You Are Not Broken: A Modern Approach to Women’s Sexual Health and Desire

Kelly Casperson, MD is a board-certified urologist and self-taught women’s sexual health expert. Years of helping care for women has shown her that we, as a society, are not doing enough to teach women about their mind, body and relationships. Kelly aims to break down societal barriers and combat limiting beliefs that are keeping women from awakening into their best intimate experience. She is basically the friendly expert you never had, to teach you - You Are Not Broken.

On this podcast, Kelly talks about women’s sexual health and wellness, including the biological and psychological issues that stand in the way of having a great sex life. She talks about spontaneous vs. responsive desire, and why unrealistic expectations may be a huge barrier to intimacy. Kelly also offers great tips for improving sexual health and function, from mind-body strategies like mindfulness and meditation to purely physiological options like topical estrogen and lube.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Kelly Casperson:

[00:00:49] Jessa Zimmerman; Book: Sex without stress; a couple’s guide to overcoming disappointment, avoidance, and pressure; Podcast: How to Have Intimacy With Ease.

[00:01:05] Podcast: Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost Its Mind, with Jamie Wheal.

[00:02:01] Kelly's background and interest in urology.

[00:06:59] FDA approved medication for low libido in women.

[00:08:44] Spontaneous vs. responsive desire.

[00:14:09] Discrepancies in desire.

[00:15:16] Scheduling sex.

[00:18:15] Meditation and mindfulness.

[00:19:44] Orgasm inequality.

[00:22:56] Multiple orgasms.

[00:25:43] Book: Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, by Emily Nagoski, PhD.

[00:26:15] Foreplay is everything and everything is foreplay.

[00:28:34] Types of arousal.

[00:29:58] Topical estrogen.

[00:31:36] Podcast: The Critical Role of Oestradiol for Women’s Cognition, with Anne Hathaway.

[00:34:20] Oral birth control.

[00:36:08] Podcast: The Postmenopausal Longevity Paradox and the Evolutionary Advantage of Our Grandmothering Life History, with Kristin Hawkes.

[00:38:43] Podcast: How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy, with Herman Pontzer, PhD.

[00:39:36] Vibrators don't cause desensitization; Study: Herbenick, Debra, et al. "Prevalence and characteristics of vibrator use by women in the United States: Results from a nationally representative study." The journal of sexual medicine 6.7 (2009): 1857-1866.

[00:40:47] Everybody should use lube; Uberlube.

[00:43:36] Podcast: Disruptive Anthropology: An Ancestral Health Perspective on Barefooting and Male Circumcision, with Stephanie Welch.

[00:48:17] Book: You Are Not Broken (coming soon).

[00:49:09] The You Are Not Broken Podcast.

[00:49:22] Kelly's website.

[00:49:51] Find Kelly on Instagram.