Why is it Taboo to Talk about Bladders, but okay to Talk about Sex?

Something that really pisses me off as an IC sufferer is the fact that women are made to feel ashamed about discussing this illness. Many doctors and non IC patients act like talking about the bladder in public is taboo. I guess because it connects to the female anatomy it seems too personal. Now, if it were 1922, maybe I could see their point, but I don't see it today. Everywhere we look sex is all around. It doesn't matter if you are interested in seeing it or not...every time you turn on the TV, radio or log onto the Internet you are bombarded with sexual references and jokes. I think it's just a little bit silly that people expect IC and pelvic pain patients to act like meek lepers who should be ashamed while sex continues to dominate the media. Yes, I said it, I said pelvic and bladder in a sentence and as long as it's okay for Tila Tequila to flaunt herself on TV and for rappers to promote sexual songs to young people I honestly see no problem with it.

I believe adults should be able to read about and discuss any medical condition no matter what part of the body it has to deal with. If we don't talk about IC we will NEVER find a cure for this horrible condition that is effecting millions of people. At least 4 million people in America suffer from IC. If you are at a party with at least 80 people, the odds are someone in the room has IC and you don't know it. Heck, they might not even know it because they are too scared to seek help. 

Every cause has to start somewhere. Everyone knows that the breast cancer ribbon is pink and the HIV ribbon is red. When will people know what color the IC ribbon is? If we don't speak about this condition no one ever will.

I think IC also gets it's taboo rep due to the fact that a majority of the suffers are women. Men can get IC, but women are the primary group plagued by this condition. Every single day I see erectile dysfunction commercials on TV and people seem okay with that, but the minute I try to talk about a bladder people think there is something wrong with me. Personally, I think there is nothing wrong with me or any out spoken IC patient. I think there is something wrong with a society that lets TV shows air that could pass for soft core porn, but make women ashamed to talk about relevant health issues.

In 1991, Salt-N-Pepa released a song called Let's Talk About Sex, this song which talked about having sex became a number one hit in several countries. If society could handle that song 20 years ago, I think we are ready to talk about female medical conditions out loud now. 1991 is long gone. We already talked about sex. I say it's 2011, let's talk about IC.