Hi, I'm Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. I am excited to have the opportunity to share with you from time to time some sexual health information that I hope will help you lead a happy and healthy romantic life. In this column, we'll get to talk about sex, relationships, stds, and other sexual health issues that are important to ourselves and our community.

Millions of our sisters and brothers turn to Planned Parenthood for sexual and reproductive health care. It's a good place to go, especially if you don't have health insurance or are on a limited income. That's how Planned Parenthood health care providers and educators have become intimately aware of our sexual health concerns. So I am happy to share some of what we have learned with you.

To kick off the column, I want to talk about one of the biggest sexual health concerns for our community - sexually transmitted infections.

You may have already heard that African Americans have the highest rates of infection in America. But do you know why? It's not that we have more sex than other ethnic groups. It's that many people in our community lack access to medical care. So a lot of us are not getting regular check ups or good information about how to stay healthy.

This is not good for our health, and it can affect how we relate to our sex partners. For example, when we find we have an infection, we may become angry with our partner because we think it's his or her fault. But this is not always the case. I'll be talking about why this is in my next column, which will be about herpes.

Until next time, here's to your sexual health,

Vanessa

Vanessa Cullins, MD, MPH, MBA, is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist and vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.