A University of Victoria PhD student is looking at the intersection between chronic pain and sexuality.
“ I’m really looking at understanding people’s stories and experiences. And what I want to understand is how chronic pain affects sexuality and identity in people that live with chronic pain,” said Jenise Finlay, speaking to People First Radio from Calgary.
Finlay has lived experience of chronic pain and disability and has spent much of her career as a nurse working in sexual health spaces.
“ I started initially in mostly women’s health clinics and I found that women would come to me and share stories with me about their disabilities or chronic pain and they would say, ‘hey… I’ve never told anyone that before. Thank you for making this a safe space,'” she said.
“I was like, okay, there’s something going on here where the chronic pain piece, the disability piece isn’t being addressed in sexual health clinics. And then at the same time in chronic pain clinics, the sexuality piece isn’t very well addressed either. So there’s kind of like… two buckets. We’ve got the sexual health bit and then we have the disability bit. And when you look at the healthcare system, neither are really working together.”
Finlay says she’d like to see people become more comfortable talking about sex and issues they may be having.
“Be bold. Don’t be afraid to express your concerns, because what I see in my nursing practice is people are very shy and afraid to say, ‘hey, this is an issue that I’m experiencing. What do I do about it?’ The more we talk about it, the more patients or healthcare providers talk about it, the more we can get comfortable talking about these things, and then being like, ‘wait, there’s a resource that’s missing.’ Or the nurse might go, Hey, I’m not sure how to address this, so let me go learn about it so I can do better next time with somebody.”
Finlay is still looking to speak with people about their experiences, and can be reached through her website.
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