Latest / Love Matters With Leeza Mangaldas / Facts & Myth Busting: Men’s Sexual Health ft. Dr. Karan Rajan

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Facts & Myth Busting: Men’s Sexual Health ft. Dr. Karan Rajan · Love Matters With Leeza Mangaldas

0:04
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Love Matters. I'm your host, please,
0:07
Speaker 1: I'm Angolas, and today we're tackling an important but often
0:10
Speaker 1: overlooked topic, men's sexual health. Our guest today is doctor
0:14
Speaker 1: Karen Rajan. Karen is an any jest surgeon and the
0:17
Speaker 1: Internet's most popular doctor, with over eight million followers across
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Speaker 1: social channels. His brilliant approach to debunking medical myths and
0:25
Speaker 1: sharing accurate health information with his raisers, sharp wit and
0:30
Speaker 1: dark humor, has audiences across the world, including myself, tuning
0:34
Speaker 1: in every day to become better informed about their health
0:37
Speaker 1: and their bodies. He's also the author of the recent
0:40
Speaker 1: bestseller This Book May Save Your Life. Doctor Karen, I've
0:44
Speaker 1: been wanting to talk to you for so long, and
0:46
Speaker 1: I am so glad to have you on the show today.
0:47
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
0:49
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. It's pleasure to
0:50
Speaker 2: be here.
0:51
Speaker 1: To start off, can you share with us one of
0:54
Speaker 1: the most striking or memorable questions you've been asked regarding
0:58
Speaker 1: men's sexual health.
0:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean one of the most pervasive myths and
1:02
Speaker 3: a question you get a lot. Is this whole issue
1:06
Speaker 3: about masturbating more reduces the risk of prostate cancer.
1:12
Speaker 2: And all of this.
1:13
Speaker 3: Is based on one study done, a survey based study
1:17
Speaker 3: where they looked at men and they surveyed them and
1:20
Speaker 3: saw the frequency of their masturbation and compared it with
1:25
Speaker 3: prostate cancer rates. And based on that, a lot of
1:29
Speaker 3: people make recommendations saying twenty one times a month of
1:33
Speaker 3: masturbation frequency equals a reduction in prostate cancer. And actually,
1:37
Speaker 3: mechanistically we don't even know if that's true. There's nothing
1:41
Speaker 3: to suggest that that is the evidence that makes the case.
1:44
Speaker 3: And that's just the tip of the iceberg with all
1:47
Speaker 3: sorts of myths, and that's not the I guess cleaner
1:50
Speaker 3: and safer end of the spectrum. No one's going to
1:53
Speaker 3: really come to harm by masturbating twenty one times a month.
1:57
Speaker 3: But you can just see how pervasive men sexual health
2:00
Speaker 3: myths are just based on that little sample totally.
2:04
Speaker 1: I also received so many questions, and you just think, like,
2:07
Speaker 1: how could somebody be an adult and not know this
2:10
Speaker 1: about their body, Like don't we deserve better? And so
2:12
Speaker 1: I'm just curious to ask how you felt growing up?
2:16
Speaker 1: Did you feel well informed about your own body, about
2:19
Speaker 1: your genitals? I remember when the book you Know you
2:21
Speaker 1: talk about how nobody told you to play with your balls,
2:24
Speaker 1: for example, that Yeah, I just love to hear your thoughts.
2:28
Speaker 1: Since you grew up in India but then live in
2:30
Speaker 1: England now you might have a good sense of the
2:32
Speaker 1: state of sex education in different parts.
2:35
Speaker 2: Of the world.
2:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say, you know, growing up in a
2:38
Speaker 3: daycy household with Indian parents, it was never really at
2:42
Speaker 3: the forefront of my upbringing or cultural education to really
2:48
Speaker 3: talk about sex, talk about relationships, talk about intimate hygiene,
2:53
Speaker 3: health when it comes to genitals or anything like that.
2:57
Speaker 3: And that's not something that my parents refused to talk about,
3:01
Speaker 3: but neither did they overtly acknowledge it and explain that
3:05
Speaker 3: this is something that needs to be done growing up.
3:07
Speaker 3: I think that is just a vestige of the kind
3:11
Speaker 3: of Indian culture I think most Indian parents probably and
3:16
Speaker 3: in other countries as well, potentially, you know, Africa, other
3:19
Speaker 3: countries in Asia is a slightly taboo subject still and
3:23
Speaker 3: it has some stigma when you're talking about that, and
3:25
Speaker 3: I don't think the stigma's completely removed in the Western world.
3:29
Speaker 3: When I came to the UK when I was five
3:31
Speaker 3: years old. Growing up in school biology class, you know,
3:35
Speaker 3: any minimal sex health education classes that we had once
3:40
Speaker 3: a year or whatever it was, we never really spoke
3:42
Speaker 3: about that.
3:43
Speaker 2: The only thing I can remember.
3:45
Speaker 3: From sex health education when I was I think thirteen
3:49
Speaker 3: or fourteen years old, it was actually the chemistry teacher
3:52
Speaker 3: during a chemistry class said this is a sex health
3:56
Speaker 3: education we need to do, and the guy literally got
3:59
Speaker 3: a qq wera and showed us how to put on
4:01
Speaker 3: condoms on a cucumber. And by that time, people are
4:04
Speaker 3: already having sex and all sorts of things, and sort
4:07
Speaker 3: of I think a lot of people knew that. But yeah,
4:10
Speaker 3: I mean I certainly had very little information to go on,
4:14
Speaker 3: and most of my information actually came from online sources,
4:18
Speaker 3: from talking to friends. And this is when I was thirteen,
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Speaker 3: fourteen fifteen. Nowadays, when you've got those same thirteen fourteen
4:25
Speaker 3: fifteen year olds having exposure to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and
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Speaker 3: Google in a way that we didn't twenty years ago,
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Speaker 3: I think the potential there is to really accelerate knowledge
4:36
Speaker 3: from a young age, which is important, but also to
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Speaker 3: prevent misinformation.
4:40
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you do that so well. How would you
4:43
Speaker 1: define men's sexual health? Like what I indicators a good
4:46
Speaker 1: sexual health. What for you does that encompass the word
4:51
Speaker 1: sexual health.
4:52
Speaker 3: It's hard to extracreate men's sexual health from erections. I
4:56
Speaker 3: mean that's kind of like the most obvious thing that
4:59
Speaker 3: someone thinks about when they think about men's sexual health.
5:02
Speaker 3: You know, how does a man use a penis and
5:04
Speaker 3: how functional is it? How well can they use it?
5:07
Speaker 3: Because not only is it an organ for pleasure, but
5:11
Speaker 3: it's actually also could be an indication that could signify
5:15
Speaker 3: heart health as well. So you know, your coronary arteries,
5:20
Speaker 3: the arteries that supply your heart itself, are maybe only
5:24
Speaker 3: two or three millimeters in diameter. The arteries that supply
5:28
Speaker 3: the penis, the penile arteries, they're about one millimeter in diameter,
5:31
Speaker 3: so far smaller than the coronary arteries.
5:34
Speaker 2: Now, if a man.
5:35
Speaker 3: Stops achieving erections in the morning, for example, or stops
5:39
Speaker 3: achieving erections forty to fifty, et cetera as a natural
5:43
Speaker 3: phenomenon when they wake up in the morning during night,
5:46
Speaker 3: then that could be an indication of something going on
5:50
Speaker 3: potentially with the heart, an early warning signal of some
5:54
Speaker 3: impending heart issue. So when I think about men's sexual health,
5:58
Speaker 3: I think it's tied not only to just pleasure, sex
6:01
Speaker 3: and reproduction, but it's linked to mental health, heart health
6:06
Speaker 3: and beyond, as well as a general marker of a
6:09
Speaker 3: person's fitness, which is.
6:10
Speaker 1: Why it's so important we eradicate the stigma and people
6:14
Speaker 1: be able to feel more free accessing those health services.
6:17
Speaker 1: Right in India at least, it still remains a huge taboo,
6:21
Speaker 1: like if you have a sexual health issue, you're unlikely
6:24
Speaker 1: to feel empowered or sufficiently unashamed to actually get help.
6:29
Speaker 1: And I think also many people have a lot of
6:31
Speaker 1: confusion around what qualifies as a dysfunction. Like, you know,
6:35
Speaker 1: there's diversity. Everybody doesn't have the same size or a
6:39
Speaker 1: sort of duration or whatever it is, and might not
6:42
Speaker 1: match up to what they see in port for example,
6:44
Speaker 1: which is so easily available. So what are some indicators
6:48
Speaker 1: that a man might need help regarding as sexual health
6:52
Speaker 1: and at what point does something become a dysfunction?
6:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's really so many factors here, because
7:00
Speaker 3: men's sexual health can not only have a root in
7:03
Speaker 3: physical conditions. For example, there may be some medication which
7:08
Speaker 3: can have side effects which can compromise the sexual health.
7:11
Speaker 3: There are a lot of antipsychotic and antidepressive medication, and
7:14
Speaker 3: mental health medication which could have, you know, a role
7:18
Speaker 3: in increasing sexual dysfunction. There's lots of surgery complications. If
7:23
Speaker 3: someone has pelvic surgery or bal cancer surgery, sometimes the
7:28
Speaker 3: nerves which supply.
7:29
Speaker 2: The penis can be compromised.
7:31
Speaker 3: Prostate surgery is commonly linked with erptile dysfunction and.
7:35
Speaker 2: Reduce libidos sometimes.
7:36
Speaker 3: So there's lots of physical causes which can lead to that,
7:39
Speaker 3: but also psychological causes stress, anxiety, certain mental health conditions,
7:44
Speaker 3: and various stressors can also impact a man achieving in
7:47
Speaker 3: erection ejaculating either delayed ejaculation premature ejaculation. So there's a
7:53
Speaker 3: number of things, and I think actually sexual health and
7:57
Speaker 3: sex is you know, predominantly an enjoyable act. So I
8:02
Speaker 3: guess the most basic thing to say is if a
8:05
Speaker 3: man is not enjoying himself in the bedroom and not
8:10
Speaker 3: taking pleasure in activities, or there's any pain associated with
8:14
Speaker 3: those activities and it's causing either physical distress or psychological
8:18
Speaker 3: distress to the point of it's really impacting quality of life.
8:21
Speaker 3: For example, you know a person is in a relationship
8:24
Speaker 3: with a partner and can't get an erection or can't
8:29
Speaker 3: you know, go through to orgasm and that's really having
8:31
Speaker 3: a psychological effect and you know, beyond physical causes, that's
8:35
Speaker 3: also enough of reason to seek professional medical advice.
8:39
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing that. What I find sort of
8:43
Speaker 1: a bit of a conundrum, at least in the Indian
8:46
Speaker 1: cultural context as a sexuality educator online and with lots
8:49
Speaker 1: of men reaching out to me privately in my DM
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Speaker 1: sharing that you know, insecurity is even around their ability
8:56
Speaker 1: to perform, and there seems to be this tendency for
9:00
Speaker 1: many men also to imagine that they have a problem
9:03
Speaker 1: even if actually it sounds like things are going just fine.
9:08
Speaker 1: You know, where you I think internalize these standards around
9:12
Speaker 1: what it means to be masculine, having a big penis
9:14
Speaker 1: lasting for hours, being able to do certain things as
9:19
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier with regard to what you might have
9:21
Speaker 1: seen in poant. And there's also all this guilt around masturbation.
9:25
Speaker 1: I think culturally we inherit a lot of guilt and
9:28
Speaker 1: shame from adults and religious figures and people like that,
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Speaker 1: giving completely you know, unscientific and often fear and punishment
9:36
Speaker 1: laden explanations for things like nightfall or you know, all
9:41
Speaker 1: these bad things going to happen to if you masturbate
9:43
Speaker 1: and stuff. So a lot of young men will at
9:44
Speaker 1: least right to me with all of these insecurities about
9:47
Speaker 1: their sexual function, even though it actually is being described
9:51
Speaker 1: sounds just like normal sexual function. And I think that
9:55
Speaker 1: men are still really unable to open up about this
9:59
Speaker 1: stuff with even each other. There's a sphere I think
10:02
Speaker 1: of men openly admitting to being insecure about let's say,
10:07
Speaker 1: their penis size. Like I can go on the internet
10:09
Speaker 1: and be like, I have small boots. I grew up
10:11
Speaker 1: with these insecurities around my body, and now at thirty four,
10:14
Speaker 1: I feel comfortable in my skin and I'm so grateful
10:17
Speaker 1: I was able to make that journey. And you know,
10:18
Speaker 1: women in the comments, yes, queen, but I have yet
10:22
Speaker 1: to see a man be like I have a small
10:23
Speaker 1: penis and I'm okay with it. You know. So, what
10:26
Speaker 1: are the most common pressures you think that men face
10:30
Speaker 1: that are connected to sex and the body based property,
10:34
Speaker 1: even on your own experience as a man, but also
10:36
Speaker 1: as a.
10:36
Speaker 3: Doctor, Yeah, I think you know you've hit the nail
10:39
Speaker 3: on the head there, and there is this dichostomy between
10:42
Speaker 3: you know, body positivity in kind of the female space
10:45
Speaker 3: online and then the manosphere online, where actually there can
10:49
Speaker 3: be a little bit more toxicity. And we've seen the
10:51
Speaker 3: rise of various influencers who kind of really lean into
10:54
Speaker 3: that sort of ultra macho, alpha male stereotype. And actually
10:59
Speaker 3: that can be positive in some senses and empower people,
11:02
Speaker 3: but actually there's also a lot of negative connotations of
11:06
Speaker 3: that sort of ideology, where men can feel ashamed of
11:09
Speaker 3: their body if they don't have a six pack, if
11:11
Speaker 3: they don't have you know, twenty five inch biceps or
11:15
Speaker 3: whatever they're aiming for, they can feel less than rather
11:18
Speaker 3: than focusing on the qualities that they do have. And yeah,
11:22
Speaker 3: I think the problem is not only that online spaces
11:27
Speaker 3: and people trying to compare themselves to things that they
11:31
Speaker 3: see online, you know, and we always say that the
11:33
Speaker 3: online space is a highlight reelist snapshot, and it's not,
11:38
Speaker 3: you know, it can't be compared to reality. The average
11:41
Speaker 3: person you see on the street is not going to
11:43
Speaker 3: be a fitness influencer a bodybuilder, so it's unfair to
11:46
Speaker 3: compare yourselves to those sort of matchostereotypes.
11:49
Speaker 2: And also I.
11:50
Speaker 3: Think there's some sort of you know, misconception of what
11:54
Speaker 3: it is to be of average size.
11:57
Speaker 2: For example.
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Speaker 3: You know, I think most people would be surprised if
12:00
Speaker 3: they actually knew, based on evidence, what the average penis
12:04
Speaker 3: size was, and they'd find themselves probably at average or
12:07
Speaker 3: beyond average. And I think, you know, people put too
12:09
Speaker 3: much emphasis on size, and I don't know what that is.
12:13
Speaker 3: That still again a relic of this phallic centric ideology
12:18
Speaker 3: that we had from you know, a millionaire ago, where
12:20
Speaker 3: you know, certain tribes or religious groups would almost focus
12:25
Speaker 3: on the penis and that kind of phallic ideology as
12:28
Speaker 3: the focus of their culture. And maybe we're still suffering from,
12:32
Speaker 3: you know, the hangover of some of those things.
12:34
Speaker 1: I could not agree more. I always like to say that,
12:37
Speaker 1: you know, studies globally sort of show this massive gap
12:42
Speaker 1: in access to pleasure where straight women are the least
12:45
Speaker 1: likely to be able to report frequently always experiencing orgasm
12:48
Speaker 1: during sex compared to let's say, lesbian women who report
12:51
Speaker 1: that more frequently, and there's no penis even present. Right,
12:54
Speaker 1: So I wonder how do you think we can reframe
12:58
Speaker 1: our perspectives on sort of sexual success, Like could we
13:02
Speaker 1: perhaps prioritize pleasure and connection over things like performance and
13:07
Speaker 1: stamina and size, you know, because I think for many
13:10
Speaker 1: men that is still how they think of sexual success
13:13
Speaker 1: in this masculine sort of configuration.
13:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very interesting one. You know.
13:18
Speaker 3: Last year I actually spoke to a sex therapist on
13:21
Speaker 3: my podcast and it was really an enlightening and interesting conversation.
13:26
Speaker 3: And I think, yes, generally, on average, men are fixated
13:30
Speaker 3: with achieving an outcome, and that outcome is usually pleasure
13:34
Speaker 3: in terms of, you know, an orgasm for the man,
13:38
Speaker 3: and more often than not, the man orgasms and then
13:41
Speaker 3: that's the end of the sexual encounter. The woman is
13:43
Speaker 3: still left wanting more. And I think that is the
13:46
Speaker 3: where the goalpost could be changed slightly. And I think
13:49
Speaker 3: actually sex doesn't have to be just about an outcome.
13:53
Speaker 3: It can be about the you know, it sounds maybe corny,
13:56
Speaker 3: but the whole journey, the experience. You know, how can
13:58
Speaker 3: you actually form some sort of bond or relationship with
14:02
Speaker 3: your partner, so whether that's you know, having something romantic
14:05
Speaker 3: and I guess almost stimulating other senses apart from just
14:08
Speaker 3: the genital organs. You know, the skin is the largest
14:11
Speaker 3: eerrogenist organ in the body, So how can you stimulate that?
14:15
Speaker 3: How can you use your visual sensors, your auditory sensors,
14:19
Speaker 3: your sense of smell. There's so many other aspects to
14:23
Speaker 3: sex and having some sort of excitement in that relationship
14:27
Speaker 3: beyond just orgasm, because you know, that is really, if
14:30
Speaker 3: you think about it, such a small percentage of the
14:33
Speaker 3: whole thing. You know, for play and then they're sort
14:36
Speaker 3: of cuddling afterwards, and there's just so many things. And
14:40
Speaker 3: you know, speaking to this sex therapist just really highlighted how,
14:44
Speaker 3: certainly from a female perspective, as what she was saying
14:47
Speaker 3: that the orgasm is not the main component, but for
14:50
Speaker 3: men it is. So how can we, I guess, flip
14:53
Speaker 3: the script and rearrange that narrative and that it's actually
14:56
Speaker 3: exploring other things as well, because that, I think is
14:59
Speaker 3: more sustainable in a long term relationship beyond just the
15:04
Speaker 3: physical climax orgasm side of things.
15:07
Speaker 1: It's funny how those pressures become something you sort of
15:11
Speaker 1: perceive of at such a young age, almost like women
15:13
Speaker 1: feel around, you know, how thin they are, or something
15:16
Speaker 1: men feel that about penis size or seamen volume, or
15:20
Speaker 1: it becomes just sort of in pop culture almost synonymous
15:24
Speaker 1: with desirability. And I think we really have to dismantle
15:27
Speaker 1: those and also provide alternative sort of visions for what
15:32
Speaker 1: good sex and pleasure and connection can look like. So
15:36
Speaker 1: at least I'm trying to do a bit of that,
15:39
Speaker 1: and I'm really grateful for the work you do to
15:41
Speaker 1: that end as well. I also think though, that when
15:44
Speaker 1: a man has a sexual health concern, too often he
15:45
Speaker 1: doesn't actually know where to go. So coming back to
15:49
Speaker 1: the sort of medical physiological stuff for a second, what
15:53
Speaker 1: kind of doctor should a man consult when he feels
15:56
Speaker 1: he has a sexual health concern? To go to his GP,
15:59
Speaker 1: A sexology a urologist. Could you break that down for us,
16:03
Speaker 1: because so many people don't quite know where to start.
16:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think probably, you know, casting the net wide
16:09
Speaker 3: and going to your family doctor or a GPS probably
16:12
Speaker 3: the ideal place to start, because again you need to
16:16
Speaker 3: pick apart what is the root cause, what is the
16:18
Speaker 3: underlying cause of the complaint. You know that a man
16:22
Speaker 3: could be suffering, for example, with erectile dysfunction, and it
16:26
Speaker 3: would be easy to suggest that eurologists would be the
16:28
Speaker 3: right person to see, and a urologist may end up
16:31
Speaker 3: being the right person to see if the cause is
16:33
Speaker 3: rooted in something physical you know, is there some nerve dysfunction,
16:38
Speaker 3: Is it a complication of surgery, etc.
16:40
Speaker 2: Etc.
16:41
Speaker 3: Or is it because of trauma related injury and scar tissue? Fine,
16:45
Speaker 3: but actually, you know, you may be more appropriately referred
16:48
Speaker 3: to a psychologist or a psychiatrist if there is a
16:51
Speaker 3: psychological or sort of mental health cause for the erector dysfunction.
16:55
Speaker 3: So I think seeing your GP so you can be
16:57
Speaker 3: triage appropriately would be the right way. All of those
17:00
Speaker 3: answers could be the right thing. Maybe a sex therapist,
17:03
Speaker 3: maybe you know, a couples counseling therapist, maybe a urologist.
17:08
Speaker 3: Maybe your GP can just sort it out. And maybe
17:09
Speaker 3: because it's just a side effect of a medication they
17:12
Speaker 3: recently started you on, and that's quite a quick reversal
17:15
Speaker 3: for that. For example, a lot of men these days
17:18
Speaker 3: are concerned with hair loss and they take various things
17:23
Speaker 3: for hair loss, and many of those things can have
17:26
Speaker 3: the side effect of causing some issues with you know,
17:30
Speaker 3: erectile function.
17:32
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's look a little bit more or at
17:34
Speaker 1: these sort of common sexual health concerns. You already mentioned
17:37
Speaker 1: erectile dysfunction and did want to ask more about that
17:40
Speaker 1: because it is something that a lot of men seem
17:44
Speaker 1: concerned about I think. You know, what I think is
17:47
Speaker 1: quite sort of interesting is that erectal dysfunction medication is
17:52
Speaker 1: now being marketed to younger and younger men. When I
17:54
Speaker 1: was a kid, I feel like ads for viagra had
17:58
Speaker 1: like men forty years or about, and it always almost
18:01
Speaker 1: seemed like this thing for older people. Your cardiovascular health
18:05
Speaker 1: is likely to decline as well, and therefore, like older
18:08
Speaker 1: men might need viagra or something. But now it's almost
18:11
Speaker 1: like Viagra's cool, Like, get this blue chewing gum. You know,
18:14
Speaker 1: you're like twenty years old, you need this. And while
18:18
Speaker 1: I understand that it's extremely important for people to feel
18:22
Speaker 1: unashamed and it's great to destigmatize sexual health products and
18:27
Speaker 1: things like that, I also think there's a danger of
18:30
Speaker 1: like overmedicalizing or making people feel like they have a
18:33
Speaker 1: problem when they don't, like is your descarde enough, are
18:36
Speaker 1: your erections powerful enough? Are they you know, pick these
18:40
Speaker 1: blue bills? So I wonder where you stand on that
18:45
Speaker 1: as a doctor, because so many young men are right
18:47
Speaker 1: into me asking about viagra, asking I'm not a doctor,
18:50
Speaker 1: so I kind of don't talk about medication on my page.
18:53
Speaker 1: But since I have you today, I'd love you to
18:56
Speaker 1: tell us what erectile dysfunction is and what some of
18:58
Speaker 1: the possible causes are, you know, both physical and psychological,
19:02
Speaker 1: as well as addressed this aspect of like popularization of
19:07
Speaker 1: erectal dysfunction medication now even on social media, it's being
19:11
Speaker 1: overmarketed sometimes and what people should be where we are.
19:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, I've seen all of those
19:19
Speaker 3: adverts and posts on social media with run viercing leading
19:24
Speaker 3: the charge and you know, promoting this viagra almost Yeah,
19:28
Speaker 3: I guess pathologizing something that's very normal, and you know
19:33
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean a man has to get an erection
19:35
Speaker 3: fifty times a day, I mean, and then making that
19:39
Speaker 3: a concern so people buy products, And I think it's
19:41
Speaker 3: a weird way to advertise things for consumers. And you know,
19:45
Speaker 3: I guess it's not weird in the farm of industry
19:47
Speaker 3: where people want to overpathologize things. You know, we've seen
19:51
Speaker 3: that with various things fifty years ago, with you know,
19:55
Speaker 3: seventy years ago with tobacco products. You know, with doctors,
19:58
Speaker 3: they're using doctors and adverts to promote tobacco products. Is
20:00
Speaker 3: being healthy for you and healthy for your lungs, which
20:02
Speaker 3: we found out was not a now similar way with
20:05
Speaker 3: kind of viagra now viagra, you know also I dentifhil,
20:09
Speaker 3: the kind of generic name can be great for men
20:13
Speaker 3: who need it, who require it on a medical physiological basis,
20:18
Speaker 3: to maintain erection, to maintain their sex life, thus to
20:21
Speaker 3: improve their quality of life, whether they've after surgery or
20:25
Speaker 3: hitting a certain age, lotusosterone related whatever, It can be
20:29
Speaker 3: great to maintain sexual function or at least mitigate the
20:32
Speaker 3: loss of sexual function. Fine, but I think there are,
20:36
Speaker 3: like you said, too many young men using it unnecessarily
20:40
Speaker 3: and it's not needed, and I think there's multiple ways
20:43
Speaker 3: to think about it. There are young men who certainly
20:45
Speaker 3: do not need it at all, and who are using
20:49
Speaker 3: it to almost get a super physiological you know, dose
20:54
Speaker 3: of erections essentially, which is kind of not required. But
20:57
Speaker 3: you know, each to their own, they can do what
20:59
Speaker 3: they want, but they should be informed that viagra was
21:03
Speaker 3: initially created as a medication to lower blood pressure for hypertension.
21:08
Speaker 3: The side effect was erections. It was a very fun
21:11
Speaker 3: side effect, and it was marketed as now a viagral
21:15
Speaker 3: to give you erections, but ultimately it still does lower
21:18
Speaker 3: your blood.
21:19
Speaker 2: Pressure as well.
21:20
Speaker 3: So if someone is taking heart medication, there is a contraindication,
21:25
Speaker 3: they shouldn't willing nearly just you know, pardon the pun.
21:28
Speaker 3: Take viagra, for example, because it can lower the bloo pressure,
21:32
Speaker 3: can lead to headaches, it can lead to syncope and collapse,
21:35
Speaker 3: et cetera, blackouts. So you know, if someone is taking
21:38
Speaker 3: a couple of viagraers popping it, you know, and then
21:41
Speaker 3: you're driving, it's not inconceivable. But someone just faints because
21:46
Speaker 3: of low bloo pressure while they're driving and gets into
21:48
Speaker 3: an accident. That's something that you know, I have seen
21:50
Speaker 3: before in a person who's come to the emergency room
21:53
Speaker 3: with major trauma because they had taken a couple of viagra.
21:55
Speaker 3: Sixty five year old man also had taking blood pressure medications,
21:59
Speaker 3: collapsed while driving, hit a tree. Now that's not going
22:02
Speaker 3: to happen to every single person, but for example, there
22:04
Speaker 3: are side effects with those things. And I also need
22:08
Speaker 3: to caution against the use of viagra to potentially paper
22:12
Speaker 3: over cracks in the medical condition. Maybe you've got a
22:17
Speaker 3: treatable cause of erectile dysfunction or some psychological issue or
22:22
Speaker 3: physical issue which can be dealt with quite easily. If
22:25
Speaker 3: you sought medical attention, and maybe your problems with erections
22:29
Speaker 3: are just being papered over by you consistently using viagra.
22:33
Speaker 3: And I also feel that if you consistently chronically use viagra,
22:38
Speaker 3: your body will probably become reliant on that end of
22:41
Speaker 3: the day. It is a drug, and you can build
22:43
Speaker 3: up some degree of tolerance to the drug where you
22:45
Speaker 3: might need more doses. And actually without viagra, maybe you
22:49
Speaker 3: can't sustain erections. So I really think it's worth a
22:53
Speaker 3: man exploring all of those conservative options, so to say,
22:57
Speaker 3: to explore what's the underlying cause for this problem. And
23:01
Speaker 3: if there is no course found and it's just idiopathic
23:04
Speaker 3: and so the medical term for we don't know the cause,
23:08
Speaker 3: then maybe after failing other options, yeah, you can maybe
23:11
Speaker 3: try vragrant. But even then I guess be cautious, you know,
23:15
Speaker 3: go slow, speak to the medical doctor to make sure
23:18
Speaker 3: there's no contra indications with other medications you're taking or
23:21
Speaker 3: giving you other medical conditions, and if it's safe, go
23:24
Speaker 3: ahead and see how it goes.
23:26
Speaker 1: And would you like to caution also people against calling
23:32
Speaker 1: for these sort of quick fixed solutions of an advertiser
23:35
Speaker 1: on places like pond site, like let's get them when
23:37
Speaker 1: they're the most vulnerable, right with a picture of a
23:39
Speaker 1: massive penis, and it'll be like, get this snake oil,
23:42
Speaker 1: you know, get this lotion, this magic potion or tablet
23:45
Speaker 1: or cream or something, and you're going to have this
23:48
Speaker 1: massive penis. And I find in India particularly, there's like,
23:53
Speaker 1: you know, there's children's and sort of jerty Booty Baba's
23:57
Speaker 1: kind of marketing. This, you know, almost fantastical, Like the
24:02
Speaker 1: marketing itself is so over the top that you should
24:05
Speaker 1: be able to see through it. But I think it
24:07
Speaker 1: plays into this very sort of fundamental insecurity for many
24:12
Speaker 1: men that it's sometimes hard to resist. But no cream
24:16
Speaker 1: will ever make your penis big, right, I mean, can
24:18
Speaker 1: we demystify some of this?
24:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's so ridiculous that there are so
24:26
Speaker 3: many scams and promises and hyperboles out there with regards
24:31
Speaker 3: to increasing a man's penis size. And I get how
24:35
Speaker 3: men are allured by these quick fixes because they think, hey, yeah,
24:39
Speaker 3: if I can do that, great, I'll be more powerful,
24:41
Speaker 3: I'll be more virile and whatever. But I think the
24:44
Speaker 3: problem is, no matter how crazy and far fetched these sound,
24:48
Speaker 3: some people just still believe them because they have this
24:51
Speaker 3: insecurity about the penis size, because they correlate that with
24:55
Speaker 3: being less than or less of a man, which is unfortunate.
24:58
Speaker 3: And some of these things can actually have quite dangerous consequences.
25:02
Speaker 3: A lot of these unregulated supplements that people could be
25:05
Speaker 3: taking again that could have some seriously you know, negative outcomes.
25:10
Speaker 3: There are these penis extension devices where essentially, for you know,
25:14
Speaker 3: simplistic term, it's hanging await at the end of your
25:17
Speaker 3: penis to try and stretch it out. You know, these
25:20
Speaker 3: things don't really have safe outcomes in most cases.
25:24
Speaker 1: On a light or note, you had made this post
25:28
Speaker 1: called how to get rid of an unwanted boner in
25:30
Speaker 1: thirty seconds? Could you share your scientifically back method or
25:34
Speaker 1: with us?
25:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think.
25:39
Speaker 3: Men will get you know, unwanted random bonus throughout the day,
25:44
Speaker 3: and that's just in line with a normal twenty four
25:46
Speaker 3: hour fluctuation after software and levels. The probably highest frequency
25:51
Speaker 3: is during the night and early morning nocturnal penaltre messlence
25:54
Speaker 3: it's called, and it's usually about six to seven times
25:58
Speaker 3: a night that man would get these directions, but it
26:01
Speaker 3: may be during the day as well, when they're out
26:03
Speaker 3: and about and it can be a little bit embarrassing
26:05
Speaker 3: potentially so counteracting that there's sort of ways you can
26:09
Speaker 3: think about it. Again, we alluded to the fact that
26:12
Speaker 3: there's kind of physiological and psychological causes for you know,
26:15
Speaker 3: linking to the penis and erections, so looking at the
26:18
Speaker 3: kind of psychological side of things, actually distracting yourself with
26:22
Speaker 3: something else. And you know, men may find this useful
26:25
Speaker 3: to almost delay ejaculation or climax, similar to how they
26:29
Speaker 3: can almost get rid of a boner as well. So
26:32
Speaker 3: if you're thinking about something not sexy at all, you know,
26:36
Speaker 3: I don't know, like a cricket match, for example, that
26:39
Speaker 3: may help in some way to distract you and reduce
26:43
Speaker 3: your bono produce your erection other ways physically, I'm.
26:48
Speaker 1: Thinking more like climate change. Yeah, yeah, THEIA might actually induce.
26:53
Speaker 2: A bone bona.
26:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, maybe something like yeah, maybe something which
26:58
Speaker 3: doesn't involve bat in because I guess that has you know,
27:02
Speaker 3: quite yeah, exactly, So maybe nothing ball or racket related.
27:09
Speaker 2: So yeah, maybe climate change.
27:10
Speaker 3: But then again, climate change can make people hot and sweaty,
27:13
Speaker 3: you know, so maybe that's not right either, Like I
27:16
Speaker 3: don't know.
27:17
Speaker 2: Like maybe I guess, you know, anything can be.
27:20
Speaker 3: Trainers for example, think about trainers, dirty trainers or whatever
27:24
Speaker 3: it is, and that can be distracting that.
27:26
Speaker 1: Will do less than thirty seconds.
27:28
Speaker 3: You know, I think physiological causes. Again, it's a blood
27:32
Speaker 3: flow redirection issue here, So can you do something to
27:36
Speaker 3: redirect your blood flow? So maybe I don't know, just
27:39
Speaker 3: like lifting something and kind of flexing your biceps or
27:42
Speaker 3: something like that, there may be more focus of the
27:44
Speaker 3: blood being redistributed to other areas.
27:47
Speaker 2: You know. Also, you know cold showers.
27:50
Speaker 3: Again, in a cold shower, your blood flow is redistributed
27:53
Speaker 3: to kind of the main other organs or your heart,
27:56
Speaker 3: your kidneys, your liver, et cetera, so it will take
27:59
Speaker 3: it away from the penis. So those are some quick
28:02
Speaker 3: things you can do at a pinch to get rid
28:04
Speaker 3: of your embarrassing, awkward public bonus.
28:07
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing that. I wanted next to talk
28:11
Speaker 1: about premature ejaculation, because I would say, after rectilis function,
28:15
Speaker 1: that's the other perhaps most common concernment seem to have.
28:19
Speaker 1: Do I last longer? How can I last? I mean,
28:21
Speaker 1: do I last long enough? How can I last longer? So?
28:25
Speaker 1: How soon is too soon? You know medically what is
28:29
Speaker 1: premature ejaculation.
28:31
Speaker 3: I think it comes ultimately down to the issue of
28:34
Speaker 3: the individual and the partnership. If they feel that early
28:39
Speaker 3: ejaculation is potentially ruining the sexual encounter or actually having
28:44
Speaker 3: some sort of negative impact on quality of life, that
28:47
Speaker 3: is worth potentially you seeing a medical provider, and in
28:51
Speaker 3: this case, certainly a urologist would be helpful.
28:55
Speaker 2: In that situation.
28:56
Speaker 3: And there could be a number of causes from this
28:58
Speaker 3: from my home no perspective, you know, doing a blood
29:02
Speaker 3: screen to see if there's certain hormones.
29:05
Speaker 2: That are abnormally raised.
29:07
Speaker 3: Or the testosterone is abnormally low, various other things like that,
29:10
Speaker 3: and again psychological causes. Is there some degree of anxiety
29:14
Speaker 3: which is causing that or some sensitivity issue in the
29:18
Speaker 3: actual penis itself. So yeah, I think it is. Again
29:21
Speaker 3: it's not a one size fits or blanket rule, and
29:26
Speaker 3: it'll be down to the individual and the couple as well.
29:29
Speaker 1: And since we're on the topic of ejaculation, there also
29:33
Speaker 1: seems to be a lot of misinformation around whether or
29:38
Speaker 1: not it's good for you to ejaculate. Like there's one
29:40
Speaker 1: corner of the internet, particularly popular in India that is
29:43
Speaker 1: obsessed with semen retention as if it's going to give
29:46
Speaker 1: you superpowers. Do you want to do you want to
29:49
Speaker 1: debunk some of.
29:49
Speaker 3: That, Yeah, And I think a lot of this myth
29:53
Speaker 3: comes from kind of the sports industry and specifically boxing. Uh,
29:59
Speaker 3: there was this kind of of myth historically that before
30:02
Speaker 3: a big fight, you know, the boxers shouldn't sleep with
30:06
Speaker 3: their wives or something like that, because the loss of semen,
30:10
Speaker 3: almost like Samson's.
30:11
Speaker 2: Loss of hair, would result.
30:13
Speaker 3: In losing all of their strength and powers and virility
30:17
Speaker 3: and they'd lose the fight. And I think that is
30:21
Speaker 3: where the myth propagated. But there is no medical evidence
30:26
Speaker 3: to suggest that ejaculation or sex lowest testosterone at all,
30:33
Speaker 3: So that myth can be you know, put in bed
30:35
Speaker 3: and semen retention as well. And you know, in the
30:39
Speaker 3: way that I think of semen retention, it's not just
30:42
Speaker 3: no fap and not ejaculating, it's actually climaxing and holding
30:48
Speaker 3: in the semen which should come out, but actually some
30:52
Speaker 3: way you're contracting your muscles to hold it in. Now,
30:55
Speaker 3: that can actually be quite harmful because that can result
31:00
Speaker 3: in retrograde ejaculation, where your semen instead of going out
31:06
Speaker 3: viya urethra actually refluxes retrograde so backwards into your bladder,
31:13
Speaker 3: which is not something that you want, which can increase
31:16
Speaker 3: the rate of irritation, UTIs and all sorts of things
31:19
Speaker 3: like that which you don't want. You don't want to
31:21
Speaker 3: retain your semen or shoot it backwards. That is something
31:24
Speaker 3: you want to absolutely avoid.
31:27
Speaker 1: And finally, I want to before I move on to
31:29
Speaker 1: a little rapid fire around with you, let's talk about
31:32
Speaker 1: sperm quality. Since we touched on one spam, how would
31:34
Speaker 1: you define sperm quality? And as a man, how do
31:38
Speaker 1: you know if you have a healthy sperm count. The
31:40
Speaker 1: fertility industry is booming in India right now as people
31:43
Speaker 1: delay childbirth, and I think men too want to sort
31:46
Speaker 1: of understand a bit more about the fertility.
31:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think there's any real way, And similar
31:53
Speaker 3: to women's health, there's no real way without some sort
31:57
Speaker 3: of medical test to determine your sperm quality because swerberm
32:01
Speaker 3: quality is based on a number of things, you know,
32:03
Speaker 3: looking at the volume, the quality of the actual sperm itself,
32:07
Speaker 3: the volume of the ejaculate, the quality of the sperm
32:10
Speaker 3: itself in terms of their motility, So how well they're moving,
32:14
Speaker 3: the actual shape of the sperm, do they look mutated
32:17
Speaker 3: or not. So there's a number of factors with regards
32:21
Speaker 3: to that which can only be seen under a microscope
32:24
Speaker 3: and doing blood tests to check all of these various
32:27
Speaker 3: levels of.
32:27
Speaker 2: Hormones et cetera.
32:29
Speaker 3: And similar to women's health as well, you need certain
32:32
Speaker 3: you know, scans and images and blood tests to determine
32:34
Speaker 3: the actual you know, your varian reserve and your you know,
32:38
Speaker 3: egg health, et cetera. Same for men. There's no way
32:41
Speaker 3: that I can just do some at home measurement to
32:43
Speaker 3: test that.
32:44
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's not possible.
32:45
Speaker 3: So even the fittest person on earth with a six
32:48
Speaker 3: pack and able to run ten miles a day and
32:51
Speaker 3: you know, really healthy, good sleep, et cetera, Yeah, maybe
32:54
Speaker 3: they are likely to have good quality sperm because of
32:57
Speaker 3: all of these extra facets in their life which are
33:00
Speaker 3: you know, good behaviors. But if you analyze their sperm
33:03
Speaker 3: under microscope, it could be very you know, borderline infertile potentially.
33:09
Speaker 3: So actually there's no way just externally to assess sperm quality.
33:13
Speaker 3: You could extrapolate if someone is living a very unhealthy lifestyle,
33:17
Speaker 3: they're vaping or they're smoking, or they're drinking lots of alcohol,
33:22
Speaker 3: and they're working in a job which exposes them to
33:25
Speaker 3: high levels of pollution for example. We know that there
33:28
Speaker 3: are certain environmental factors, these modifiable factors, which can influence
33:32
Speaker 3: sperm quality, but just based on someone's appearance, it's not
33:36
Speaker 3: possible to tell about their sexual health or sperm health.
33:41
Speaker 1: So what would you advise that couples both get tested
33:46
Speaker 1: on these various indices of fertility, shouldn't they have trouble conceiving?
33:50
Speaker 1: I think often only the woman is sent for the test,
33:53
Speaker 1: you know, when in fact it could be either party's
33:57
Speaker 1: fertility that's causing the difficulty in conception.
34:00
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, absolutely, I think you know, there's probably no
34:04
Speaker 3: need to routinely get yourself tested before trying. And I
34:08
Speaker 3: think you know, still just trying to conceive, and you know,
34:11
Speaker 3: if there's a consistent failure over a number of months
34:14
Speaker 3: and maybe years, then it is definitely time to explore
34:18
Speaker 3: is there any medical factors which can be modified which
34:20
Speaker 3: is actually affecting the point of conception, both on the
34:24
Speaker 3: male and female side, as who suggested, And yeah, I
34:27
Speaker 3: think that's a very fair thing to do, especially these days.
34:30
Speaker 3: You know you hear these claims about sperm counts dropping,
34:33
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera. It's probably something to think about
34:36
Speaker 3: earlier rather than later if there is a long term
34:39
Speaker 3: issue with you know, trying for a child and it's failing.
34:43
Speaker 1: All right, let us move on to a little mythbusting
34:48
Speaker 1: rapid fire style. The pull out method is a reliable
34:52
Speaker 1: form of contraception. No, do you want to quickly tell
34:56
Speaker 1: us why? Why not?
34:58
Speaker 3: Rather, well, if you don't know, you know exactly the
35:02
Speaker 3: timing of the pullout, whether there's any residual sperm being
35:04
Speaker 3: left in the vaginal cavity, in the vaginal cadal. So
35:08
Speaker 3: I think it's a very unreliable, unscientific method of contraception.
35:12
Speaker 1: I'm durant, Okay, men cannot get sexually transmitted infections from
35:20
Speaker 1: oral sex.
35:21
Speaker 2: Oh, also false?
35:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there is consistent evidence linking oral sex
35:26
Speaker 3: and the HPV virus with a number of cancers from
35:31
Speaker 3: oral pharyngeal cancers, throat.
35:33
Speaker 2: Cancers, tongue cancers, and beyond.
35:36
Speaker 3: So I think, you know, definitely beyond just HPV which
35:40
Speaker 3: I've mentioned, herpes and beyond can be transmitted orally.
35:45
Speaker 1: If you get a vasectomy done, sex won't be the same.
35:48
Speaker 3: You know, for me, I don't think that is true
35:52
Speaker 3: based on the evidence. However, there could be some individual
35:55
Speaker 3: variants depending on you know, whatever men find with regards
35:59
Speaker 3: to their sexual function.
36:00
Speaker 2: But there should not.
36:01
Speaker 3: Be any specific negative impact on sexual function if a
36:06
Speaker 3: man's had of a sectomy, because the genital organs are
36:10
Speaker 3: exactly the same. No nerves have been snipped, the actual anatomy,
36:15
Speaker 3: the hardware on the outside has not really been changed.
36:18
Speaker 3: It's only the tubes have been tied. For into a
36:20
Speaker 3: better phrase, So no, that should not affect anything physiologically.
36:25
Speaker 3: Maybe psychologically there could be some effect there which may
36:30
Speaker 3: impact a man's perception on in sexual performance.
36:33
Speaker 1: All right, a very diplomatic answer that men should certainly
36:38
Speaker 1: read the side effects of birth control that women have
36:41
Speaker 1: to endure. Kind of a sectomy is not going to
36:43
Speaker 1: seem so bad. But okay, one more, one more myth
36:51
Speaker 1: Men in relationships don't master bit.
36:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's an absolute myth. You know, I've
36:56
Speaker 3: got tons of friends of mine who are you know,
36:59
Speaker 3: in relationship and ships. They're married, they've got long term
37:01
Speaker 3: girlfriends who masturbate. And now I don't think that's something
37:04
Speaker 3: that needs to be hidden or made it taboo thing.
37:08
Speaker 3: And I don't think that's an indication of a person
37:11
Speaker 3: not being in a satisfied relationship either. Everyone has different
37:14
Speaker 3: sexual needs. If you don't masturbate in a relationship, that's fine.
37:18
Speaker 3: If you masturbate in a relationship, that's also fine. I
37:22
Speaker 3: don't think that has any impact on your relationship as
37:26
Speaker 3: a whole.
37:27
Speaker 1: And finally, orgasms and ejaculation are the same thing.
37:31
Speaker 3: So I mean physiologically there are two different things. I mean,
37:34
Speaker 3: one is more of a pleasurable outcome and one is
37:37
Speaker 3: more of a physiological outcome. So yeah, I think there
37:41
Speaker 3: should be some discrepancy between the two because you can
37:45
Speaker 3: orgasm without an ejaculate.
37:47
Speaker 1: And you can ejaculate without having an orgasm. Yeah yeah,
37:52
Speaker 1: all right, Which brings us to the link between mental
37:55
Speaker 1: health and sexual health, which we did touch upon earlier
37:58
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I think so often when thinking
38:00
Speaker 1: about sexual health, people think only about the genitals, genital function, size,
38:05
Speaker 1: all of that stuff, sort of you know, seeing the
38:08
Speaker 1: body as disconnected parts rather than a holistic, sort of
38:13
Speaker 1: very symbiotic relationship. Also, right between the emotional and psychological
38:17
Speaker 1: and intellectual and the physiological or physical what sort of
38:22
Speaker 1: links can you know, stress or trauma or self esteem,
38:27
Speaker 1: let's say, have on sexual function, and what might we
38:32
Speaker 1: all be sort of better off acknowledging in this regard,
38:36
Speaker 1: so that we have both the information and the sort
38:39
Speaker 1: of agency to act on should we detect that we
38:43
Speaker 1: might not be feeling you know, all that well up here,
38:46
Speaker 1: I personally am of the opinion that the most significant
38:49
Speaker 1: sexual organ is the brain.
38:51
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, I think you know, one of the main
38:54
Speaker 3: things is actually if you're low in mood or you know,
38:58
Speaker 3: depending on on what you're feeling at the time, or
39:02
Speaker 3: any mental health conditions that can actually impact your libido.
39:06
Speaker 3: You know, a very common side effect of depression or
39:10
Speaker 3: a symptom of depression I should say, is reduced libido.
39:14
Speaker 3: And you also see that with things like lotestosterone. For example,
39:17
Speaker 3: if a man has a low testosterone, that impacts a
39:20
Speaker 3: man's mood and thus can impact libido as well the
39:23
Speaker 3: sexual drive or sexual appetite. So I think that is
39:26
Speaker 3: the number one thing. But also the mental health can
39:29
Speaker 3: distort your sensory perception as well. So the same things
39:35
Speaker 3: that you found enjoyable, enriching and fulfilling experiences can almost
39:40
Speaker 3: be dull down and kind of the vibrancy of life
39:44
Speaker 3: in general can be dialed down. So the same experiences
39:47
Speaker 3: and feelings that you feel can actually be attenuated significantly
39:51
Speaker 3: because of your mental health. So you know, if you
39:55
Speaker 3: enjoyed mango milkshakes when you're kind of fine, right, you
39:59
Speaker 3: really love the taste of that, say you go through
40:00
Speaker 3: a period of depression, that same mango milkshake may not
40:03
Speaker 3: taste as sweet and as pleasurable as it did. And
40:07
Speaker 3: the same can happen with sex as well. It may
40:09
Speaker 3: not be as preasurable because all the volumes of all
40:13
Speaker 3: those feelings that dialed down significantly.
40:15
Speaker 1: Thanks with that metaphor or analogy. I loved it. I
40:19
Speaker 1: think it's what everyone can relate to because even on
40:21
Speaker 1: just a bad day or the day you're feeling sad,
40:24
Speaker 1: I feel like things don't joy it as and register
40:28
Speaker 1: as acutely right. And I think it's important that we
40:31
Speaker 1: seek help, you know, whether it's sexual health or mental
40:34
Speaker 1: health related. I think those two things still remain significantly
40:38
Speaker 1: difficult to navigate in India, Difficult to talk to your
40:40
Speaker 1: family about, difficult to even talk to your partner about
40:45
Speaker 1: So I want to just take this opportunity to encourage
40:47
Speaker 1: listeners to know that they can, that they're not alone,
40:50
Speaker 1: that these are very common issues, and that solutions exist.
40:54
Speaker 1: So as we close, I did want to get back
40:57
Speaker 1: to the sort of topic you brought up, but right
40:59
Speaker 1: at the beginning, around getting your health information from social media. Obviously,
41:03
Speaker 1: we are all blessed to have you on our feeds
41:06
Speaker 1: because of the you know, extreme commitment to scientific accuracy
41:12
Speaker 1: that you have, but unfortunately there are also lots of
41:15
Speaker 1: people who do not share that commitment, and lots of
41:18
Speaker 1: people who posit themselves as authorities. Nonetheless, there's gurus and
41:22
Speaker 1: barbers and you know, people really trying to pursuade you
41:27
Speaker 1: to see them as experts and somehow worthy of your
41:31
Speaker 1: respect and the iconography even around these people that, you know,
41:35
Speaker 1: it's hard for a young person to discern like who
41:37
Speaker 1: is the authority and who is the quack. So do
41:41
Speaker 1: you have any tips for just sort of social media literacy,
41:44
Speaker 1: especially when getting your health information from there, which most
41:48
Speaker 1: young people it is the starting point if you want
41:50
Speaker 1: to learn about something that you think you may be facing,
41:53
Speaker 1: You're going to start at the Internet before you go
41:55
Speaker 1: to the doctor. You know, I'd love to hear from
41:58
Speaker 1: you your advice to young people using the internet to
42:00
Speaker 1: get there to get their medical information.
42:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
42:04
Speaker 3: I think I would be wary of anyone claiming one
42:09
Speaker 3: thing works, and if they're especially linking that to something
42:14
Speaker 3: that they're selling as well, because there's an inherent financial
42:18
Speaker 3: bias there as well some incentive that they're using. And
42:21
Speaker 3: people who generally speak in absolutes scientific languages always could
42:26
Speaker 3: be likely to be possibly has a higher risk of
42:31
Speaker 3: chance of it. Sometimes is inherently a little bit vague
42:35
Speaker 3: and ambiguous, because science can be like that. Science is
42:39
Speaker 3: usually not in absolutes like this is X Y and Z,
42:43
Speaker 3: and so I think if someone is speaking in hyperbole,
42:47
Speaker 3: in absolutes and in very polarizing context, those are usually
42:52
Speaker 3: red flags for you to think about and thinking, hang on,
42:55
Speaker 3: is there any evidence behind this? And actually you also
42:58
Speaker 3: want to do your own research as well. As much
43:01
Speaker 3: as you might enjoy social media content, if someone is
43:04
Speaker 3: providing health information online, I think it's worth doing your
43:07
Speaker 3: own due diligence. Are they a medical professional to be
43:10
Speaker 3: speaking so confidently about X, Y and z when it
43:13
Speaker 3: comes to health? And also what they've spoken about can
43:17
Speaker 3: I find any evidence behind this? So those are things
43:21
Speaker 3: that actually the owners is also on us as consumers
43:24
Speaker 3: to do that research as well.
43:26
Speaker 1: And I would go one step further in India though
43:28
Speaker 1: particularly I don't know what it's like elsewhere. But you know, unfortunately,
43:32
Speaker 1: because religion has such a strong place still in our
43:36
Speaker 1: cultural and social imagination, what can be very confusing for
43:41
Speaker 1: young people is that often even medical professionals, you know,
43:45
Speaker 1: their products of the same society and are practicing with
43:48
Speaker 1: a certain set of religious beliefs. And I mean there's
43:52
Speaker 1: doctors on YouTube who say the most unscientific things because
43:57
Speaker 1: it's coming from their religious beliefs, right, and so they
44:00
Speaker 1: have the qualification, and they'll still be saying to you
44:03
Speaker 1: something deeply misogynistic or shame lad and especially when it
44:06
Speaker 1: comes to things like women's pleasure or you know, I mean,
44:12
Speaker 1: whether it's something like masturbation or nightfall. There will be
44:15
Speaker 1: people who have.
44:15
Speaker 4: Like various qualifications, whether they're professors or doctors, and unfortunately
44:23
Speaker 4: they're allowing for their personal religious and other such beliefs
44:29
Speaker 4: to intervene and cloud the science.
44:33
Speaker 1: And I think that and even once parents, you know,
44:35
Speaker 1: when your own mom and dad tell you that, you know,
44:37
Speaker 1: there's so much homophobia, for example, even from within the
44:41
Speaker 1: medical profession and within people's families. I'd love to, yeah,
44:44
Speaker 1: take that one step further, because I think there's also
44:46
Speaker 1: some amount of gatekeeping around who gets to talk about
44:49
Speaker 1: things like you must have these qualifications. But unfortunately, for
44:53
Speaker 1: example queer people, I think if you have to do
44:54
Speaker 1: so much work themselves, because the people with the qualifications,
44:58
Speaker 1: the policy makers like nobody's doing the work for them.
45:00
Speaker 1: Most healthcare workers in India still have absolutely zero training
45:04
Speaker 1: and queer affirmative sexual health, sexual and regreactive health services
45:07
Speaker 1: for example. You know, so I can I like ask
45:12
Speaker 1: you to take that one step further.
45:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, there's certainly no restriction on
45:18
Speaker 3: who should talk about the content. There's likely to be
45:22
Speaker 3: more misinformation from non medical experts talking about specific medical
45:26
Speaker 3: issues than medical experts. But again that does not make,
45:29
Speaker 3: as you suggested, medical experts immune from misinformation and using
45:34
Speaker 3: their own personal biases towards pushing certain engenders. And for
45:39
Speaker 3: example in India, Yeah, sometimes religion whether can creep into
45:45
Speaker 3: the conversation and there can be lots of pseudoscience promoted
45:48
Speaker 3: as a result of that, I think, yeah, that is
45:51
Speaker 3: very abundant on the online spaces where someone pushes their
45:55
Speaker 3: own cognitive biases into the conversation. So, you know, I
46:00
Speaker 3: really think social media and clips that you see online
46:04
Speaker 3: use as a stepping stone for you then to do
46:07
Speaker 3: your own deep dive into a conversation, because there's only
46:10
Speaker 3: so much nuance and information one can provide in sixty
46:13
Speaker 3: or ninety seconds. And I don't think any topic can
46:17
Speaker 3: be given you know it's proper due or you know,
46:21
Speaker 3: being you can't do justice for any specific topic, certainly
46:25
Speaker 3: not such a nuanced topic like sexual health in ninety seconds.
46:29
Speaker 3: So you do need to go away, take the headlines
46:32
Speaker 3: from whatever you've learned, and then go and do your
46:34
Speaker 3: own research.
46:35
Speaker 1: Thanks for that very important reminder. It's been so wonderful
46:38
Speaker 1: talking to do tell I guess where they can find.
46:41
Speaker 3: You, so everywhere, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and beyond. I'm doctor
46:46
Speaker 3: Karen on all these platforms, and you've.
46:48
Speaker 1: Got to get doctor Current's book. I so enjoyed reading
46:51
Speaker 1: it and it's so funny. We had a bit of
46:53
Speaker 1: a serious talk today, but doctor Karan is such a
46:56
Speaker 1: pleasure to listen to and watch because he is also
46:59
Speaker 1: so funny and so funny, so you will definitely have
47:02
Speaker 1: a laugh both reading this book and consuming his videos.
47:05
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for tuning in to Love Matters. This
47:08
Speaker 1: is Lisa Mangolas and Love Matters is produced by Indian
47:11
Speaker 1: Express and DW, Germany's international broadcaster. If you have a
47:15
Speaker 1: topic suggestion or guest suggestion question or a story you
47:19
Speaker 1: want to share, you can write into us at Lovematters
47:22
Speaker 1: at DW dot com. We'd love it if you read
47:25
Speaker 1: and review this podcast wherever you're tuning in, and please
47:28
Speaker 1: do share it with your friends. Un Till next time.
47:31
Speaker 1: This is me Lisa Mangolas signing off. I believe Love
47:34
Speaker 1: Matters