Safe, Inclusive, Empowering Clinical Care and Education.
Saskatoon Sexual Health is a non-profit organization located on Treaty Six Territory and the homeland of the Metis. They offer sexual and reproductive health education, advocacy, clinical and abortion services to Saskatoon and the surrounding area. On My Sex Bio, we had the pleasure to talk with one of their members, Natalya Mason.
My Sex Bio: Something I find incredibly empowering and exciting is that, not only does Saskatoon Sexual Health work to provide sexual wellness care to your community, but it's working to change the mindset around sex and sex education at a national level. Can you speak more to that? For example, with the volunteer work you do?
Natalya: Saskatoon Sexual Health (SSH) has been serving Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the surrounding area for nearly 45 years. Saskatchewan is a massive province with a small population, just like Canada is a massive country with a small but very diverse population. One of the things that's interesting about doing this work here is how adaptable you need to be. We want our message to resonate with young people who live in small rural communities, those in urban settings, and those in remote Northern communities. I think part of doing this work effectively is addressing our universal experiences.
Sexuality is so complex, and there are so many contributing factors, like culture and religion, but at the end of the day, those feelings of apprehension and nervousness and excitement are something that we all experience.
I think that's one of the things that we've been doing really successfully for the past couple of years. If we're making an impactful contribution to conversations around sex and sexuality it's because we're trying to get at the heart of the matter. Saskatchewan faces very poor health outcomes related to sexual health, so for us, it's an urgent matter, and truthfully there's not much to lose. Social media has offered us such a great opportunity to connect with people, and encourage these conversations even when we're not able to be in the classroom or clinic ourselves.
My Sex Bio: How do you see the future of sex education?
Natalya: Sexual health education is such a complicated conversation. In Canada, health and education are both provincial jurisdiction, which means that standards vary from province to province. One student might receive gold standard education, where another receives no information at all. So one of our biggest interests is seeing a standardization across Saskatchewan, and eventually across the country. The Sex Education and Information Council of Canada recently released Canadian Guidelines on Sexual Health Education, which are in alignment with international best practice standards, so we would love to see those be implemented.
The future of sex education needs to be inclusive, responsive, and imaginative. It needs to be decolonized, and it needs to celebrate the diversity of identities and experiences people have.
I also look forward to the day when the stigma and discrimination are in the rearview mirror, and people are comfortable having these conversations with anyone. Family, friends, healthcare professionals, educators... we all have a role to play.
My Sex Bio: The future of sexual health care?
Natalya: The first thing that comes to mind is accessibility. There are so many barriers and challenges that prevent people from accessing sexual health care, and we'll never be able to serve them if we don't dismantle the oppressive systems that are marginalizing them. We need to think about where clinics are located, what kind of environments they create, and what kind of people work in them. SSH does a lot of work with healthcare professionals, social workers, students, etc. so that we can encourage them to think about the biases they may hold (intentionally or not) and how we can begin to deconstruct them. Everyone holds biases, you can't get rid of them, but you can acknowledge them and work hard to make sure they don't impact the quality of care you deliver.
In an ideal world, sexual health clinics like ours shouldn't have to exist, because the quality of care people receive from their primary provider is meeting or even exceeding their needs.
Until that moment in time, we will strive towards a future where stigma and discrimination are no longer a reality, and make sure that people have somewhere they can go for support. I would also love to see an increase in eHealth, with Saskatchewan being such a large province, people are often 10+ hours away from services. Being able to offer services like medical abortion and STI testing remotely would be incredible.
My Sex Bio: In what ways to you think sexual self-care could lead to even greater social and political benefits?
Natalya: I come from a social work background, but one of the reasons I enjoy this work is because of the immense benefits to society as a whole. High quality comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is fairly inexpensive, especially when contrasted with the health and social costs of poor sexual health education. Lower STI infection rates, fewer abortions, earlier health interventions... all of those things save healthcare systems millions of dollars. In addition to those obvious cost-savings, you will also see a decrease in things like gender-based violence, sexual violence, teen pregnancy rates.
As a sexual health educator, my number one concern is making sure that people are equipped with the information and the resources necessary to make decisions about their lives and their futures.
It's not a coincidence that the countries with the most sex-positive values also have some of the best health and social outcomes for their citizens.
My Sex Bio: I feel like there is an almost endless supply of subject matter talk about when it comes to sex (visual porn, audio porn, kinks, fetishes, gender bias, dating, first time sex, the history of sex, STDs, pregnancy, contraception, sexual self-care, holistic sexual wellness, mindful sex/tantra, the list goes on). How do you decide what is important to talk about during your educational presentations?
Natalya: Our provincial health curriculum outlines the necessary topics for students to learn; however, it's ten years old so we do try to make sure that we're responsive to the current climate that students are learning in. I spend a fair amount of time talking about healthy relationships (and the skills necessary to maintain them). My students will know this, but I always emphasize the importance of communication over everything else. You want to know how to be the best lover ever? Communicate with your partner. You're feeling jealous? Communicate with your partner. Even things like negotiating kinks, or condom use all still require strong communication skills. One thing that I feel strongly about is not harping too much on the specifics of each STI. Most people can't tell the difference between a cold and the flu, so I've never understood why we expect young people to memorize the symptoms of each STI, especially when the majority are going to be asymptomatic. My other rule is that all questions deserve an answer. If I don't answer a question, the internet will, I want to make sure the information they are getting is as accurate as possible. Last, I think it's really important to acknowledge when I don't know an answer. Not everyone needs to be a sexual health expert, we all just need to know that there's somewhere we can go when we need help.
My Sex Bio: Do you believe that peace with your sexual self could also mean peace with others?
Natalya: Learning to love yourself is a lifelong journey for most people, but being compassionate towards yourself can help you to be compassionate to others. We need to learn to be gentle with ourselves. Maya Angelou once said: "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better." We're all allowed to change for the better and make mistakes along the way. I also remind students that they are responsible for their own actions, and not the actions of others.
Being at peace with yourself will allow you to respect your needs, your boundaries, and should ultimately empower you to manage relationships with others (even those you're not at peace with) more easily.
Thank you for talking with us, Natalya! Check out Saskatoon Sexual Health social media and website.
