When you have decided to journey through life as a couple, in order to increase your happiness levels and to ensure that you spend a long life together, it is important that both you and your partner can support each other in staying healthy. Here are some of the ways that you can protect each other and ensure that you are able to help to maintain each other’s health.
-
Protect Yourself Against STDs
If you are sexually active, it is important that you and your partner are able to take the right measures in order to protect each other from sexually transmitted diseases. In order to do this, you should also use a condom, discuss your sexual history with each other, and get vaccinated against some STDs, such as HPV. If you or your partner believes that they may have contracted an STD, you should make sure that you are able to get tested immediately so that you can start treatment as soon as possible. At Chelsea Village Medical, their relationship-based medicine and screening service specializes in STDs, particularly HIV.
-
Buddy Up on Health Goals
Staying fit and healthy is a challenge that you and your partner should be able to work on together. By pairing up on your health goals, you will be encouraged to stick to them, and may even be more likely to complete them. For instance, you should consider going on buddy runs together, and swapping those takeaways for a cooked meal at home. You can even make staying healthy exciting by enjoying healthy activities together, such as participating in a sport together as an alternative date night.
-
Keep Your Relationship Healthy
Keeping you and your partner healthy does not only refer to your physical health, however, and it is also important to ensure that you and your partner’s mental health is also good. If you notice that your partner is showing symptoms of a mental health disorder, such as feelings of hopelessness or changes to their normal behavior, you should try to broach the subject with them and encourage them to get medical attention. If the cause of any strain on your mental health is your relationship, you should make sure that you communicate with your partner in order to solve any issues, or consider mediation.
-
Check Up On Each Other
It is important to check your health on a regular basis. However, in some cases, it can be easier or less uncomfortable to allow your partner to check you for health issues instead. For instance, many breast cancer foundations encourage partners to check their loved ones for changes in their breasts on a regular basis. If you are uncertain whether any changes in your body signify a health issue, asking your partner to check you can also help to put any concerns or worries that you may have at rest.
-
Support Each Other Through Health Issues
When a health issue occurs, it can be a distressing time for both individuals. However, it is important that you are able to support each other through these challenges, whether that is being able to take your partner to medical appointments, or simply providing a listening ear for them.
For women, if you experience any sort of pain or discomfort during sexual activity, you should tell your partner instead of keeping it to yourself. Seek a health-care provider so that the cause may be identified and you may also be prescribed oral or topical medications. Some health-care providers also find medical devices such as a vaginal dilator to be very beneficial for women experiencing pain during sexual activity because they help in strengthening pelvic floor muscles and stretching the vaginal muscles.