Why Intimacy Matters After Illness, Disability & Ostomy

What happens when illness, disability, and heartbreak completely change your relationship with intimacy?

In this episode, we share the deeply personal experiences that led us to dedicate our lives to helping people rebuild confidence, connection, and intimacy after body-altering surgery.

People often ask why we're so passionate about intimacy.

The truth is... neither of us planned to build careers around it.

Nicole's journey began after her ostomy surgery, when she struggled to find products that helped her feel confident during intimacy. That experience eventually led her to create innovative ostomy garments and become a leading advocate in the ostomy community.

Trina's path took an entirely different route through chronic illness, years without physical touch, work in the adult entertainment industry, intimacy surrogacy, and eventually coaching people living with disabilities and body-altering surgeries.

Together, we discuss:

• How our personal experiences shaped our missions
 • Why intimacy is about far more than sex
 • The hidden impact of touch starvation
 • Body confidence after ostomy surgery
 • Breaking stigma around disability and intimacy
 • Why products alone aren't enough to heal body shame
 • The importance of safe communities
 • Our vision for creating products and resources that genuinely help people feel confident again

Whether you have an ostomy, live with a disability, are recovering from surgery, or simply want a deeper understanding of intimacy and human connection, we hope this conversation reminds you that you are never alone.

📌 Connect With Us
Trina Ricketts – The Intimate Ostomate
Website: intimateostomate.com
Instagram:   / intimateostomate 
Youtube:    / @intimateostomate 
Books, guides, coaching & resources
Coaching • Books / Guides • Resources • Intimacy Advocacy

Nicole Richards - Ostomy Innovations
Website: ostomyinnovations222.com
Instagram:   / ostomyinnovations 
Youtube:    / @ostomyinnovations222 
Coaching • Wellness • Disability advocacy • Ostomy Clothing

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome back to Rewired and Desired Podcast, where intimacy, mindset, and disability intersect. I'm Trina Ricketts and I'm here with Nicole Richards. And today we are going to talk about why we love working in the intimacy industry and basically how we got interested in intimacy. Because both of us run businesses around intimacy, and maybe you don't really know everything about that. So we thought we would just talk about why intimacy. What drew us to it and what do we love about working in this industry? So, Nicole, why don't you start us off? Because I honestly don't even know what got you into creating underwear for people with ostomies to have intimacy while they're wearing exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Well, and yeah, that's that's exactly how it started. So I had my ostomy surgery and I was in the hospital and they gave me like a booklet. And in the booklet, like a folder, there was a brochure for another ostomy underwear company. And I was looking through it, like, hmm, okay, well, I see there's these underwear, but how do you like cover your underwear? How do you cover your bag and like still have intimacy? How do you be intimate with a bag? Like when you want to kind of cover it. And then I did see that they had like some bands, they had different underwear. And so I ordered the underwear and I tried them and I was like, eh, I don't know that I'll wear these, but um, good to know. They have this inner pocket and that kind of thing. And so I was thinking more about it because at the time I was in a relationship with and with somebody. I'd only been in this relationship for a few several months, and he was like six years younger than me. And so I didn't know how he was gonna handle me having an ostomy, right? And so I got to thinking like, how could I design a pair of underwear that turned into a band? And, you know, uh initially I met with a few manufacturers, I met with a woman had just sewed, but it never really went anywhere. And then um, you know, I went on this healing journey and my spiritual journey, and and then eventually things just came to kind of light. Like I met the right people and this person and that person, and finally got somebody who's like, you know what, I can sew those up. I was like, okay. So I, you know, we developed a little prototype and then it just kind of skyrocketed from there. And I don't want to say skyrocketed, but like it it happened. The stars aligned essentially.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Yeah, the snowmobile started rolling and picking up speed and getting bigger.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Exactly, exactly. And so I did file for a patent. So I'm patent pending on a pair of underwear that essentially open up and then they uh hook in the back and then they create a band. And so um the idea was, you know, I want people to feel intimate and be able to cover up their underwear, but be in that moment as well. Like, not excuse me, let me go get changed kind of thing, which does have to happen sometimes, right? Um, but I wanted something that it could just kind of open up. And then I developed another pair, the kind of like a split crotch kind of pair. Um, which are good for other things, right? Like hiking and and uh being outdoors and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Like if you have to go to the bathroom, you mean?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Correct, correct. Yes, you just open them up.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

You just go open them up and go pee. And these are women's underwear, clearly.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yes, yes, women's underwear. So um, yeah, so it you know, in my business kind of went from there too. And then I did make like a like a pair that didn't open up and didn't um aren't just you know aren't intimacy pair, and those are the pair that are like very popular among a lot of the Yasumi world right now, along my uh in my um my with my customers. Sorry, I can't talk today. Um so so it's been interesting. Like I know that um there's such a need for these types of products. And Trina and I have been talking about different things, and we have some ideas in in the works and things that we're working on, and I just think that it's such and it is intuitively, you know, because I wasn't involved in the awesome world that much back then, but now that I've been advocating and I've started Facebook groups and I'm doing so much work in the UAA and doing all these things, like it's not just me who thought that way back then, right? Like it is clearly one that I'd say between mental health and intimacy, they're the two largest issues that somebody with an ostomy deals with. And you know, for I know for Trina and I, we talk a lot about you know, helping people and how how we're going to achieve that. And it's not just like coaching, but it's also you know, creating products that someone like she and I would use, like, you know, Trina, you would use and and the rest of the Austin community needs, right? And I think we're constantly improving things, you know. We make things, we improve them, um, we see what works, what doesn't work. And ultimately, yeah, it just it it was really just like an intuitive knowing that how are we gonna make this happen? How am I gonna uh be intimate and hide my bag at the same time?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

So I remember when you and I first met through a Facebook group that you run and uh ostomy body positive, right? Yes, and um I noticed that you were selling this intimacy underwear. I can't remember how I happened upon it because you weren't really sharing that much about it at the time. Uh, but I was like, oh my gosh, this is so interesting. I'm an intimacy coach and she sells intimacy underwear. Like, this is a friendship that was just like created in heaven. Exactly. And uh I connected, I think I reached out to you. I can't remember exactly, but I said, I would love to model your underwear for you and just take pictures of me and them so that you can use them in your advertising and on your website. And so she sent me some underwear in my size, and I modeled them and got big photographs taken. And yes, I shared them on my socials too.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been it's been amazing. I think, I think that was what last year, April, because I remember I was at my sister's house and we had a we had a meeting and we're talking, and I was like, oh, this is this is pretty cool. We I think I don't know if I reached out to you or you reached out to me, but it was good. I think we and we we discussed something even at that time that we're currently moving forward on. Yes, and that's right. We did you know what I think you should make. Exactly. And um, you know, people don't know about the process of like creating a new project and that how much work and money and and effort it takes to make a new design of any kind. Um and so I'm like, well, let's let's talk about it, you know, when when the time's right. And then fast forward a year later, almost exactly, we started having conversations now about, you know, actually like let's let's do this.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Doing like a collaboration on a product will make intimacy more fun and less scary for people with ostomies, less stressful.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Um, so yeah, so getting into the intimacy uh getting into starting Austin Innovations essentially was from the idea of intimacy, you know, it wasn't what's my best seller currently at the moment, but it was initially what brought me into this world, you know, being someone who's a young person who has an ostomy. Because now it's been, well, now I'm 14 years into having an ostomy, and I'm only two years into running ostomy innovations. So you can see it took a long time to get there. Um, and you know, I didn't know that if I ever would get there, and um, thankfully I did because yeah, not only did I, you know, join communities like these, and not because of not because of sales and marketing, but because I finally realized that, you know, um we kind of tend to put things away on the back burner and not the project itself, but like thinking about the emotions behind having an ostomy. And sometimes we we forget or we don't want to have to think, and then we we brush it aside. So it's been it's been an interesting journey to get here today. And um, I wouldn't change it for anything because everything happens the way it's supposed to.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah, it happened when it was supposed to, because you and I were supposed to meet at this exact time, and I'm very new to the having an ostomy. I'm going on three years in in September, and I had the same my biggest fears about my ostomy were being seen naked, sure, engaging in intimacy, being unattractive, having loud fart noises during intimacy, yeah, stuff like that, like were so scary for me. Uh, especially like because I had an ostomy twice. I had a temporary ostomy years ago, which was a terrible experience, which I really internalized all the toxic feelings of of hating my body, hating the ostomy and and the situation and everything. And the second time I didn't want to go through that. And so I had my little healing journey between. And when I was faced with a permanent ostomy, I was like, no, I don't want to go through that again. And so I went, I had to experience the second ostomy in a different way, which brought me out the other side thinking about intimacy and meeting you. So and then we wouldn't, it wouldn't be the right timing because if you did it 14 years ago, that's so true.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Exactly, exactly. I who knows where we would have been, right? It's the those timeline shifts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

So my story. Oh, sorry, go on.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Oh no, no, that's okay. That's what I was gonna ask you. But what tell me about how it all happened.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Okay, so my story is a little zigzaggy, but it really starts in the adult entertainment industry because I started working as an exotic dancer, otherwise known as a stripper, uh, in the gentlemen's clubs when I was 23 years old. And there were a lot of very lonely men who would come into the clubs. And what I learned is that they weren't like a lot of people have this idea of the kind of men that go to strip clubs or the kind of men that um engage in the adult entertainment industry. But what I found is they were just normal guys, but a lot of them were very lonely. And also there is a lot of alcoholism. We're talking about a an establishment where alcohol is is a thing, right? So there was a lot of alcoholism, but a lot of that came from loneliness. Fast forward, I'm about 34, I think, when I got my first emergency surgery to have 75% of my large intestine removed. And I was in a not very good marriage at the time. Um I'd not blaming him. I we were both just not the right kind of we just weren't right for each other at all. And so when I got suddenly sick and and had the ostomy surgery and then went on to have years of chronic pain and arthritis and all these kinds of side effects that seemed to come from this emergency surgery and from my large intestine, uh it was a bowel perforation that caused this emergency surgery. Um during about three years of that, I I was in the relationship with my husband and he didn't touch me that whole time. And it was because I was too sick to have sex. And so he didn't want to touch me because he always before that had only touched me when he was wanting to have sex.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

And so he just never touched me, and our relationship deteriorated and deteriorated. And three years in, I was like, well enough, you know, really fought my way back, my to get my health back enough that I could leave the relationship. So I left the relationship and I went another year, of course, with no touch until I met someone. And then I I had intimacy, physical intimacy for the first time, and just was crying, and I couldn't understand why I was having such an emotional reaction. I didn't expect that.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

I didn't really think about how I hadn't been touched for three years. So that's when I went down the rabbit hole and I learned, like I started researching, like, why am I getting emotional during you know intimacy? And it kept happening like with the first several times that we made love, I broke down in tears. And that's when I learned what touch starvation is. And I really realized like how devastating it was, and how many people who are in hospitals or in chronic illness situations or in toxic marriages when they're sick or alone, are not getting any touch while they're going through the most difficult experiences of our lives, you know? Um, so that was a kind of like a huge wake-up mind shift for me. Meanwhile, I had gone back to work in the strip clubs, not as a dancer, I didn't have a belly button anymore, my stomach was just full of scars, or there's no way I was getting on a stage and taking off my clothes. Uh, but I went back as the massage girl because I was on disability and I was too sick to work a regular job. I would call in sick too much. So I needed a job that I wouldn't get fired. Yeah, I couldn't work. And massage girl in a strip club or a gentleman's club, you you know, at least depends on the club, but in the club that I went to work at, if I couldn't work because I was sick, they were fine with that. So I went there and I was working, uh basically paying the bar 10% of what I made, and I would charge $20 for three songs of a neck massage. And the guys would be sitting in the club and watching the the ladies dancing, and I'd give them a neck massage. And what was happening is not not all the time, but occasionally I would be giving a neck massage, and the gentleman that I was massaging would start crying. Wow. And they would say it, they had the words that I didn't have. I was like, what's wrong with me? What's going on? But they would say right out, I haven't been touched like this in so long. Oh it's like men are more uh in tune with that aspect of themselves, honestly. They they recognize the importance of intimacy so much more than women do, but it's equally important. Um, so anyway, so that was happening. So this is this is the progression of me going, Wow, intimacy is so important, touch is so important. Um, going long periods of time without it is painful for people.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

And and then I um became an intimacy surrogate. And that's someone who like basically cuddles people and gives that like so you know that all of this led to me wanting to help people heal. And and I always wanted like I would literally see elderly people um alone on the bus looking so sad, and I would wish I could just hug them or put my arm around them, but it's so like socially unacceptable to do those kinds of things. But I'm like, people need touch, and I want to be a part of healing that. And so I got into intimacy surrogacy, and that just um further solidified my beliefs and like how important intimacy and touch are for people, and especially people with disabilities. That was where I specialized. And so I ended up talking all the time to my surrogacy clients, and I was basically an intimacy coach for people with disabilities mostly. Yeah, yeah. Um, fast forward, I got my second ostomy, and this time it's permanent. And I went through all the fears again of like the intimacy fears and and everything. And my relationship even ended nine months after my surgery. Uh, this was a different relationship, obviously. The guy that made me cry, that one. Um, but uh so now I'm like basically intimacy coaching and I'm having this surgery, and I got through it with my self-confidence intact and my um I got through, I came up with lots of strategies for intimacy and whatnot. And I thought, you know, um I'm already an intimacy coach mostly for people with disabilities, but what if I try to specialize in people with ostomies or post-surgery intimacy challenges? And that's when I started focusing on that. Um, I was already a member of a lot of the ostomy groups before that because I was looking for support when I was getting rid of ostomy, and I had lots of questions. Um, and I ran into like situations in these some of these groups where I would ask questions and then I would have people like be rude to me and like attack me and shit. But that never happened in your group, ostomy body positive. That never happened. Your group is so um strict about making sure that everyone feels safe. That it if someone is rude like that, they're talked to, and then if if they continue, they're gone. And I love that. And I do the same thing now in in the group I started uh on Facebook, which is intimacy after ostomy. Um, but yeah, so that's how I got into intimacy coaching and why I ended up focusing on people who with ostomies or post-surgery intimacy challenges. And the the idea that you and I are working on came from me trying to find strategies for engaging in intimacy after I had my ostomy surgery.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah. How amazing, right? What a journey like that you are on, and you know, true from the trauma and learning about people like psychology way, you know, wise, like what they're thinking and what they're experiencing based on the things they've been through. And you know, that like just thinking of the grown men crying, like that's that's hurtful, right? Like it just proves too that as a society we judge people so much based on they go to a strip, like going to a strip club. Well, it may be not just that they're horny men, right? It may just be that they want that touch or that affection that they're missing. And you know, it it's always perception, right? It's it's a perception thing. Um, but yeah, just like the struggles you went through to get to where you are and the people you've helped along the way is you know amazing.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

People could really judge me for being having been a stripper, having been an intimacy surrogate. Um, lots of decisions I've made in life that I have been judged for. Oh, for sure. Uh, but thankfully I'm one of those people that it doesn't bother me. Judge away. Just judge me. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, on the topic of the strip club, like that it's a place that's socially acceptable for men to go alone, you know, and it's a place where beautiful women will talk to you and you don't have to be the one who makes the effort. And it's just, it's just it's a different experience. Like, I wish there was something similar like that for women, like when we're alone and we want to go somewhere where we can like be entertained and and right, you know, feel like it's a safe place for us to go by ourselves, you know?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Um, but like it's I think it it serves a purpose. And I I also like I know I have a lot of Christian friends and a lot of people, and I believe in God, and I know you believe in God. Um, but a lot of people are very anti-adult entertainment industry. Sure. Um, but I'm not. I I see the value in it, I see the benefits um that it offers to people in need, and I think it's valuable, just like I think what we're doing is so so valuable.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, this this niche inside of a niche, right? Like having an ostomy or providing a product or service based on an ostomy is a niche, but there's a niche inside of the niche, and that's intimacy. Yes, exactly. And that's a little bit more your focus than mine, but mine is, I mean, that's essentially what got me here was thinking about intimacy. Yeah. Um, so yeah, just a very, very interesting. Um, and and for me, like I could think about it all day and talk about like just be, just do it, have sex, like you don't let your back, you know. But the perspective you've given me since meeting you is a whole new level of understanding, intimacy, and touch. And some of the you talk a lot about non-penetrative sex, and which is like, you know, thinking about it uh with myself and the public floor issues I have, and like, like, yes, that makes so much sense. And then um, just a lot of the other things that you bring up and some of the things that we've talked about privately, and things of my own, my own issues. And so I just think like your perspective is no one else is talking about the things that you talk about.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Thank you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know I've had quite a few people reach out and say, like, thank you for doing this work because it's so important. And like our product that we're working on, which we're being so secretive about. Um, you know, I want it to be something that's accessible to people, that's not out of their price range, that's not out of reach for people, and that will bring them the kind of security that will make them feel more confident going into an intimate situation. Yeah. Now, there's obviously like the the mechanics of going into an intimate situation that a garment can help with. Um, but then there's the mental aspects. And when people are really, really dealing with a lot of body shame, yeah, simply wearing the uh Isn't usually going to be enough to overcome that. There is like some work that people need to do. And uh and that's what I that's what I really, really love about being a coach and creating content and offering free resources on my website and writing books. Um that's so that anyone can get some help and some information, even if they can't necessarily afford a coaching package, for instance. Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Right, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

And that's that's kind of funny because like one of the main things I do in my coaching program is like this visualization exercise. And I've been having people, well, I've taught it to a few people in my life and they've told their friends about it. And now I have these little groups of ladies that want me to do workshops for them. Yes. It's interesting how these things will kind of like develop in other areas of our life. Um, so it's really fascinating, right? Yeah, but body confidence is such an issue, especially for a lot of women, but anyone who's been through a body altering surgery, I think.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

For sure, for sure. Yeah, it's not even just intimacy, but you know, clothing choices and thinking about going into public and going to situations for men and women both. It it's it does. It brings up a lot of anxiety for people. I don't know if you saw my post over the weekend, but I made a post in um, you know, we're gonna talk about this tomorrow, or yeah, tomorrow in Austomy Body Positive, but this is kind of a good, good place to bring this up. So as Austomy, as people who have ostomies, as ostomates, we tend to want to hide our bag, right? A lot of the times, like under clothing or in our swimsuits. And um, part of my advocacy efforts and my own body confidence has been showing the bag. We do that a lot in Austomy Body Positives, selfies and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

I think it's great. It was one of the things that made me feel a lot better about myself is seeing other people showing their bags.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yes, yes. And I've had so many people say that, like post an Austin Body Positive and say, This is the first time I'm ever showing my bag.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

I know. Like, how empowering is that?

SPEAKER_00 24:10

That's so much, so much liberating, empowering, and it makes me feel um like just oh, so great for that person. So um I posted a picture this weekend of myself in my in my suit suit with my bag showing, and it wasn't even a lot, it was just sticking out like you know, that much. And um, I got a lot of great comments, and one guy says, Um, do we really need to see that? And so I was I we bantered back and forth a little bit, and then um I posted his comment and but I I took his name away because I I hashtag it, so I didn't want to put him totally out there. Yeah, you're not trying to shame him or humiliate him, you just wanted to get some discussion going about this. Right. And then some some mutual friends who are awesome did go back and find his comment and let him know how they felt about it. Um, but it was um it was very interesting because the next day he made he responded to that post and apologized. Oh, wow. And I mean, after he was quite rude, um, apologized and said that he was experiencing um he's worried about the way he was gonna look because he might one day have he didn't say have an ostomy, but people in this family had cancer and that kind of thing. So I don't know, maybe that's how he found me. I'm not sure. But uh fact of the matter is is, you know, hurt people, hurt people. And the more we talk about the stigmas of not just intimacy with an ostomy, but confidence with an ostomy, body positivity with an ostomy, um, breaking the stigma of the smells and all the things, um, then we can other people can normalize it for themselves in case they are going to experience it one day, which was exactly what happened with him. You know, now he saw like, and I made sure I'd let him know, hey, listen, community is community. And when you attack people in each other's community, like you're gonna experience uh a rally of people behind you. And I've been seeing it a lot lately. And I don't know if it's just because I haven't noticed before, but there's a few influencers out there right now who have been posting comments that they've been receiving about shame they're getting from people in and out of the Austomy community about showing their bags. And then there was also recently a euphoria episode. Did you hear about this?

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Okay, so I don't watch a show, but um, there was that and uh I saw the clip.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

It's like uh it's like basically like um someone is like, put that away, that's disgusting, or something like that about an ostomy bag. And a lot of people were really, really offended by that.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Yeah, and then there was an ostomy nurse somewhere on the east coast. I don't know if she's a WOCN, I don't know if she's just a nurse, I don't know like what nursing role she had. Probably not a WOCN because she was, I guess she had to change a bag, and she went came out later and made a video and was like, ew, and like did this like whole video on how changing somebody's bag and how gross it was. And she got hammered by the Austomie community and so many people's posting. So I just think that um it was crazy for me to experience it because I'm not an ostomy influencer or trying to be. Um I'm an Austomie advocate. And so for me to post that and and then get get that shame just was like, whoa, like it doesn't hurt by any means. Um, in fact, if I welcome that because that gives me something to that gave me the opportunity to have a conversation and it gave me the opportunity because it's on my personal page, to let all my friends who don't have an ostomy understand because now they can associate, like now anyone going forward in life can say, well, yeah, but my friend Nicole has an ostomy, and she's still running a company and trying, you know, doing all these things and and she's an advocate and she's showing her bag and and right, like just being being a person. So if I have to have an ostomy, if I have to get one, then I know that number one, I can feel supported by a community. And two, um, I can live, you know, somewhat not say normal life, but you can live uh a life, right? You can still live essentially. Um so I know this is a little kind of veering off, but I I do think that it's about breaking the stigma, talking about intimacy, talking about all these things is so important. So the work, Trina, you do, and then the work that we're doing together and making ostomy under garments is just so important. It's not, it's not because we're just trying to make a dollar, right? We're trying to um help a community that needs help. And we saw a need. We saw a need and we figured out.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

We can't create these products unless we sell them.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Exactly. Exactly. So exactly.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

I'm so excited. Yay!

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah, I know. This is this is great.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

I love your story, like it's so similar, and that's how people come up. Like, I'm pretty sure like almost all these really cool ostomy inventions that come out are made by people who have ostomies and see there's a need and there's you know a gap. Yes, and intimacy is a huge gap for sure.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

It's a huge it is huge, and and two, the and the the reason I stress you and the way you go about it though, is because I've heard other people talk about it, and it's like right, it's stuff we've all heard before, and it's things that not that we don't need to hear it again, we do like it's great for the people who don't know, and we need to repeat the information, but you take it to another level that's just not, and I think it is based on your experience in what you've done because clearly there probably isn't anybody else who has an ostomy who was doing what you were doing, you know, because there's not, there's no other Trina Rickets, right? So it's really important to have somebody um like you talking about the things that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Thank you. Yeah, I really noticed that as an intimacy surrogate that the things that um people would tell me and open up to me about were things they would never tell a therapist, yeah, and that they would never tell their lover or even their best friend. Right. And I often was told, like, I've never told anyone this, kind of like I've never shown my bag, I've never told anyone this, you know? Yeah, um, so I feel like when you've had the experiences that I've had or that you've had that the health experiences, everything, that just makes it a safer space for people to talk to us. And that's one of the things I hear a lot from my clients is that they they are just so glad to talk to someone who understands what they're going through, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yeah. Aw.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Yeah. You know, we love you all out there.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yes, yes. Love it. This is great. This is a good episode. I think um I think, yeah, I think we're gonna talk about intimacy probably a little bit more and just, you know, um kind of focus a little bit more on you know, dating and relationships and all the things that go along with it because you know it is it's a hot subject and um it's a need that needs to be addressed. It's fun to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

We were thinking next week we could talk about what we do to get ready for an intimate date, or we could also talk about like no unpenetrative sex. That might be fun. We might do that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Maybe I mean we can we might we might combine the two even. Yeah, you never know. We could, or maybe we should do a poll. We could do a poll, we could, yes, until next time. All right, you all thank you for being here.