Where do you turn?

So I recently had an experience that opened my eyes. I’ve considered myself to be fairly knowledgeable about sexual health issues for a while now. I paid attention to the basics in high school. I know that condoms don’t prevent all STDs, and you can contract them orally (and that you can’t get pregnant from oral sex). I’ve known all these mechanics since I was about 13.

In college I took a course on Human Sexuality, and educated myself more completely about a variety of issues related to sexual health and various conditions and disorders. As an advocate for victims of sexual assault, I’ve been through extensive training on STD testing and other trauma related issues and conditions. I’ve been to my doctor regularly since I was 18 and I absorb the information he gives me. My friends will actually ask me questions sometimes, and surprisingly, I usually know the answer, or at least know what they need to research.

It came as a surprise to many people in my life, including my mother, that I’ve never had a yeast infection. So when I questioned her about a problem I was having she assumed that was it. (Note:  Never rely on someone aside from a doctor or nurse to diagnose any health issue.) So, I bought some over the counter medication and my problem became worse. It turns out, I had an allergic reaction to the spermicidal lube on some condoms I’d bought.

Some of you are gasping, because you knew something that I did not. You knew that most spermicides have nonoxynol-9 and that about 50% of the population is allergic, and all sorts of other horrendous facts that I only discovered after the fact. So, after my lady parts were in agony for a few days and I eventually stopped feeling the constant irritation, the nurse informs me that a yeast infection is altogether different. (On a positive note: I would now recognize the symptoms were I to ever have one.)

The forums on EF were helpful after the fact. All the nurse actually told me was that I was probably allergic to the condom. Since I’ve been using those for a while and knew it wasn’t the latex; I needed to know exactly what I was allergic to. The packaging, plus an informative post in the forums, led me to the information I needed. Before that I had searched all kinds of sites for Female Sexual Health issues, and I was hard pressed to find one that gave any of this kind of information, which seems pretty basic.

So where does the average woman go to learn these things? Does everyone learn the hard way? Why aren’t there general warnings out there about this type of thing? I know some of my frustration comes from having to spend a week asking questions and worrying that something just wasn’t right. Do any of you have trusted sites where you can go to look up symptoms with straight forward questions? I know the WebMD type sites can breed hypochondria, but sometimes it would be nice to simply have a reference.