Simple Things You Can Do To Support Sexual Health

Good sexual health doesn’t simply mean the absence of disease or dysfunction. It refers to a state of optimal physical, emotional, and social wellness in relation to your sexuality. 

Built on a positive, receptive, and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, good sexual health fosters the possibility of having safe and pleasurable sexual experiences. 

Whether you’re a young adult who has just begun to earnestly explore your sexuality, or you’re an older adult who is learning how to navigate the age-related physical changes that affect your libido and sexual function, there’s a lot you can do to support your sexual health and, in turn, boost your overall well-being. 

Here, Nawo K. Fiamo, ARNP, of Fiamo Aesthetics offers five simple ways to nurture a healthier, more satisfying level of sexual wellness — no matter where you happen to be in life.   

1. Stay in touch with your changing body

Just like the various aspects of your well-being that support it, your sexual health goes through natural highs and lows as you age, change, learn, and form new connections. 

Through life’s various changes and stages, it’s important to stay in touch with your body. This means taking time to explore your body through sensual touch to learn what feels pleasurable to you — with or without a partner’s help.

Notice, without judgment, how various types of touch feel on different body areas. Learning about how your body functions sexually and discovering what you desire can mean different things at different stages of life; it’s helpful to acknowledge the ways you appreciate your body’s sexual health today.  

2. Communicate openly with your partner

Sex is its own form of communication, whether you’re in a new romantic relationship or a long-term partnership. And no matter how long you’ve known your partner, maintaining an open line of communication about sex is an essential part of any healthy relationship. 

While it may make you feel self-conscious at times, talking with your partner about what you like and dislike in the bedroom — and listening to their desires and turn-offs — establishes mutual respect that can draw you closer and nurture a higher level of passion. 

Talking openly about boundaries, consent, and safe sex is important, too.

3. Protect against sexual health risks

Sex — expressed in a variety of ways — can give you satisfaction, pleasure, intimacy, and joy. Unfortunately, it can also bring you unwanted physical and mental health effects like sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), unplanned pregnancies, worry, and fear. 

Supported sexual health and freedom of sexual expression require safeguards for your physical and emotional health, and that means being aware of the risks involved with sex and taking action to protect yourself against STDs and unplanned pregnancy. 

Knowing how to practice safe sex protects both you and your partner and helps take the worry out of sexual activity.  

4. Make a few healthy lifestyle changes  

It’s a common misconception that health-related sexual dysfunction is mostly driven by the reproductive hormonal changes that occur in middle age, when women start to go through menopause and men’s testosterone levels start their long and steady decline. 

While dwindling sex hormone levels can diminish your libido and interfere with your body’s normal sexual response, they’re not the only physical factors that can undermine your sexual health. In fact, anything that’s bad for your cardiovascular health is also bad for your sexual health. 

Why? Your physical sexual response relies on a healthy circulatory and vascular system, and taking care of your cardiovascular health can lead to significant improvements in your sexual health, too. This means:

• Staying physically active
• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Choosing wholesome foods
• Getting enough sleep at night
• Managing your stress levels

Avoiding smoking and limiting your alcohol intake can also boost your sexual health, as can taking time to practice Kegels, or pelvic floor exercises, every day. 

These exercises involve engaging the muscles you’d use to stop urine midstream for two or three seconds, completing 10 repetitions per set, and performing five sets per day. Helpful for men and women alike, Kegel exercises can improve vaginal lubrication, female orgasm, erectile dysfunction (ED), and premature ejaculation.  

5. Seek expert help when you need it

Just as it’s perfectly normal for your libido to fluctuate through life, it’s normal to go through periods of robust sexual wellness and periods when your sexual health seems less resilient or vigorous. In such times, your sexual health may benefit from expert support, such as:

• Talk therapy or couples therapy 
• Hormone replacement therapy
• Labia revitalization treatments
• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy

Are you looking to improve your sexual health? We can help. Give us a call today, or use our online booking feature to schedule a visit at Fiamo Aesthetics in Yakima, Washington.