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HEALTH
ISSUES
to
DISCUSS
with your partner
A
Lisah Muroyi
fter shedding light on how
to reveal your HIV status l
realised that it’s not only HIV
that is difficult to discuss with
you partner but many other health issues.
No matter how long you have been
with your partner at this point you might
hesitate to tell him/her about your health
issues because maybe you don’t want to
be embarrassed or you are afraid he will
leave you for someone. Find out how
you can go about this without you losing
confidence in your partner.
Some of the things that you might
hesitate to discuss with your partner
include the following
ERECTILE DYSFUNCTIONAL
This is when a man fails to raise
the flag, it is quite an embarrassing
experience and most men do not feel
comfortable with it.
Well when one has such a problem it
is better to discuss it before you try to
indulge in order to save yourself from the
embarrassment of not raising the flag.
Talking about it is actually the first
step towards treating it and avoids
frustrations and disappointments.
ORGASM
An orgasm is a feeling of intense sexual
pleasure that happens during sexual
activity. It’s sometimes called “coming” or
“climaxing”. Both men and women have
orgasm. However research has found out
that 25% of women get an orgasm.
This makes it even hard for women
to explain their partners that they are
Page 20
not finished. Though this should be a
combined effort to get each other’s nut
most of the time women are the victims.
You might think it’s rude to tell him,
but suffering in silence also brings a lot
of problem. You might end up resenting
your partner and once you do that your
relationship is doomed.
Communication is the best, start a
conversation about all your sex sessions,
dwell on the positives first then politely
tell him about you not getting nut.
TRAUMA
It’s hard to tell your partner if you have
been traumatized before. It might not be
your fault that you were traumatized or
disturbed by past experiences but being
honest about it is the best solution.
You might have been raped when you
were still young or watched your close
relative being abused and since then
your perception about men is different.
You did not choose to experience that, it
just happened so that might affect your
relationship in one way or the other.
Tell your significant other you
experience so that you both understand
certain behavioral traits that one can
have. It also helps your partner to
understand your behaviour and attitude
towards certain issues.
So do yourself a big favour and open
up about what happened to you or your
family that is still bothering you.
HIV/AIDS
This is one disease that spouses fear
to share their statuses about, in fear
of rejection and stigma. As we have
The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine
discussed in our March issue, one should
keep in mind is that having HIV is like
having diabetes, blood pressure, cancer
and any of the several disease that anyone
can suffer from.
Studies have proven that people
who reveal their HIV status responds
to treatment better than those who
don’t. Depending on the level of your
relationship, disclosing your status is
the best thing you can ever do it helps
you to get the support that you need if
your partner knows your condition and
more often than not keeping secrets is
traumatic so trying to hide things is hard
work.
V- INFECTIONS
Vaginal infections vary and are very
common in women and they experience
them at some point in their lifetime.
Burning, itching discomfort and an
unpleasant odor are some of the common
symptoms.
Now if one is experiencing such
symptoms it might be hard work to try
and hide this from your partner. You
might not necessarily been sleeping
together for him to notice this, but from
your discomfort.
This makes your life difficult unless
you tell your partner what you are going
through so that you feel comfortable
around him. You might also need to
explain to him what it means to have
these infections because there is a certain
stereotype. TP
December 2015