A fair dedicated to the wellbeing of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women drew a crowd of attendees last Saturday looking to learn more about safer sex, relaxation, healthy cooking and women’s healthcare in San Diego. The Center’s Women’s Resource Center and Comprehensive Health Center put on the event, which drew a steady stream of people throughout the five-hour fest.

Low or no-cost mammograms and breast exams were offered throughout the day. Massages and physical therapy advice were also on hand.

Comprehensive Health Services Community Health Educator Ida Dupree led a workshop entitled “Safer Sex in the City”, which outlined every facet of sex and the female anatomy, including how to spot and prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the importance of sterilizing sex toys and which ones should be used for various erogenous zones, how to use female condoms and the origin of the vibrator.

Many women who have sex with women think they are exempt from getting STIs, a myth that can have serious consequences, Dupree said. Women who have sex with women and don’t practice safe sex are at risk of picking up life-threatening infections such as hepatitis C, herpes, chlamydia, syphilis and HIV.

“Women are touchy, feely, huggy… and we don’t think we can transmit things,” Dupree said. “Women who have sex with women say, ‘It’s the safest thing in the world,’ but it’s not.”

STIs can be transmitted through vaginal, anal and oral sex, as well as improperly cleaned sex toys.

Fecal to oral transmission is a disturbing but common way some STIs are transmitted, Dupree said. “Whatever you’re doing – tossing, going down, 69-ing, whatever – the back is not far from the front, do you understand what I’m saying?” she added.

Using condoms on sex toys is imperative, she continued. The hepatitis C virus can live two to three weeks outside of the body. “I emphasize, make sure you relubricate [sex toys],” because vaginal dryness can cause the condoms to tear.

While a single female condom retails for about $15, dental dams start at around $1.79 and can be effective in preventing STIs, including hepatitis B. Female condoms are made from an entirely different material than male condoms. “Once the condom heats up inside the body, to body temperature, it melts to the side of the walls – vaginal, anal, oral – any walls,” Dupree explained.

Many infections, such as syphilis, gonorrhea, allergic vaginitis, bacterial vaginosis, human papilloma viruses and genital warts, may only appear as a milky-white vaginal discharge in its early stages, causing many women to overlook the possibility of infection and forgo testing. Others can have no symptoms at all, which is why regular testing is important for sexually active women. Experts believe human papilloma viruses are the most common sexually transmitted infection in the nation.

“According to a recent report, 85 percent of SDSU students have herpes simplex,” Dupree said. “Whoa.”

Herpes, which can be transmitted through oral sex between women, can still be transmitted two to three weeks after an outbreak through a process called shedding, where the virus is still active on the skin even though the legion is gone. Viral shedding can also occur before and during an outbreak, as well as at random times where no noticeable symptoms may appear, called subclinical or asymptomatic shedding.

Chlamydia can feel like a bladder infection and woman-to-woman transmission is “possible, but not yet studied,” Dupree said. “A lot of things haven’t been studied for woman-to-woman transmission.”

When asked if she thought there was more denial among women who have sex with women about having STIs, Dupree said yes. “They say, ‘Well, I didn’t know I could get if from a woman!’ You still have to be safe. … Take control of your own body and your own self and be safe.”

Methamphetamine drug use, often used to intensify sexual experience, also causes body tissues and organs to dry out, including the vagina and the mouth, which promotes tearing during sexual intercourse and heightens the risk of picking up an STI.

Tissues also dry out as a natural part of getting older, Dupree explained, and older women need to be aware of that.

“Safer Sex in the City” dispelled the myth of douching as a health benefit. Common reasons given for douching are to reduce vaginal odor and cleanse after sex or menstruation to reduce the risk of STIs. However, recent studies show that douching disrupts the natural bacterial lining in the vagina and that women who douche are more likely to get infections in the uterus, tubes and ovaries – possibly because water and bacteria are forced up into the cervix during douching. Women who douche are also more likely to get bacterial vaginosis, and douching has not been shown to prevent STIs.

In addition to a series of fliers and pictures, Dupree handed out free condoms and lubricant. According to one of the fliers, the vibrator originated to relieve the cramped fingers of Victorian-era physicians who treated female patients for hysteria by masturbating them to orgasm, though they didn’t realize at the time what they were doing since so little was known about female sexuality. By the 1900s, the Sears Roebuck catalogue started selling vibrators for self-treatment of hysteria. This information was obtained from SexualityTalk.com.

Councilmember Toni Atkins and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis introduced a women’s wellness panel following Dupree’s workshop that consisted of seven health professionals and educators, who addressed everything from postpartum depression, to heterosexual bias in healthcare and how to keep fit.

Dr. Flora Danque, a family physician with Sharp Rees Stealy, Ida Dupree of Comprehensive Health Center, Dr. Heather Berberet, a psychologist, Dr. Philip Diamond, a local obstetrician-gynecologist, Suzann Gage, a nurse practitioner and executive director of Progressive Health Services, and Cathreena Kang, manager of health programs at the American Cancer Society fielded questions and Teresa Oyos, community program representative for UCSD-HIV Studies, facilitated the panel.

The Women’s Resource Center and Comprehensive Health Center will also be hosting two future Women’s Wellness fairs, on Saturday, May 21, and Saturday, Sept. 17, also from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. For further information please contact Claudia Lucero at (619) 692-2077 ext. 206.