesting and quite concerning. I agree. But

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Speaker 3: then also, I mean, obviously I love the mental health, psychology,

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Speaker 3: psychiatric side of medicine, so I just always find it

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Speaker 3: so fascinating. How six weaves its weight into our mental

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Speaker 3: health and day to day lives and happiness. And I

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Speaker 3: think a lot of the questions around, you know, sort

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Speaker 3: of communicating to our partner about our sexual needs and desires,

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Speaker 3: where we feel others are in their sex life compared

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Speaker 3: to ours, those were all just such fascinating points in

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Speaker 3: terms of how it impacts our mental health and sense

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Speaker 3: of self and everything.

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Speaker 1: It's been five years since Body and Soul did something

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Speaker 1: like this. I mean, you're you're with patients, you know, daily,

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Speaker 1: and you're the coal face so to speak. Is it

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Speaker 1: changed our approach to sex or what are you finding?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean I think in general, and the survey

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Speaker 3: results actually show this too. Really interestingly, I think in

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Speaker 3: general Australians are much more open to acknowledging the importance

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Speaker 3: of sex in our day to day lives and for

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Speaker 3: our mental and physical health now, and I think a

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Speaker 3: lot more open to querying that and talking about that

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Speaker 3: and things, which I find comes through more often than

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Speaker 3: I would ever think it would. Kind of in sessions

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Speaker 3: with patients as well. You know, even where the appointment

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Speaker 3: isn't geared towards anything to do with relationships or sex,

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Speaker 3: there's always an element of that part of our lives

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Speaker 3: creeping in when we're talking about how our mental health

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Speaker 3: through our general health is going. So it's yeah, I

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Speaker 3: think we're a lot more open at the moment as well.

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Speaker 3: And I will admit, even compared to when I was younger,

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Speaker 3: I feel like when I see young people these days,

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Speaker 3: it's actually such a beautiful thing to see how much

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Speaker 3: more comfortable I think young people in our country are

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Speaker 3: at the moment in terms of talking about sexuality, relationships, gender, sex, gender,

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Speaker 3: all of these things I think are so much more

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Speaker 3: open and acknowledged these days, and it's actually a really

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Speaker 3: beautiful thing to see.

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Speaker 4: I agree.

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Speaker 1: Now, as you've got the doctor tag, I do want

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Speaker 1: to ask you some sexual health related questions because there

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Speaker 1: were some, as you say, concerning stats around this. More

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Speaker 1: than morning ten Australians have an STI. What are some

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Speaker 1: of the most common ones.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean again, it's sort of in some ways

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Speaker 3: surprisingly a large amount that have hit an STI and

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Speaker 3: surprisingly also.

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Speaker 2: Little actually what I thought I was like Actually, especially

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Speaker 2: as a doctor, maybe I see a skewed.

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Speaker 3: Version though I actually thought it would have been high.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I think some of the most common STIs

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Speaker 3: that we're still looking at in terms of people sort

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Speaker 3: of testing positive for things. We've got chlamydia, gonorrhea, obviously,

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Speaker 3: genital herpes. Those are probably the most common ones, and

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Speaker 3: then it kind of goes down the line in terms

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Speaker 3: of less common ones, in terms of syphilis, HIV and

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Speaker 3: now the kind of sexually transmitted diseases or is still around.

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Speaker 1: Wow, I mean I feel like that harks back to

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Speaker 1: you know, two hundred years ago.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it really does in terms of you know,

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Speaker 2: images of ships and and.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean it is, it is still around,

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Speaker 3: but very rarely and especially in Australia, you know, very

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Speaker 3: very really thankfully. So, Yeah, the big ticket items are

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Speaker 3: you know, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and actually often sti's where it's

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Speaker 3: very very common to not have any symptoms at all

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Speaker 3: and not to know that you might actually have an STI,

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Speaker 3: which is I think where it becomes really tricky problematic too.

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Speaker 4: What sort of STIs would those be?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so, gonorrhea very common to not have any symptoms

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Speaker 3: at all, with gonorrhea and chlamydia as well, fairly common

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Speaker 3: to not have any symptoms. But interestingly, most of the

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Speaker 3: STIs can actually present with no symptoms at all, and

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Speaker 3: that even includes MPOs or what we were previously referring

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Speaker 3: to as monkey pops as well. It's just sort of

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Speaker 3: a new kid on the block in this department if

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Speaker 3: we turn it that way. But all STIs can actually

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Speaker 3: present with no symptoms at all for a long period

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Speaker 3: of time, and so that's why we also as doctors,

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Speaker 3: just want to remind people that if you're having sex,

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Speaker 3: especially if that sex is unprotected or with multiple partners,

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Speaker 3: it's just important to get a regular check, even if

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Speaker 3: you don't actually have any symptoms, because that's really common.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, good advice. How often should we get.

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Speaker 3: Checked really depends probably an annoying doctor answer in terms

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Speaker 3: of there's no one answer. I feel like we say that,

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Speaker 3: no one dare I say exactly. It kind of gets

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Speaker 3: us up the book, but it's sort of the reality

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Speaker 3: as well. And I think generally if you're sexually active,

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Speaker 3: the advice is to get a check or a screen

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Speaker 3: every six to twelve months. But again it will really

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Speaker 3: depend on someone's circumstances in terms of whether they're in

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Speaker 3: a long term, completely kind of monogamous relationship or if

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Speaker 3: someone has an open relationship. Obviously, if someone has multiple

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Speaker 3: sexual partners or is seeing people more casually. It really

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Speaker 3: depends on how often you're engaging in sexual activity, who

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Speaker 3: that's with, and then elements around sort of whether you're

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Speaker 3: practicing safe sex and different things as well. Generally if

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Speaker 3: it's kind of a multiple partners side, not practicing safe sex,

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Speaker 3: for example, getting checked actually really regularly, so even if

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Speaker 3: you're two or three months to just get a screening

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Speaker 3: test is uncommon for a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: Now, both you and I pointed out to each other

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Speaker 1: before we started recording on email the twenty percent of

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Speaker 1: people who in the senses didn't and tack their ex

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Speaker 1: partners to tell them they had an STI. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is, as we said, worrying concerning. But this is

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Speaker 1: a really hard conversation to have with someone. I mean

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Speaker 1: how I mean, not only that are we dealing with

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Speaker 1: the fact that we've got an STI and perhaps the

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Speaker 1: shame around that, but how do you actually bring that

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Speaker 1: up with an ex partner?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Really really hard, you know, and I think just

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Speaker 3: that anxiety factor, the cringe factor that you know, there

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Speaker 3: shouldn't be any shame or sense of blame in terms

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Speaker 3: of getting an STI. But you know, the importance around

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Speaker 3: letting partners that you've been with know is really important

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Speaker 3: to kind of obviously protect them and their health if

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Speaker 3: they potentially don't know, but also to kind of stop

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Speaker 3: chains of spread and things as well. It's really really tricky,

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Speaker 3: you know, and I think with difficult conversations, I talk

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Speaker 3: to people a lot about how to have difficult conversations

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Speaker 3: about really different things. Obviously going into a time and

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Speaker 3: space that you feel safe and comfortable as obviously really

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Speaker 3: really important, you know, And it's sort of around I

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Speaker 3: think removing that element of shame from it as well.

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Speaker 3: Just as there's no shame around sex itself, I don't

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Speaker 3: think there should be sort of any sense of shame

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Speaker 3: or blame around STIs either, and just reminding ourselves of

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Speaker 3: that I think can help us push through in terms

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Speaker 3: of that. But actually, even just recently was talking to

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Speaker 3: a patient about the fact that, you know, the anonymous

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Speaker 3: kind of text services to let partners know they are

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Speaker 3: still around as well, and I think a lot of

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Speaker 3: times people forget that that's actually there. So you can

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Speaker 3: sort of actually go online and there's a specific service

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Speaker 3: where you can pop someone's mobile number and sort of

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Speaker 3: send them an anonymous message to just let them know

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Speaker 3: that it might be best for them to get checked

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Speaker 3: and look, I think if we need to, and that's

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Speaker 3: a way to let that person know that they might

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Speaker 3: be at risk. That's also another way around it. So

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Speaker 3: however we do it, it's letting that person know. I

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Speaker 3: think there's really.

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Speaker 1: Well great advice. Karen, thank you for coming on Healthy Ish.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Well, my friends, if you are interested in our sex sensus,

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Speaker 1: I will leave a link to it in the show notes.

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Speaker 1: You can rate and review of this episode. And of

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Speaker 1: course this episode was a little bit different from what

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Speaker 1: we normally do, but I hope you still got something

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Speaker 1: out of it and a reminder to get checked and

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Speaker 1: stay safe when it comes to having sex. You can

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Speaker 1: subscribe to this podcast too, of course, anything else, head

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Speaker 1: to Body and soult. I'm going to follows on socials

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Speaker 1: grob Our print edition which is out in your local

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Speaker 1: Sunday paper, and until tomorrow, stay healthy Ish