Desire and Pleasure: Health Check Week

There are many factors that make a relationship a good and healthy one: love, respect, communication, honesty and sex. When you think about sex, perhaps you are just focusing upon the carnal pleasure. But there is more to sex than satisfaction. Respect and honesty also play a big part here.

March not only marks the month as Prostate and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, but the commencement of Desire and Pleasure’s “Sexy” Health Check Week too. Desire and Pleasure, the online sex-toy website run by the Family Planning Association, launched a campaign promoting couples to make health checks a daily part of their sex lives, thus keeping themselves as well as their partner healthy.

It is a delicate subject, one many may shy away from. How do you carry out a check on your partner?

Natika H Halil, Director of Information for FPA says: “The aim of Sexy Health Check Week is to encourage couples to explore each other’s bodies and be open and honest with each other if they do notice anything. There are so many campaigns out there for self-checks and self-diagnosis, but nothing highlighting how knowing each other’s bodies as well as your own can be of benefit.  Sex offers the perfect opportunity to do this, when couples are most intimate.”

After independent research, Desire and Pleasure found that only a minority of people admitted they would tell their partner if they noticed any changes on their body. This was mainly due to embarrassment, with 54% citing this as the main reason for keeping quiet, and 27% of people confessed that it was something they thought was either not important enough to bring up, or just wanted to avoid having an awkward conversation.

Changes could be trivial such as hygiene, smells, weight changes, skin rashes, allergies or more serious symptoms like lumps and tenderness for testicular and breast cancer. Sexual partners are in a great position to spot changes in their lover’s body no matter how big or small.

The entire campaign with the advice guide can be read on the Desire and iPleasure website. Being honest with each other is the key to this campaign. If you are truly comfortable with your partner and love them, they will be extremely grateful for the truthfulness; taking your relationship to a whole new level. 

Pooja Sahny