National Coalition For Sexual Health

Who We Are 
The National Coalition for Sexual Health (NCSH), which includes over 50 leading health and medical  organizations, is working to improve the sexual health and well-being of Americans across their lifespan. 

What is Sexual Health?
Sexual health is having a healthy body. A satisfying sex life. Valuing and feeling good about yourself. Having peace of mind. Enjoying positive relationships, whether short-term or long-term. Experiencing pleasure, intimacy, and joy. Avoiding sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies. These are just a few of the important benefits of good sexual health.  It also means enjoying your sexuality and taking care of yourself and your partners throughout your life. Being free to talk about sexual health with your partner and health care providers is key to your overall health and well-being.

What do we do?
We produce practical tools and resources that are available free-of-charge to help people:
• Start conversations about sexual health
• Take action to improve their sexual health and well-being
• Access essential sexual health care services

New tools available to help you make sexual health part of your overall health care routine: The vast majority of Americans are not getting recommended health care services that can protect and improve their sexual health, even though they are available at no cost under the Affordable Care Act.  In fact, less than half are getting vital services, such as the HPV vaccine, HIV testing, and chlamydia screening.  Yet, these services can prevent some cancers and detect STIs that can cause infertility and other chronic conditions.

To help people get these essential sexual health care services, we launched a new easy-to-use guide and website, “Take Charge of Your Sexual Health: What you need to know about preventive services.”  This guide features action steps for achieving good sexual health, charts of recommended preventive services for men and women based on age, tips on how to find and talk with a health care provider, and other sexual health resources.

Five key action steps to good sexual health:

The NCSH promotes five key steps that people can take to help them achieve good sexual health at any age:
• Value who you are and decide what’s right for you
• Get smart about your body and protect it
• Treat your partners well and expect them to treat you well
• Build positive relationships
• Make sexual health part of your healthcare routine

To learn more about these action steps and take charge of your sexual health, you can download our short brochure, “What is Sexual Health? Five Key Action Steps to Help You Achieve it.”

Other NCSH Activities:
To improve the delivery of sexual health services, we also produce tools for healthcare providers. To help educate Americans nationwide about good sexual health, our network of sexual health experts often  serve as key sources to leading print, broadcast and online media outlets, as needed.

Experts:
The NCSH works with the following experts, and many others, to deliver important sexual health information to the public.
• Gale Burstein, M.D., MPH, FAAP, Erie County Health Commissioner (New York), pediatric medicine specialist at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.  Member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.
• Debra Hauser, MPH, President and Executive Director, Advocates for Youth (Washington, D.C.). Debra has worked with Advocates for over 20 years, a nonprofit that champions efforts to help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health.
• Amber Madison, M.A., LMHC-LP, a trained therapist/relationship expert, nationally recognized sex columnist, lecturer, and the author of Hooking Up: A Girl's All-Out Guide to Sex And Sexuality, Are All Guys Assholes? and Talking Sex with Your Kids.
• Dana Van Gorder, Executive Director, Project Inform (San Francisco, CA). Project Inform is an HIV and Hepatitis C Advocacy organization.  It represents patients in the process of identifying both HIV and Hep C treatments and cures, educates the public about HIV and Hep C, and advocates for health care services.

NCSH Staff:
• Susan Gilbert, MPA, Co-Director of the National Coalition for Sexual Health, leads its Communications Action Group and spearheaded the development and promotion of the “Five Key Action Steps to Good Sexual Health” for the public.    
• Alyson Kristensen, MPH, is Co-Director of the National Coalition for Sexual Health and leads its Health Care Action Group. She has expertise in preventive sexual health care services and helping consumers improve their sexual health through prevention.
• Jaclyn Fontanella, MPH, Program Manager of the National Coalition for Sexual Health, coordinates the day-to-day operations of the Coalition, as well as the National Chlamydia Coalition.