Sex Education: Why it's important

 Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Wisdom begins when knowledge is applied with experience in everyday life. Common sense is shared among those willing to teach, listen and learn.

We all know that sex is a trait which determines whether one is male or female. During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female. After approximately 6 to 7 weeks of gestation, however, the expression of a gene on the Y chromosome induces changes that result in the development of the testes.

The fetus genitals develop along the same path with no outward sign of gender until about nine weeks. Many science researches have come to acknowledge that many facets of the environment affect how pregnancies fail to come to term which could produce multitude of birth defects, birth mutations, birth mortality and post natal trauma.

Since women have been suffering silently in matters of their existence as child bearers, it's high time to educate the public on how to care for their own individual existence.

Long before men performed religious rituals of circumcision, women were considered sacred embodiments of life. Cleansing rituals were performed for both male and female partners to bring new life to the world. 

If I could go through pregnancy all over again, I'd opt out of having the epidural. My body did not do well after pregnancy. I could not feel my legs for almost a month. There are moments, especially in recent years, when I'm just sitting on the couch, I truly felt like a couch potato. My leg starts to swell and feel numb. I have to wait for the numbness to go away before I can depart from the couch.

It's important to impart knowledge to teenagers about their well-being. Start them young in letting them know why their bodies are important to stay healthy. 

I was raised to always eat everything on my plate. This is not a healthy practice because it is allowing the body to store unnecessary fat. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, there are healthy body fat percentages based on your age. For people aged 20 to 39, women should aim for 21% to 32% of body fat. Men should have 8% to 19%. For people 40 to 59, women should fall between 23% to 33% and men should fall around 11% to 21%.

It's always good to learn what foods are good for your body. If your body rejects a certain type of food, don't force yourself to eat it because someone else believes it's healthy for you. There are other alternative foods for you to eat.

Men and women are built differently. Not everyone can care for their body the same fashion as everyone else.

With that being said, keeping your body clean plays an important role from staving off infections, diseases and infestations. The groin area needs careful cleaning to prevent rashes and infections. Rashes are most likely to form in moist areas where skin touches skin, such as the folds of the groin and on the chest and stomach. Washing your genitals once a day is adequate. If you over wash, you will wash away your good, healthy bacteria.

It's important to read the labels of any cleaning agents. Even though lauryl sulphate is a common cleansing agent, always have a test check to see if your skin get irritated by it. As the GQ author Adam Hurly puts it, "Sometimes you’re going to sweat no matter what, even if all you do is park your ass in a chair for the entire day. So the best thing you can do is wear underwear made from synthetic fabrics—nylons, polyesters, spandex—that pull sweat away from the skin and push it to the outside of the garment, where it can better evaporate rather than cause a swampy situation." 

As for us ladies, we're the biological house of life. Your vagina doesn’t need feminine hygiene products, since it maintains a healthy pH balance all by itself. Especially during the menstrual cycle, finding the best sanitary pads can be challenging. The best advice I ever had from my mother, which I still apply today, is to always check the pungency of your underwear. If it stinks like sewage, go to the gynecologist right away.

Dr Renjie Chang of NeuEve imparts her knowledge, "Washing inside or douching the vaginal canal can disrupt this natural balance, resulting in irritation, bacterial vaginosis, or other vaginal infections."

“It’s important to minimize ingredients like scents which can cause dryness and alter the pH of the vagina, leading to irritation or infection,” says Dr. Kameelah Phillips, OB-GYN, at Calla Women’s Health in New York.

Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, OB-GYN at Yale-New Haven Hospital and clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at Yale University School of Medicine says, “I encourage my patients to use unscented soap like Dove bar soap, and to use the least amount of soap possible.”

As for sanitary pads, I recommend using Always® or Carefree®. I've tried the Kind cup and it has lived up to its name and vision. Always talk to your gynecologist to find the best feminine product that works for you. 

Dr Felice Gersh says, “The vagina should smell like a vagina. If you want to attach a smell to it, it would smell musky or musty. If the vagina smells like dead fish, rotten eggs, or spoiled meat, then that’s a clear sign of infection,” she says. “No spa or feminine hygiene treatment will clear up an infection.”

I don't know about smelling musky or musty. Musty to me is like a wet, moldy degrading wood. As far as smelling musky, that depends on how you like the smell of tree saps. Amber is widely used in the fragrance market. Especially male secretions of badgers, civet cats and deer. Yes, that's right. The fragrance market is using scrotum secretions of animals for you to wear and smell nice.

As Gabrielle Kassel states in her blog, "At the end of the day, feminine hygiene is just a marketing slogan designed to get vagina owners to buy products they don’t need. But if you’re looking for a way to bring your bits into your self-care practice, make sure it’s one with the fewest ingredients."