Opening Up The Lines of Healthcare Communication w/Sexual Health Pharmacist Tara Thompson

Are you able to talk to your doctor about your sexual health concerns?

Are you aware of the myriad of ways you can deal with everything from bacterial vaginosis to vulvodynia to STDs to hormone issues?

If not, today’s episode is here to rescue you. I sat down with Sexual Health Pharmacist Tara Thompson and we discussed all the ways that you can be supported when it comes to your sexual health, from traditional medications and therapies to over-the-counter options, pelvic floor health, and functional approaches from supplements to herbs.

Tara’s mission is to educate both patients and doctors on all the options available for women’s and men’s reproductive health, sexual concerns, and life transitions. She is working with doctor’s offices to create protocols around supporting transgender healthcare, and we chat about specific ways healthcare practitioners can be more inclusive in their practices.

We also talk about “bridging” the two worlds of allopathic and functional medicine, which is a strong suit of pharmacists because they have been trained on herbs just as much as medications.

If you’ve been dealing with something “down there” and haven’t felt safe to turn to your healthcare provider or anyone else about it, this episode will give you hope! There is help. Tara offers a list of resources that range from the Sexual Medicine Society of America to the Pelvic Guru at her website. 

Tara Thompson is a pharmacist and patient advocate in the field of sexual health. She recognized the lack of pharmacist education, as the drug experts, in the field of sexual medicine and knew she could make a difference. She created her website, as well as her Facebook and Instagram pages with the same name, in order to bring education to the public surrounding sexual medicine and the drugs involved in a patient’s pathway of care. Her passion is treating, counseling, and educating patients and providers alike about men’s and women’s sexual health conditions ranging from vulvodynia and interstitial cystitis to erectile dysfunction and Peyronie’s disease. Tara has been a practicing compounding pharmacist for 8 years in the field of sexual medicine, developing and designing pharmaceutical drug combinations for various sexual health conditions. She collaborates with providers nationwide who practice sexual medicine. 

She is working toward her sex educator certification through AASECT, which she hopes to complete by 2021. She also co-developed an advocacy panel called “justASK!” which hosts different sexual health experts on a monthly basis to encourage patients to ask any questions surrounding sexual health. She is a supporter of the LGBTQ community and also an advocate of mental health and the fight against sexual trauma and trafficking. Tara is currently researching and gathering evidence for drug treatment protocols in the field of transgender medicine. As a pharmacist, Tara feels like she brings another element of care to the healthcare team, in terms of drug decisions, strengths, and dosing. In her spare time, she love to cheer on the Atlanta Braves, kayak the Etowah River, and build forts with her kids.

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