Provide this timeline to parents or guardians who would like suggestions for age-appropriate sexual health topics to discuss with their kids from ages 0 through 18 years. Additional information about each topic, including tips for starting conversations, is available on the partner website, www.talkwithyourkids.org.
Use this sheet to facilitate key communication between the MA/nurse and clinician as part of the adolescent patient hand-off after intake has been completed by an MA, intake nurse, etc.
Use this script to train clinic staff on how to start conversations with adolescents about sensitive topics—including safety, sexual health, and Family PACT services—during their alone time with these patients.
Host Tammy Kremer interviews Jenn Rogers, Director of the National Coalition for Sexual Health (NCSH), and Bryce Furness, MD, CDC Epidemiologist, about their work developing a toolkit for primary care providers to use in order to center sexual pleasure, problems, and pride as a part of all wellness visits. The CDC encourages taking sexual history by asking about 5 Ps: Partners, Practices, Past STI History, Protection From STIs, and Pregnancy Intention. The National Coalition for Sexual Health recently released a video series called “A New Approach to Sexual History Taking,” along with a set of new questions for providers to ask patients in all wellness visits that add a 6th P: Pleasure, Pride, and Problems.
Jenn and Bryce discuss the 6th P, which re-centers patients’ needs, enjoyment of their sexual lives, and social stigma attached to sex. As Jenn elaborates, “A satisfying pleasurable sex life is really a key element to sexual health and well-being for most people. So our sexual history taking questions really should reflect that.” Bryce uses his specialized experiences providing sexual health care to LGBTQ+ populations to argue that we must recognize health disparities and address stigma around sexual health. Together, they discuss the creation of a freely accessible toolkit for all providers to use. They recognize that the current method of sexual history taking doesn’t incorporate enough discussion of issues such as gender identity, sexuality, shame, and stigma, and how these can affect sexual activity and sexual health.
Read the transcript of the episode here.
Resources:
National Coalition for Sexual Health
NCSH Health Care Action Group, Communications Actions Group, Policy Action Group
NCSH Sexual Health History Questions
CDC guide to taking a sexual history
CDC’s Rachel Kucher et al. , “Sexual History Taking in Clinical Settings: A Narrative Review”
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Jennifer Rogers, MPH, is the co-director of the National Coalition for Sexual Health (NCSH), a robust Coalition of over 200 members where she works collaboratively to promote high-quality sexual health information and health services. She also leads the Coalition’s Health Care Action Group to develop evidence-based and practical provider tools and materials.
Bryce Furness, MD, MPH, is a Medical Epidemiologist with the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. He has been embedded within the Washington, DC Department of Health since 2002. Highlights of his tenure include establishing a transgender health clinic, leading gay men’s health & wellness clinics, and improving the PrEP Clinic. He has recently published several articles on transforming primary care for LGBT people.
Click the resources below to download and edit!
 Confidentiality Poster
Hang this in exam rooms to let adolescents know about their confidentiality rights. (click to download an editable version)
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 Parent/Guardian Letter
Hand this letter out to parents/guardians to let them know what to expect at an adolescent well visit. (click to download an editable version)
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 Medical Assistant Script for Universal Alone Time
Use this script to train Medical Assistants and/or other clinic staff on how to explain universal alone time. (click to download an editable version)
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 “Parent-ectomy” Protocol
Use this protocol to train staff on how to escort the parent/guardian to the waiting room for universal alone time with adolescents. (click to download an editable version)
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 Adolescent Alone Time Policy Letter
Hand this out to adolescents to let them know what to expect during their well check. (click to download an editable version)
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 Teen Patient Warm Hand-Off Sheet
Use this sheet to do a quick screening with teens before they get to the provider (completed by an MA, intake nurse, etc.). (click to download an editable version)
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HEADSSS
Quick Start Guide/Remider Card
Edit this reminder card to reflect your chlamydia screening clinic flow and remind providers about doing a HEADSSS assessment. (click to download an editable version)
Director of the CAPTC Dana Cropper sits down with Gail Bolan, MD, and Alice Gandelman to discuss the founding of the CAPTC and its work in supporting sexual healthcare providers over the last 33 years. We learn about the forces that shaped the sexual healthcare field. Our guests unpack how the CAPTC developed alongside the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, the surprising relationship between HIV work and STI response, strategies to meet sexual healthcare needs both within and outside of sexual health clinics, and the ever-present need for greater training for providers around testing and treatment of STIs. We learn about how behavioral interventions were centered in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the importance of centering social determinants of health and larger structural forces in prevention and treatment efforts. They also discuss their hopes for opening up discussions about sexual health and de-stigmatizing the topic in the greater community.
Read the transcript of the episode here.
Resources:
HHS/Viral Hepatitis Action Plan
Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US (EHE)
Provision of Quality of STD Services (CDC) 2020
National Coalition for Sexual Health
Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health.
Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter.
Gail Bolan, MD, was the Director of the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2011 through 2020. Prior to joining CDC, she directed the California Prevention Training Center for 23 years. She served as the Chief of the STD Control Branch at the California Department of Public Health and the Director of the San Francisco City and County STD Prevention and Control Program from 1997 to 2011 as well as Medical Director of the San Francisco City Clinic from 1987 to 1997.
Alice Gandelman was the Director of the CAPTC from 1994 through 2021. She oversaw growth and development of CAPTC in numerous training and capacity-building programs in STD, HIV, sexual, and reproductive health.
CW: Transphobia, Racism
Zami Hyemingway and Dr. Tatyana Moaton sit down with Tammy to discuss their personal and professional experiences with medical care for transgender folks and medical mistreatment. Together, they reflect on the need for medical providers to become responsive to transgender people’s individual needs and advocate for them in a setting that has often been unsafe for them. Transgender folks need medical providers who will take risks and be true allies. Healthcare providers must rethink care amidst a system in which they occupy positions of power.
Our guests also argue for de-coupling all healthcare from any sort of police or criminal systems, emphasizing the impact this has on people with marginalized identities. Their discussion dives into the colonial roots of the gender binary and the transgender identity category, and how these constructs lead to a misunderstanding of what it means to be transgender and navigate trans healthcare. https://californiaptc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CT4SH-SeeAllOfMe-FinalV2.pdf
Last March, Zami Hyemingway co-organized the conference on “See All of Me: The Intersections of Medical Mis/Distrust and its Impact on Transgender Health, HIV Care and Prevention” with Dr. Tatyana Moaton as a plenary speaker.
Download the transcript for the episode here.
Resources:
CBA Resources https://californiaptc.com/programs/capacity-building-assistance/
U.S. Trans Survey: New survey, open to trans people at any stage, launching 10/19/22 https://www.ustranssurvey.org/
STD Expert Hour: This training focuses on the sexual health needs of transgender and gender non-conforming people. https://californiaptc.com/training/std-expert-hour-transgender-sexual-health-what-you-should-know/
Higher Education Scholarship Opportunities for LGBTQ+ students listed at EduMed, Peterson’s, GoGrad
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Zami Hyemingway is the Capacity Building Assistance Gender-Affirming Project Manager at the Denver Prevention Training Center where he leads a team of identity consultants that provide technical assistance to clinics, health departments, and community-based organizations. Zami has over 10 years of experience in developing and implementing health behavior and health promotion programs. He also hosts personal wellness workshops via his organization, Spiritus Wellness.
Dr. Tatyana Moaton is the CEO and Principal Consultant for Envision Consulting, one of the first black trans-led consulting firms in the country. She is also a senior capacity-building specialist with San Francisco Community Health Center. Tatyana is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, serving honorably as an intelligence officer in the US Army. She recently obtained her Doctorate of Philosophy In Management Science. She has worked with the ACLU, LAMBDA Legal, U.S. Center for Disease Control, AIDS United, NMAC, Gilead, Merck, Elton John AIDS Foundation, and Black AIDS Institute.
CW: Sexual Trauma
Psychotherapist Sam Kendakur talks with Tammy about the intersections of sexual health and mental health. Listen in for nuanced conversations about the gray areas and messiness of consent; how to piece apart our own understandings of sexual pleasure, desire, and attraction; the impacts of stigma on sexual and gender identity and those who choose non-monogamous relationship styles. We learn about the unexpected impacts healthcare providers can have on the wellbeing of folks with marginalized sexual, gender, and racial identities, especially when there are stark differences between the provider and client’s lived experiences.
Download the transcript for this episode here.
Resources:
Sam Kendakur has worked in the mental health field for the past 12 years in a variety of settings across college campuses, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, alternative peer support networks, clinics, institutes, and currently private clinical practice. He’s invested in creating spaces that make healing accessible and relevant to people from different realms of experience, especially those that inhabit marginalized spaces. The social structure and health care system have failed so many, and he tries to address and combat these shortcomings through a commitment to client-centered anti-oppression practices that honor that suffering is most often nested within inequitable and unjust systems and their consequences rather than individual lack. He specializes in working with the LGBTQIA community, BDSM and kink, race and ethnicity, trauma, and alternative relationship styles.
In this episode, Dr. Fleming sits down with host Tammy to discuss what she sees as providers’ role in supporting patients, now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. They review the multitude of situations in which a pregnancy is not optimal and how abortion stigma is one of the biggest barriers to medically safe abortion. At the core of her work, Dr. Fleming seeks to ensure her patients are empowered and find joy in their own reproductive health decisions.
Download the transcript of this episode.
Follow Dr. Mai Fleming on Twitter.
Resources:
CAPTC-Related Training and Resources:
S3 E5: Trauma-Informed Pregnancy Care with Becca Schwartz, LCSW
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Dr. Mai Fleming has a breadth of experience working in primary care settings and providing reproductive health services across the gender spectrum. Her work includes telemedicine abortion services via Hey Jane. As a family doctor, she helps people consider reproductive health and family planning within the broader context of their lives. In taking an expansive view of what reproductive care encompasses—including fertility counseling, abortion, and gender-affirming hormone therapy—Dr. Fleming works to help her patients meet their goals.
CW: Ableism
Download the transcript of this episode.
Follow Andrew Gurza on Instagram.
Resources:
Hot, Wet, and Shaking: How I Learned to Talk about Sex by Kaleigh Trace
Purchase or financially support The Joystick: The World’s First Accessible Sex Toy by Get Bump’n
Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health.
Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter.
Andrew Gurza is an award-winning Disability Awareness Consultant and the Chief Disability Officer and Co-founder ofBump’n, a sex toy company for and by disabled people. Their work has been featured on BBC, CBC, Daily Xtra, Gay Times UK, Huffington Post, The Advocate, Everyday Feminism, Mashable, Out.com, and several anthologies. They were the subject of an award-winning National Film Board of Canada Documentary “Picture This.” Andrew has guested on a number of podcasts including Dan Savage’s Savage Love and Cameron Esposito’s Queery. They have spoken all over the world on sex, disability and what it means to be a Queer Cripple. They are also the host of Disability After Dark: The Podcast Shining a Bright Light on Disability Stories which won a Canadian Podcast Award in 2021, a Queerty Award, and was chosen as an Honoree at the 2020 Webby Awards. The show is available on all platforms. Andrew is also the creator of the viral hashtag #DisabledPeopleAreHot.