Health

Doctors Say Doing This During Sleep Triples the Chances of Stroke

1. You Are Not Alone You can talk about what you experienced and hear about the events that others went through. Listen to them talk about… Trista Smith - December 14, 2021

Do you have sleep apnea? It can take a toll on your overall health, including becoming a risk factor for developing other severe medical conditions. Moreover, for many Americans, letting this serious medical condition go untreated for too long can have harmful, lasting consequences. The following article will not only to educate you about what obstructive sleep apnea is. This content will also identify signs and symptoms, what can be done to treat this condition, and ways to help prevent it. Read on to learn more about what you can do if you have to deal with this medical condition and what you can do to help decrease your chances of developing it.

For many years now, so much information has been readily available about living a healthy lifestyle and avoiding dealing with significant health concerns. One of the most challenging health issues that can occur is experiencing a stroke. This is a health issue where experiencing one can be reduced if specific lifestyle changes are made. However, there is still one significant risk factor that many do not even think of. That’s your sleep. There are several key things to consider regarding your sleep patterns that can help you identify whether or not you might be at risk for developing something called sleep apnea. Read on to learn more about what sleep apnea is, the dangers of experiencing it, and what you can do to help treat it as well as prevent it from happening to you.

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25. What Is Sleep Apnea?

The potentially detrimental and dangerous medical condition known as sleep apnea is much more common than you think. Sleep apnea can be hard to detect and diagnose is a deciding factor in how many people are not aware that this issue even exists. Nonetheless, sleep apnea is a dangerous health issue. It can occur when your regular nighttime breathing pattern is disrupted during sleep. You stop breathing for a while, sometimes up to thirty seconds, because your throat muscles relax. When this relaxation of the throat muscles occurs, your airway narrows and, in turn, reduces the amount of oxygen that is present in your blood. Your brain then receives this action as a signal that you are having trouble breathing. You wake up to take another breath and begin a regular breathing pattern again.

The practice of falling asleep, having your throat muscles relax to the point of not breathing. Then your brain waking you to continue breathing can become disruptive to your nighttime sleep. It causes harmful consequences to your brain and body. If this pattern of abnormal sleep continues to go untreated, some other serious risk factors come into play as far as you are more likely to experience and have to deal with. The study of sleep apnea includes its possible causes, symptoms, and complications. Researchers and doctors established a connection between experiencing this abnormal breathing pattern and an increased risk of stroke. That is a scary idea to think about. You might be increasing your risk of experiencing a stroke by letting this disruptive sleep pattern continue untreated.

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23. Sleep Apnea Can Increase Your Risk of Stroke

There are three different types of sleep apnea that you could potentially experience. Obstructive sleep apnea is the first and usually most common type. It is the one that occurs when your throat muscles become relaxed and can restrict your airway. The second type is central sleep apnea. This one happens when your brain does not send the correct signals to control your breathing in a usual way. And the last type of sleep apnea is called complex sleep apnea syndrome. It is a combination of the first two types occurring at once.

One major finding resulting from the research is that something called White Matter Hyperintensities can form in the brain due to having sleep apnea. White Matter Hyperintensities, or WMHs, are lesions that can develop in the brain when your throat muscles relax to the point that you are experiencing obstructive sleep apnea. These lesions in the brain are linked to increasing the likelihood you may experience cardiovascular issues. That can include having a stroke. Having WMHs in your brain triples your risk of experiencing a stroke.

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22. Symptoms Associated with Sleep Apnea

Diagnosing sleep apnea is not the easiest thing to do because how can you be aware of anything going on while sleeping? Nonetheless, several symptoms are characteristic of having obstructive sleep apnea. The obvious one is that you are experiencing times during your nighttime slumber when you stop breathing for some time. This occurs when your throat muscles become relaxed. When this happens, you will stop breathing for a period. Yes, this is difficult to diagnose on your own. There are several things to be on the lookout for and discuss with your doctor when diagnosing this medical issue.

Are you feeling fatigued during the day, like you are not getting enough rest? Maybe you are having periods of restlessness during the night, like not staying asleep and waking up often during the night. Symptoms that you may identify yourself include waking up suddenly gasping for air or feeling like you are choking. Another sign you might experience is waking up in the morning with a dry or sore mouth. Snoring is one symptom you will most likely not be aware of yourself, and so it may be helpful to rely on your sleeping partner to help you identify some of these symptoms in an attempt to diagnose this issue.

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21. Causes and Risk Factors of Sleep Apnea

Having an increased risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea is connected with several different lifestyle factors. Many things can come into play as far as the lifestyle you lead. How do you take care of yourself? Risk factors for developing obstructive sleep apnea include being overweight, smoking, drinking alcohol or sedatives excessively, and having Type 2 Diabetes. These causes also overlap with those that can increase your risk of having a stroke.

The factors described above are ones that you can do something about to decrease your chances of developing sleep apnea. However, several other somewhat unavoidable factors can also increase your chances. These include being male, older, and having a family history of sleep apnea. Others involve having a larger neck circumference or having a narrowed airway. If you have other previous heart and other medical conditions, it may increase your risk.

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20. Ways to Prevent Sleep Apnea From Happening to You

Yes, some factors are inherently against you regarding the likelihood of developing sleep apnea. However, there are several things you can do proactively to try and prevent the onset of this medical condition. Making changes in your lifestyle habits is one of the biggest areas in which you can be diligent. You can avoid dealing with medical issues like sleep apnea and other conditions like heart disease and stroke.

Doing things like eating a diet with fruits and vegetables and protein will help keep your body healthy. So will exercising regularly, quitting smoking, and reducing alcohol use. These are all great ways to stay on top of your health and keep yourself in the best condition. Being aware of risk factors that come from your family history is important, too. What about understanding your family history? You can do health screening tests can with your doctor to learn about risks. You can identify heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, and the risk of stroke through screenings and tests. That way, you can get a complete picture of your health profile. Your doctor can recommend changes to lower your chances of developing sleep apnea.

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19. Complications That Can Arise from Developing Sleep Apnea

Several other potentially serious health conditions can arise from developing sleep apnea and not getting it treated. Things like daytime fatigue can occur because you are not getting a restful night’s sleep. Why? Probably from waking up many times in the night. This disruptive sleep pattern can lead to difficulty concentrating on tasks and staying awake during the day. You might also become more short-tempered, emotional, or irritable towards others due to this lack of sufficient rest at night. You may think it is not that big of a deal to wake several times in the night. However, over time, this can become a much bigger issue. It can lead to developing other severe health conditions. Being aware of irregularities in your sleep and breathing patterns is essential. Furthermore, knowing the consequences of this problem is the first crucial step in controlling your health. Early detection of issues like sleep apnea is critical. Nevertheless, it will also help lower your risk of stroke.

Another issue from sleep apnea is developing high blood pressure. You can also have other heart problems due to the lack of oxygen going to your brain. When the body experiences this lack of oxygen for long periods, other conditions that affect the heart can become an issue. That is especially true if it goes untreated. Diseases such as hypertension, recurrent heart attack, and of course, the risk of stroke may develop. There are still several other medical concerns that can arise when the issue of sleep apnea goes untreated. Things like Type 2 Diabetes can become more likely and develop metabolic syndrome. The point of breathing normally during surgeries while being put under general anesthesia can also become a great concern.

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18. What You Can Do if You Have Sleep Apnea

If you or your doctor suspects you might have sleep apnea, you can do several things to diagnose, treat, and manage this medical issue. You can take several different tests to solidify your diagnosis in the form of sleep tests. You can complete these options at home or in the hospital. If you have some form of sleep testing done in the hospital, you will be hooked up to a machine that will measure various vital signs in your body to get an accurate picture of what a typical night’s sleep looks like for you.

Your doctor might also give you some monitoring equipment to take home with you. That way, you can measure your vital signs while you sleep in your bed. This can be very beneficial. At times, it can be even a little bit more accurate. Why? Because you are likely to be more comfortable sleeping in your own bed than trying to sleep in the hospital. It is not as familiar of a place! The sleep monitoring equipment will measure your vital signs. That includes your heart rate, blood oxygen level, and breathing patterns. It will all help determine if you do have some form of sleep apnea.

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17. Risk Factors for Experiencing a Stroke

Just as being more predisposed to developing sleep apnea because of certain risk factors, many of those same risk factors apply here. Several factors come into play when becoming more vulnerable to experiencing a stroke. The same factors include being overweight, smoking, and heavy alcohol use. Having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and a family history of heart problems also play a role. The same risk factors that can lead to an increased likelihood of developing sleep apnea can also raise your risk of stroke. Experiencing obstructive sleep apnea is a risk factor of becoming more likely to experience a stroke. This is another chance to emphasize why it is so important to stay on top of your health. You should proactively identify risk factors and symptoms that might be indicators of having a medical issue or concern.

Several other factors come into play in connection with the increased likelihood of experiencing a stroke. Age is a major one, as those over 55 are more likely to be at risk and race; African Americans are at an increased risk of experiencing a stroke. Males are also much more likely to be at risk for stroke as well as those who use hormone therapies and birth control pills. Of course, you cannot change some of these factors. However, you can quit things like smoking and excessive alcohol use. It will improve obesity, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. Your effort will do a lot to decrease your risk factors and chances of experiencing a stroke.

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16. Different Types of Strokes

There are three different types of strokes. The first and most common type is called an Ischemic stroke. It occurs when oxygen-rich blood flowing through your arteries to your brain becomes restricted. When blocked, a reduction in blood flow to the brain is the result. The second kind is a hemorrhagic stroke. It happens due to the leaking or rupturing of a blood vessel directly in your brain. A hemorrhagic stroke requires medical attention as soon as possible. Severe trauma, such as a car accident, can cause this stroke. So can uncontrolled high blood pressure, high dosage of blood thinners or bulges at weak spots in your blood vessel walls. There are two types of hemorrhagic strokes. The first and most common type is intracerebral. It happens when an artery in your brain bursts, resulting in blood flooding to the surrounding tissue. While less familiar but equally dangerous, a subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs when you have a bleed happening in the area between the brain and the tissue covering it.

The last type is a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA). This is a “mini-stroke.” Blood flow restriction to the brain does not last as long as with the other types of strokes. Nonetheless, this type of stroke still has its consequences. Symptoms of a TIA stroke can look like those of an Ischemic or Hemorrhagic stroke. It is still imperative that you seek medical attention right away. It is impossible to discern the differences in these types of strokes from experiencing symptoms. Medical attention at the hospital is the only way doctors will determine the type of stroke.

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15. What You Can Do To Help Prevent a Stroke

A stroke has to do with disruptive actions occurring in the brain as far as not getting enough oxygen in your blood and also the occurrence of blood vessels engorging or rupturing in your brain. While it is not much you can do about certain risk factors that predispose you to possibly experiencing a stroke. There are still some critical points to discuss in how you have control over the prevention of a stroke. Managing and improving lifestyle choices like maintaining a healthy diet, cutting down on alcohol use, and quitting tobacco use are significant improvements. They can help decrease your chances of developing sleep apnea, reduce your risk of stroke, as well as several other medical conditions.

By lowering your weight and cutting out things like smoking, you are improving the overall health of your body and brain and giving it a much better chance at coping with health issues that you may already be predisposed to due to family history. Other things that can be done to reduce your risk are managing any other health issues you may already have, like high blood pressure or diabetes, and exercising regularly. Being diligent about all these things will give you a leg up on staying healthy and maintaining good health as you get older.

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14. Signs and Symptoms of a Stroke

There are key signs to pay attention to if you think you may be experiencing a stroke. Several adverse reactions occur in the body and brain during a stroke. The results of those reactions can exhibit themselves in obvious ways. One of the first telltale signs of a stroke is having trouble speaking to others. You might not understand what others are saying to you. This is an immediate red flag that something wrong might be going on in your brain.

Another vital sign of being aware that you might be experiencing a stroke is that you could begin to have some paralysis in one limb or on one side of your body. You could also experience a headache, have trouble seeing out of one or both eyes, or have difficulty walking. If you or someone you know starts to experience these symptoms, you must get medical attention right away. In doing so, you will be giving yourself the greatest chance of keeping internal damage to your brain and body to a minimum.

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13. What Should You Do If You Have a Stroke?

The sooner you can get to a hospital and begin treatment for a stroke, the greater your chances of having less damaging and long-lasting effects occur to your body and brain. If you suddenly can not speak as you regularly do with others, begin to have vision problems, or experience numbness or paralysis on one side of your body, it is crucial to get medical attention as quickly as possible. There is no time to waste. If you even might just suspect that you may be experiencing symptoms of a stroke, do not delay in getting yourself to the hospital to get help. You must not wait around to see if you start to feel better or if your symptoms begin to subside. You need to get medical attention right away to have the best possible outcome. In the case of dealing with the possibility of experiencing a stroke, it is much better to be safe than sorry.

In the unfortunate event that you experience a stroke, your doctor will take several steps to decide how to treat you once you have been seen. Depending on the type of stroke you have experienced, doctors will decide to take one or more actions as part of your treatment plan. As a general start to diagnosing and treating a stroke, you may undergo a stroke consultation, blood tests, a CT scan, and even an MRI. These are all very informative tools that doctors will use to get a better idea of precisely what is happening in your body, and therefore what the best course of treatment is for you.

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12. Treatments for a Stroke

If you have had an Ischemic stroke, time is significant in that you get to a hospital. An emergency dose of IV medication can be given within 4.5 hours to help break up any blood clots. It can help reduce any further damage to your brain and body. According to Mayo Clinic, other medical options like emergency endovascular procedures may occur. This is when doctors will send medication directly to the site in your brain where the stroke is happening. Another option is removing the actual blood clot with a stent retriever. Again, the chances to treat a stroke are critically dependent on how soon you get to the hospital to receive care. Doctors can do procedures only within a particular window of time. We cannot emphasize the factor of time enough concerning the onset of having a stroke. Specific options might not be available if you waited too long to seek medical attention.

Suppose you are experiencing a hemorrhagic stroke. Doctors may consider other options in your treatment plan while at the hospital. Gaining control and stopping the bleeding in your brain at the aneurysm site is the biggest priority for doctors. Possible procedures for handling this type of stroke are emergency-related. Doctors can try counteracting blood thinners you may be taking. They can administer medications to reduce the amount of pressure occurring in your brain. There are medications designed to lower your blood pressure, prevent spasms of blood vessels, and avoid possible seizures. Surgical clipping and coiling can be a way to stop the aneurysm from bleeding further, bursting, and bleeding again. Again, the sooner you can get to the hospital, the sooner doctors can begin a plan of action. It can not only save your life but prevent further damage.

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11. Complications That Can Occur After a Stroke

Because of the extensive amount of damage that can occur in your brain and body during a stroke, there are some possible longer-lasting effects and consequences that you may have to deal with due to having one. This is why time is so crucial in that you need to get yourself to the hospital to receive medical attention as quickly as possible. This can help to avoid causing any lasting or long-term subsequent consequences from experiencing a stroke. While some complications are milder than others, these issues are all still obstacles on some level that you might have to endure after treatment.

When your body experiences a stroke, several things are going on that can cause severe damage and even death if left untreated for too long. The event of a stroke is due to the restriction or reduction of oxygen-rich blood to your brain. The brain does not handle this very well. Oxygen is necessary for our survival, and the longer your brain and body are dealing with the reduction or absence of it, the more serious your prognosis can be. This again directly relates to the time factor and how crucial it is that you get to the hospital as soon as you suspect you may be experiencing symptoms. The longer your brain has to deal with a lack of oxygen, the more likely it is that you will experience more serious and long-lasting damage in your brain and body.

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10. What To Do If Someone You Know Is Experiencing a Stroke

You can do several things immediately if you think you or someone you know is having a stroke. If you begin to experience any, even one of the symptoms indicative of a stroke, the most crucial thing to do is take action quickly. Time is not on your side when experiencing this kind of destructive interaction in your brain and body. If you have identified or suspected that you are having symptoms of a stroke, you need to begin receiving medical attention as soon as possible. Whether dialing 911 to call for an ambulance or getting to the nearest hospital as quickly as you can, it is of the utmost importance to get medical attention as soon as possible.

Have you ever heard of FAST? It stands for face, arm, speech, and time. Each of these words refers to a way to identify symptoms of a stroke. First, examine your face and whether or not you can smile. Is one side drooping? This is a sign of paralysis. Next is the arm. Can you raise both arms in the air without one of them starting to drift downward? If you cannot keep both arms evenly lifted into the air, this could indicate a stroke. The ‘s’ is FAST is for speech. Can you form words and sentences normally? Are you struggling to talk and even understand others? The last and probably most important part of FAST is the word time. If you suspect that you might be experiencing a stroke, call 911. You should immediately get medical attention. Every second counts!

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9. This Is What Recovery and Rehabilitation From a Stroke Looks Like

Recovery from a stroke can take several different forms depending on the extensiveness of damage done inside your brain and body. It also depends on what kind of damage was done to either the brain’s left side or the right side. The left and right hemispheres of the brain are responsible for the development of different skills and for shaping things like personality and behavior traits. If brain damage has occurred on the left side of your brain specifically, language impairment can occur as well as the possibility of the development of language disorders. Additionally, if damage occurs to the right side of your brain, the left side of your body will experience issues with movement and sensation. Likewise, if the damage was done to the left side of your brain, you might experience problems with movement and feeling on the right side of your body.

After experiencing a stroke and being treated for it, doctors will most likely keep you in the hospital for a day at least for additional observation to be sure no further issues present themselves. Then once you are cleared to go home, rehabilitation can take several forms, depending on the severity of the damage done to your brain and body. Your doctors will look at all the results from the tests they conducted and decide on a treatment plan for you going forward when you head home from the hospital.

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8. Ways to Help a Person Having a Stroke

There are several things to remember that can be helpful to a person who is experiencing a stroke. One of the everyday things that occur naturally is the fear of the unknown and not understanding exactly what is going on, as symptoms can be very frightening to experience. Being able to stay relaxed and level-headed to keep a person experiencing a stroke as calm as possible can mean the difference in promptly getting to the hospital. Someone who is very scared about what is going may not be level-headed to decide that they need to get themselves to the hospital and be seen by a doctor.

You can do several other vital things to support and help someone who is having a stroke. Stay with them and try to keep them in a calm disposition. Also, talk to them regularly, and keep their immediate environment as distraction and stimulation free possible. One of the most helpful things to do is call 911. Again, when someone is experiencing a stroke, time is crucial in keeping damage done to the brain and body to a minimum and keeping options open as far as what medical treatments can be administered to help save someone’s life. Another way you can support someone experiencing a stroke is to drive them to the hospital. If someone is dealing with any of the symptoms that might indicate a stroke, especially having any kind of paralysis or trouble seeing or walking, letting them get behind the wheel and drive is not a good idea. You do not want to let them get into the position where they are possibly putting themselves and others at risk of further injury.

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7. Avoid Doing These Things If Someone is Experiencing a Stroke

When you suspect someone may be having a stroke, you do not want to say this aloud to them. The symptoms of a stroke can be scary. Thus, it does not make sense to add to a person’s fear and uncertainty. This will increase their anxiety and possibly make them act irrational. How? By denying their symptoms and not being willing to get medical attention. The best thing to do is to remain calm. Identify the symptoms they are exhibiting. Call 911 immediately, and get them to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Two other important things to avoid letting them do and not doing yourself is not giving them or letting them take any medication. This can do more harm than good, depending on the type of stroke they are having. Not all strokes are caused by blood clots, so taking aspiring is not a recommended. Why? Because if the stroke is from a ruptured blood vessel the aspirin could make the bleeding more severe actually. The other thing to avoid is letting them have any food or drink. This is because someone who is experiencing a stroke can be dealing with some level of paralysis, and it is easily possible they could choke on something they try to eat or drink. Again, the very best thing is to act fast and get them to the hospital as quickly as you can.

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6. Differences in Symptoms of a Stroke for Men And Women

Stroke symptoms can present very differently for women compared to men. Having some knowledge of this variation can be key in the early detection of the experience of a stroke. There are several critical differences in the way a stroke might develop in women, and they are more subtle things that may be a little harder to identify than the main signs and symptoms of a stroke. One big difference is that women may not have any classic symptoms that can signify a stroke. Women may experience trouble breathing, tightness in the chest, and feeling anxious more than usual. It is essential to take these symptoms seriously. Often, these signs are brushed off or disregarded as just feeling overwhelmed by life stressors. A stroke is a medical issue that needs immediate medical attention to avoid severe damage and lasting consequences.

The biggest thing to remember here is that you might experience symptoms that differ from someone else’s experience. Your body is different from others. Therefore, you may experience signs and complications utterly different from, say, someone you know or heard about who experienced a stroke. You do not want to allow yourself to compare your experience to others so that you may downplay, minimize or discredit the validity or intensity of your symptoms that may be developing. If you are in any way suspecting that symptoms characteristic of a stroke are beginning to develop, you need to get medical attention as soon as possible.

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5. Maintaining a Good Support System After Having a Stroke

This area gets overlooked concerning how to keep getting better after experiencing something as scary as a stroke. For many people, this experience was most likely quite frightening. The idea of the unknown regarding how and why these symptoms came on so suddenly can be scary. So can the fact that there may have been some serious damage done to the mind and body. For some, it is necessary to relearn specific skills to become and maintain independence again. And for still others, the idea of independence is no longer an option. For many, that can be a challenging thing to wrap your opinion around.

Did you live independently before having a stroke? Maybe you have to rely on someone else to complete daily tasks for you. That can be a tough pill to swallow. The damage that can occur to the brain and body due to a stroke can be completely life-altering. This is not something that you should have to experience or go through alone. It is imperative to your well-being that you try to maintain a healthy level of support from other people. You can get help from your spouse, other family members, doctors, or support groups. You can get help online or in-person.

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4. The Importance of Social Interaction

The amount of social interaction you have while rehabilitating can play a massive role in improving your health. Furthermore, maintaining that level of health and wellness, both in your body and mind, is important. One of the more detrimental things you can do after experiencing a stroke is isolating yourself from others. Although it may not seem like it, this can begin to take an enormous toll on your emotional state. It can be a debilitating factor in your improvement and progress overall. There are excellent resources available for people who have experienced almost any health crisis, including having a stroke.

Reaching out and staying connected with others, in your family, community, and with others who have experienced similar events is ideal. It is a great way to ensure that you will keep getting better after leaving the hospital. Sharing your experience with others can be a prominent form of therapy. It can help you create and maintain lasting connections that may one day get you through another crisis. At the very least, keeping up a healthy level of social interaction will help you feel like you are not alone. Why? Because it’s entirely possible that having a stroke made you feel just like that. Don’t be afraid to ask others for help as well. Many people are ready and willing to be a resource and source of support for others. However, they aren’t always sure how to do it if you haven’t asked for it. The simple act of meeting a friend for coffee or getting into an online support group can be very beneficial. These actions can be quite therapeutic in your recovery journey from a stroke.

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3. Looking Toward the Future

All the information you just received from the hospital can be scary. That goes from the first consultation with a doctor to the various stroke tests. Not to mention dealing with the debilitating symptoms and complications that you might experience. Then you have endless conversations about what happened to you. There are questions about why. Beyond that, you need to know what you should expect now. The combination of all these things can be tough to handle. As if that is not enough, you might have to navigate the concerned family members and friends who are checking on you. This can be very overwhelming.

The challenge of dealing with the symptoms and complications of having a stroke alone can be enough to make you feel defeated. Then you question yourself, competency, and capabilities. You might wonder why this had to happen to you. Was there something you should have done differently? These are all very natural and valid thoughts and feelings that can arise from dealing with this experience. Understand that you may not have been able to do anything differently to avoid it. Please realize that you have the necessary resources you need to get through these complications. Reaching out and maintaining a healthy level of social support is crucial. It will be beneficial in rehabilitating from having a stroke.

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2. The Best Takeaway To Remember After You Have Experienced a Stroke

So, you have had a stroke and survived a terrifying medical emergency. Now what? The following are some key points to keep in mind as you begin your recovery journey after leaving the hospital. One of the first things, and quite essential thoughts to understand, is that you are not alone. As scary as the experience of the stroke may have been for you, know that you are not the only person in the world who has gone through this event.

In saying that, it does not mean to invalidate or minimize your personal experience in a way. Remember that you can reach out and find others around you who have experienced similar things. It can be a good source of comfort and support as you are trying to digest, decipher, and comprehend everything you have just been through. The way you reach out might be to your spouse, best friend, or a family member. It may be talking to your doctor, counselor, or finding a support group, whether in person or online. That way, you can discuss your experience with others out loud and hear the things other people have gone through as well.

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1. You Are Not Alone

You can talk about what you experienced and hear about the events that others went through. Listen to them talk about their fears, concerns, thoughts, and feelings. It can be a great source of comfort and support for you as you try to navigate this new chapter of your life. You might find out that someone else has the same thoughts and feelings of inadequacy. By talking to each other, you could discover how that person is coping with those same issues. Do not be afraid to reach out and discuss your experience with others. You will gain a great source of support and encouragement. Likewise, you will try to cope with the things you have experienced.

The events surrounding your experience of having a stroke might not be that clear. It greatly depends on what type of stroke you experienced and the extent of damage to your brain and body. It might benefit you to reach out to the people around you and might have helped you when the stroke occurred. Not having a clear picture or accurate memory of what events took place can be an unsettling feeling. You should not be afraid to seek out others in the form of social interaction. It can help gain some clarity regarding the accuracy of the events that transpired surrounding the timeline of a stroke.

Health

People Share Embarrassing Moments in Health Class and Sex Ed

Did you take a health class in high school? What about sex education? Taking these courses can be very awkward, no matter what grade you are… Trista Smith - December 4, 2021

Did you take a health class in high school? What about sex education? Taking these courses can be very awkward, no matter what grade you are in. Attending sex ed can be uncomfortable for everyone, whether it be a student or the teacher. In this article, you will read about experiences people have gone through during sex ed. Some are students, and some are teachers. You may be able to relate to these embarrassing high school moments, especially in health class. So keep reading to give yourself a laugh. Maybe some of what is said in these posts will make you not feel so embarrassed, knowing others have been in these situations as well.

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29. Kids learning the proper medical terms for body parts.

“Teaching five-year-olds sex ed. This is basically privacy, saying no if you don’t like something and learning the “proper” names for body parts. I had a whole spiel about how it’s fine to use “family names” for your private parts at home. However, you should know the “proper medical names” in case you have to talk to a doctor. This has been a real issue, especially for girls in child abuse cases where it seems a child had tried to disclose, but they don’t have the language to describe what has happened. It’s a bit less of an issue for boys as here in the UK,. “Willy” is pretty much universally accepted as a child name for a penis, I digress. After the whole class talk, their activity was to label a drawing of a person with all the body parts they knew, including the private parts we had just learned”, shares beetothebumble.

“I went over to one group, and they had added breasts to their drawing with the label “boobyes.” They were all a bit nervous and embarrassed (as they always are in this lesson). The whole point is to get them feeling a bit more comfortable with these discussions. So in my best teacher voice, I said that was really good thinking, and they were very clever for realizing there was another private body part that we hadn’t talked about yet. However, there was another “proper medical name” they could use and did anyone know what it was? One little boy flung his arm so high in the air in excitement, “Miss, Miss, I KNOW!” He was a lad who didn’t always participate enthusiastically in class, so I was delighted to give him a chance to join in. He shrieked at the top of his voice, “They’re T*TS! “I tried so hard to keep a straight face because he was so pleased with himself for ‘knowing’ an answer, but I’m afraid I cracked up.”

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28. An awkward moment for a pregnant teacher.

“I teach fifth grade. This is the time for the “big talk” in Indiana. I was roughly about seven months pregnant. I was unmarried but engaged. My fiancé was a pretty active participant in my classroom, so all the kids knew him. He came on the field trip due to not having a male teacher available to supervise the boys. In Indiana, we still teach abstinence-only. In the middle of the lesson, the instructor basically tells the kids that conception takes place after sex which can only happen after marriage.”

AndThenThereIsJess goes on to say, “Thirty seconds later, eyes are on me, and a hand shoots up. One of my fabulous tiny humans blurts out, “That can’t be true! Mrs. __________ isn’t married, and she is pregnant right now! How did that happen then?” I’m pretty sure the instructor would have killed me at that moment had she been able to. And this was my Ted talk on how I ruined the abstinence education by being pregnant and unmarried.”

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27. A health teacher who only tells the truth to her class.

“I’m not a teacher, but in 8th grade, we finally had a health class at my private Christian Junior High. The teacher was determined to do a correct and thorough job despite the obvious constraints put on her by the schools (and the parents paying the tuition, of course) morals/ideology. She got to the last day, so far, so good! We learned all the proper names for stuff, how it works, though it was an abstinence-only curriculum. Of course, no methods of birth control were “officially” discussed. She answered questions, and we got correct info about what condoms do and do not offer in terms of protection. We did get general confirmation that there are also other forms of birth control. “

Ironman288 continues, “Anyhow, here’s where it went sideways. Last day, she says we can anonymously submit written questions to a box, and she will answer them all truthfully. We work through the box until she gets to one that makes her turn red. She’s not embarrassed, but she sees the danger. She tells us she’s going to answer this question after the bell rings. Anyone who wants to know what the question is can stay, and she’ll read the question and answer it. Honestly, I was kind of embarrassed at the whole subject. I left when the bell rang. But it didn’t matter. The whole school knew about it 20 seconds after she answered the question because the guys literally burst out of the room shouting the answer. The question: Is it OK to masturbate? She said it was natural. She was fired that day.”

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26. That would make for an interesting week for this teacher.

“I co-taught the week-long sex ed unit at my middle school because the science teachers – all older women – wanted a male presence. It was one of the best teaching experiences I ever had, and I honestly think it was some of the best teachings I have ever seen. (I’m not gloating; I was a pretty crap teacher, which is why I quit). I did the “put a question in the jar” thing, but I actually answered most of them, especially if they had to do with coercion, interpersonal communication, or sexual assault. The ones that I didn’t answer I kept because they were all hilarious,” shares snailbully.

“Some of my favorites were a series of questions about the sensory qualities of oral sex. Like one kid wrote, “What does butthole taste like? Does it taste like the Olive Garden?” And then there were variations on that theme, all naming different chain restaurants. Also, there were so many questions asking about creampies. It was excruciating for some of the kids who were sitting in on the sex ed class. But in general, I was so open with answering questions that by the end of the week, I got really thoughtful and important ones. Besides kids who were name-checking things that had obviously already watched in porn, there were very few offensive or trolling questions.”

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25. This one was sure to have caught the teacher by surprise.

“I’m sure many people experienced the rumor that tampons were put in the butt. None of us girls had gotten our periods yet, and we never said something in front of our parents about it, so everyone thought they went up the butt. We were terrified by this and told all the boys in our grade that when we get older, we start bleeding and have to put things called tampons up our butts. This spread to the boys right before we started sex ed In fourth grade.” tells Cyyykosis.

“On our first day of sex ed (we did the first day coed for some reason), the teacher said she’d answer any sex questions as an icebreaker. One of the boys raised his hand immediately and asked the teacher, “Mrs. _____, why do our butts start bleeding when we get older and how do tampons prevent it?” The teacher covered up a shocked expression and told the boy only the girls would have to worry about that and quickly projected a picture of a penis on the board to talk about the anatomy of male genitalia. Looking back, it was a pretty funny situation.”

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24. That one teacher who gave false information to the class.

“After switching from nursing school to education, I took a job as a teacher’s aide. It was in a 6th-grade class to make sure I wanted to be a teacher. This was back in the late ’90s. So, the kids had many questions about HIV/AIDS. I had done some basic research when I was in nursing school about protease inhibitors for my undergrad chem class the previous semester. The teacher who was teaching the sex ed lesson asked if I could share any info with the class. I talked to them about how HIV is transmitted. (Blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breastmilk.) Also, how scientists were working on combining drugs to stop the virus and stop it from mutating.”

Skiballerina goes on to say, “I gave myself a silent pat on the back for a decent explanation that was 6th grade appropriate. Then the teacher (who was probably in her early 50s) added a bit. She said, “back in the ’70s, gay men were having sex everywhere. They made clubs just to go and have sex. They would have sex in movie theaters. Wherever they could. And that’s how all the AIDS spread.” I was shocked and didn’t know what to say. She was the teacher. I was just an aide (and only 19 years old at that!). So, I didn’t feel like I could do anything but just said, ‘um…well then.'”

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23. Kids really do ask the darnedest things, even as teenagers.

“A few years ago, I was working at an after-school youth program, along with my roommate. I taught computers and did science experiments; she was a lifestyle teacher and did nutrition and health lessons, including a fully comprehensive sex ed unit for those kids whose parents opted them in. They had different levels for the various age groups. I believe this happened in the 11-12 class.”

Hufflepufftato continues, “So one night in sex ed, they’re covering all the types of sexual activity that aren’t penis-in-vagina. Roommate explains that one thing you can do is use your mouth to stimulate the other person’s penis, vagina, or anus. The kids take this in stride. They ruminate on it for a minute. It’s quiet. Then one hand goes up, and the kid asks: “Miss, is that why, in that one song, they say ‘you gotta eat the booty like groceries’?” Asked with 100% earnestness.”

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22. These things would make one shake their head.

“Where I live, the basics are studied in class (period, male and female reproductive organs, reproduction). But sometimes, teachers will ask someone to talk to their students about more things like the difference between sexual behaviors and sexual orientation. Plus, the different sexual acts, etc. It might not always sex ed per se. Someone who’s at ease with talking sex with a bunch of teenagers and telling things as they are. And sometimes that person is me,” says AndOtherPlaces.

“Now, I have to say that I’ve never found a question awkward or cringe-worthy. They’re asking questions, and it’s always hard for them to do it, even if it’s anonymously, so I always keep that in mind. Well, anyway, I don’t know what it is with male teenagers and Nutella, but there’s always one or two each time asking me if they can use it as lube with their girlfriend/boyfriend. Also, many questions about sex toys. And one kid explained to me that porn was the devil and was invented to keep people from reproducing.”

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21. Sometimes, it just happens.

“So it happened that when I was still young (Elementary age circa), we had Sex Education as part of our program from the last year before heading to middle school. So it goes like this: they took in a tv, put a VHS Tape (really weird tho, we had already CDs and Blue-Ray) and just like that they made us watch some sort of romantic story between a teenage girl and a guy who in the end basically bonga-bonga together. (Still don’t know why we watched that thing! Although, it was some sort of censored and explained with some drawings-animations).”

Lieutent_Delta goes on to say, “Interesting film, I would say, both girls and guys were like: “Oh my lord, so this is what happens!” Staring each other with some kind of pervert eyes, until a dude (who was particularly involved in watching that tape, apparently) came out of nowhere and asked our teacher: “Teacher? Why do I have my pee-pee like a stick?” Useless to say that we started laughing, and the teacher was that embarrassed to answer that she actually replied, ‘It is just the nature.'”

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20. High fives for this health teacher.

“This is always a good story. It was my first-year substitute teaching for a charter school, and they had me teaching multiple subjects. They were kind of testing me to see if I would fit as a full time in the future. So they said, “Hey, we need you to teach a quick science lesson for boys about reproduction” So I was young and naïve and, without questions, agreed. I walked past the girl’s class, who had a nurse talking to them. They asked questions like, how long does pregnancy take? What are good ways to be healthy when you’re pregnant? Like good thought-out questions. I went to the boy’s room, thinking it would be similar. Now I knew these boys from hanging around the school. They were in 5th grade and low income, more or less hood (but good) kid,” shares axe_murdererer.

“They had written anonymous questions on paper that I just started picking up and reading… What do boobs feel like? Or what does a vagina look like? What does sex feel like? I had to think quickly about these to be appropriate. But half of my answers were laughing at the question than telling them to ask their parents. Then they asked me if I had ever had sex, and I asked them what they thought. They said yes, and I agreed, and all the boys shouted and cheered, coming up to me, giving me broshakes and high fives. It was hilarious. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure the lead teaching faculty placed a camera in there to watch later… Oof. But I got hired.”

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19. That embarrassed principal (Part 1).

“Not a teacher, but when I was in 5th grade (yes, I know that was early, my school district was strange). There were no male teachers to talk to us boys about what’s up down there (for clarification, we were split up into boys and girls). So, as any sane (female) principal would do in the early 2010s, we got taught about sex by good old Principal Beck. So, us being 5th graders that pretty much all already knew about the male part of sex and were slightly horny listening to a woman in her mid-40s say “penis,” “sex,” etc. We filled our anonymous question jar with things that we wanted her to say aloud. For the first few questions, she made the mistake of holding them under the document camera hooked up to a projector that displayed the image clear as day on the classroom wall before she reviewed them and deemed them appropriate,” shares anunnamedbeing.

“After she put them under the camera, then and only then would she look at the question. The first one (my friend’s) read, and I quote: “What is your preferred dick size?” She placed it under the camera and got as far as “preferred d*ck.” She then proceeded to turn bright red and promised that she would catch whoever did this and that this system was not to be abused like this, blah blah blah, and stopped showing them under the document camera. But we had thought ahead and marked the backs of our with some symbol so that when she was reading a question from a specific student, they would know it and whisper to everyone else what the question was, as she threw them away with disgusted looks on her face.”

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18. That embarrassed principal (Part 2).

Anunnamedbeing continues, “There were a couple of normal ones, followed by some weird ones. (I’ll make honorable mentions if anyone wants them.) The ninth or so question came, and read “When did you lose your virginity?” She read the entire question completely out loud. (And, later, she said that she thought it was OK to say, and the kids were just curious). So, she whispered, with an awkward look on her face, “13.” Before this, we were all laughing at her, knowing what weird stuff she was reading. But then this came. What the actual heck.”

“Like if you were going to read it, please ponder your response for a second and make something up. But now we are a bunch of 9 and 10-year-olds that now know that their principal had sex around our age. Hands shot up with tons of questions (who was it, where, how did it feel, etc.) She ran out of the room crying, leaving us to ponder what had just happened. Needless to say, when my brother had that lesson (I should note that they made it an entire day affair), they brought one of the male teachers from the middle school over to talk about it. Principal Beck quit at the end of that year. Good times.”

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17. At least they got their answer.

“I’m not a sex ed teacher, but I am a tutor at a middle school. Last year, the 8th graders watched the dreaded birth video in their health classes (if they had the fun teacher, they also got to watch it in reverse). I had a boy one day go up to present his problem to our group. He admitted that he already knew how to solve his problem. But, he asked if he could present something they had been learning in health. I figured if the kid already knew his math and health are technically part of their academic work, why not? This boys class had already watched the birth video and commented that the woman’s pubes were “long and messy.” Now, this video has got to be an easy 20+ years old. I imagine that it wasn’t all the rage to have shortly trimmed or completely shaved pubes.”

AbjectPandora continues to say, “So, noting the color of the woman’s pubes compared to the hair on her head, asked if pubic hair was always the same color as the hair on their head or if they were different colors. Legit question, right? At this age, they don’t really have much experience with people and other teens their own age, so their only experience with nudity and sex is what they learn in health and from watching porn. (And we all know that porn is rarely reflective of reality). For a good five minutes, I was completely silent and a little taken off guard as my whole group of about eight kids (and the eight or so kids from the neighboring group) waited for my reply. Finally, I just told them that, generally, the carpet matches the drapes. The boy and the rest of the kids pondered for a few moments, nodded in acceptance, and moved on.”

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16. A sex ed teacher with a good attitude.

“My sex ed teacher was wheelchair-bound. He and his wife had just had their second child several months before school started. When the sex ed week came around, a ton of classmates kept asking about “wheelchair sex” and how he had done it. He would refer to a page number in the health book and move on, but kids were not satisfied with his answer. They kept asking if he had sensation or had to hold it up with his hand, etc.”

Nightcactus goes on with their story to say, “This was the same health teacher who would purposefully throw himself out of his wheelchair onto the ground during first aid / CPR week and say, “help me!” The same teacher during safety week brought martial artists to class to talk about self-defense. He broke a board with his hand and nearly caused his chair to fall backward. He was fantastic.”

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15. Someone, please explain that one.

“I remember one day in the 5th grade, in the US, my teacher rolled in the TV cart. You all know the one. The lights dimmed, and everyone got excited for movie time! Then the tape played, and it was a bunch of kids talking about puberty. There was one really memorable line in that video that I will literally never forget no matter how long I live or how damaged my brain becomes. One of the kids in a montage of kids saying random stuff about puberty was a boy who said….”

Payperplain continues, “Mine’s not as big as everyone’s.” Even at the tender age of 9, that raised so many questions for me that have never been answered. Why did that kid know he had a smaller penis than the rest of his classmates? Why were they sharing and comparing like that? We didn’t have showers or locker rooms in gym class or anything like that at that age. What the heck?”

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14. These kids weren’t paying attention during sex ed.

Mercfan3 shares, “Not a sex ed teacher – although sometimes my classrooms turn into sex ed classrooms..when a student says something so dumb I have to correct them. A few years ago, I was close to three students. It was a brother (18) and sister (17), and the brother’s best friend (17). The brother was a special ed student (dyslexia and a little emotionally stunted) and had his first girlfriend. His sister came up to me, worried that he was going to get his new girlfriend pregnant because he refused to listen to any safe sex talk.”

“I knew it would be too awkward for him to discuss with me, so I talked to his best friend. His best friend was an intelligent student with a cool mom – who I knew had been taught correctly. I questioned him about a few things, and it seemed like he understood condoms and everything. The best friend talked to the brother. We were having a conversation about safe sex. The best friend goes, “you can’t get a girl pregnant after the first round, so that’s the only time I use a condom.” It still horrifies me.”

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13. Luckily, they had someone to teach them.

“So I teach at a community college now, but this happened back in my undergrad days, during my student teaching placement. I was placed with a 5th-grade teacher (a female) who sort of partner-taught with another 5th-grade teacher (a male). At the time, these two teachers were piloting, splitting the classes up by gender to teach certain subjects, the idea being that at this age, students are more likely to engage because they won’t be as worried about embarrassing themselves in front of their peers of the opposite sex. There have actually been some pretty great results with similar programs, but I digress. So we split up the classes one day to have “the talk.” The female teacher and I were having a pretty successful chat with the girls. They were being mature and asking appropriate questions,” says atouchofrazzledazzle.

“After the period ended, and students were leaving to go to lunch, gym, etc., The other teacher comes into the room, his eyes completely bugged out and just shaking his head. He divulges that he began the chat by stating something along the lines of, “OK, so guys have penises. Do any of you know what girls have?”. Complete silence. No hands go up. After a moment, one kid sheepishly raised his hand and said, “a p*ssy?” Of course, all the boys lost it and laughed hysterically. The male teacher said he thought it was a little funny, but mostly he was really sad that these kids (who, by the way, are 10-11 years old) knew the word p*ssy, but not vagina. I should add that this was a very rough school. Most of these kids were exposed to way too much at this age. Plus, they didn’t have the best home lives.”

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12. The students weren’t expecting that answer.

“I taught sex ed for several years to grade 10 students. One of the most hilarious questions came from our anonymous box, which I told students I would answer every question in the box as long as it wasn’t personally about me. Now, if you know anything about high school students, you know they enjoy embarrassing their teachers. So one of my students decided they could get me to say something embarrassing in front of the class when I read their question.”

Dark-Strings2230 continues, “The question asked was, “is it good to eat the booty like groceries?” The whole class erupts into laughter as I read the question out loud. However, my students know that I’m not easily embarrassed… so I begin explaining what analingus was, why people might enjoy that, and how to do it safely, all in a very professional and technical way. The look of horror on their faces was PRICELESS!”

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11. A health teacher with quick comebacks.

“How about a cringe-worthy answer? I went to a small school that struggled to hire and keep good teachers for science courses. My senior year, I took an anatomy elective taught by a lady who knew nothing about anatomy. (She had a Ph.D. in chemistry and was desperate for a job). When discussing the anatomy of genitals, my high school GF thought it would be funny if she asked the teacher what a circumcised penis was. The teacher pauses and then explains it is like someone is wearing a turtle neck sweater who cuts it to a v-neck, except it’s the skin of a penis.”

“She fumbles through the analogy and then turns to me and asks me, “Is that right redneckjep?” Of course, everyone starts laughing. Then she makes the next comment, “Well, I am sure all you boys know who is circumcised and who isn’t.” Yes, she thought all the guys would occasionally go to the bathrooms together to compare or something. She was also the lady who described her first time in a little too much detail. She said how awful sex is for women. That it’s something to be put up with. Ah, so many memories of her saying really weird stuff.”

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10. Not what the health teacher intended.

“I had a student ask me why a woman doesn’t get pregnant whenever she has sex. I explained about ovulation and the basics of the cycle’s timing. Unfortunately, two months later, she turns up pregnant. She had been trying without success, and I gave her enough information to achieve her goals. She was 14. I had a 17-year-old ask me why babies don’t drown when pregnant women go swimming.”

MuppetManiac goes on to say, “I had a girl ask me if she needed to really take the pill every day, or just when she had sex. Right after that last one, a kid named Mannie, whom I will remember until my dying day. He put two and two together and asked, “Hold up, miss, hold up. You’re telling me, there’s a pill girls can take, and they don’t get pregnant? WHY ARE ALL THESE GIRLS PREGNANT?” I don’t know Mannie. I truly don’t know.”

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9. What an embarrassing jr. high school scenario.

“So back in 6th grade. The whole class (100 students) went to the auditorium for a sex ed conference. During the Q&A, I asked what would happen if two sperm cells from different men entered an egg cell simultaneously. I literally asked this question with the most innocent tone and genuine scientific curiosity a 6th grader could express. The teacher asked me to repeat the question, and I thought she didn’t understand me, so I repeated it louder. Here I was thinking she didn’t understand when in reality this woman was shocked I was talking about double penetration creampies in front of 100 12-year-old kids.” says FirebatDZ.

“Finally, a female friend of mine stands up and says, “OH! I know what you are talking about! My mom told me of people that do weird gatherings to have sex and – – “she obviously didn’t get to finish cause at that time, the teacher did the loudest screech to shut everyone up. The conference ended right there. Everyone was sent to their classrooms. I never understood why my question wasn’t answered until years later. I started watching porn, and I felt so bad when I figured it out.”

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8. That sex ed lesson didn’t go as planned.

“I’ve taught sexed for years – one of my funniest exchanges was when the girls in a Year 9 class were complaining about girls getting a raw deal through puberty. I agreed that as females, yes, we do get quite a crappy deal, but we don’t have to deal with unwanted erections. ‘Do you mean boners miss?’ Called out one of the more ‘difficult’ boys in the class. ‘Yes, I do mean boners.’ At which point, one boy squirmed in his seat and sheepishly said, ‘so any boy can get them at any time?’ ‘Well, yes!’ I responded. Then the ‘difficult’ boy shouted out, ‘I’ve got one now and stood up to show the class the bulge in his trousers,” shares Polstar242.

“Then another one of the boys called out, ‘my longest boner lasted for 1 minute 37 seconds.’ The class then erupted into boys admitting to either getting boners in lessons or telling me how long their boners lasted. It was… Enlightening. I’ve had to answer questions about how lesbians and gay men have sex. I got asked once what a cream pie was. I’ve been asked, ‘what are those flappy bits around my girl bits?’. One boy even informed the whole class that if you keep poking a clit it will eventually ‘go off.’ I love teaching sex ed as I try to be as open and honest as the British School System will allow me!”

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7. The class was just curious.

“Not a teacher, of course, but a student. This was 7th grade, if I remember correctly. We had just finished learning about STDs. Plus, we had been shown what some of the symptoms look like for those with visible symptoms. We had an anonymous question box that we could all write questions down and have answered. Most were typical of what you see in the thread here. However, there was one fairly specific question. ‘Can you get genital herpes on your mouth from oral sex?'”

Arglebargle82 goes on saying, “Cue the girl in the front row with a visible cold sore whipping around in her chair and glaring at the rest of the class, asking whom the heck put that question in the box. No one owned up to it. In hindsight, I feel bad for her because that had to be embarrassing as heck, but at the time, it was all I could do not to fall over laughing. You could hear a pin drop in that classroom, as the teacher confirmed that you could transmit HSV2 via oral sex.”

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6. When the health teacher loses their place.

“Not a teacher. This story is told from the perspective of the student (me). In my senior year of high school, I took an anatomy and physiology class for college credit, with both juniors and seniors in the class. My best friend (male) and several of my best female friends were also in the class, and we occupied the back corner of the room. On the day we discussed methods of contraception, the teacher was trying to clinically explain that the “pullout” method was not effective in birth control because of the presence of sperm in the urethra. A girl in the class, a few rows ahead of us, raised her hand and asked, “If the boy is a virgin, why would there be sperm in his urethra?” says cncordray.

“My buddy and I could barely stifle ourselves in the back row. Her question was absolutely in earnest, which made the whole thing that much funnier. The teacher was trying to delicately hint at the concept of masturbation without actually saying the word, and the girl just wasn’t picking up what he was putting down. The girl sitting next to her leaned over and whispered something in her ear, and she looked up and said, “Ohhh!” My buddy and I lost it. One of those moments where the harder we tried, the worse it got. The teacher had completely lost control of the class for a good several minutes. The poor girl was absolutely mortified. Once the class finally started to come back together, the teacher looked down at his textbook and said, “Well, now I’ve completely lost my place…”. That just blew the lid off the class all over again. We got nothing more accomplished for the rest of the day.”

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5. How to horrify the sex ed teacher.

“When I was in grade 9 (15 years old), a girl asked our elective class drama teacher. She said, “can you get pregnant from swallowing after a blowjob?” The male drama teacher looks slightly horrified by all the implications of the question but slowly answered. “Well, the stomach and uterus aren’t connected at all, so no.” But she continued. She said, “if a girl has a hole in the bottom of her stomach and a hole at the top of her uterus … and she swallows after a blowjob, can she get pregnant then?” The drama teacher gave her a long, weirded-out stare before answering, “well, there are several things between the stomach and the uterus in a body…” “But if there wasn’t. Like if there was a tube connecting it, or something, would it be possible?”

RangerGnome continues, “…the stomach acid would probably kill all the sperm before it made it through to the uterus.” “What if she had really low stomach acid?” Very long pause, staring as though questioning his whole career. “Sure. If all of these entirely impossible factors lined up, a woman could get pregnant from swallowing after a blow job.” “But nothing is impossible, so if all that happened to a person, it could happen!” By this point, all giggles from my classmates and I had subsided into stares of disbelief. Even as Catholic school kids, we all knew that was ridiculous. Our sex ed wasn’t that bad.”

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4. Not the questions this teacher wanted to answer.

“I’m not a teacher, but in the middle of sex ed in grade 9, a boy in my class asked my teacher this during the conversation about women’s reproductive systems and how the vagina can stretch when pushing out a baby… Boy: “so, does that mean that the vagina can stretch with things going in?”…all the girls and guys knew what he was asking, but assuming it was a fair question, my teacher simply replied. Teacher: “yes, but not in the same way. But a woman’s vagina can stretch to fit a larger penis to a certain extent width-wise. That’s different for every woman, and that’s general.” OK, feeling awkward but OK.”

chiseledjawline12 continues, “He raises his hand again. Boy: “so does that mean you could fit a watermelon inside a vagina?” My female teacher went red and got angry at his poor taste in question. She sent him to the hallway to think about his choices. The boys chuckled, and the girls just shook their heads. Did I mention this was in a catholic religion sex ed class? Honestly was surprised my teacher even answered the first question the way she did without including “after marriage” in that sentence. She normally did.”

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3. Teamwork makes the dream work (Part 1).

“I went to public school in Massachusetts in a small wealthy town with one stoplight and about 200 kids per grade. We had the standard “this is puberty and science of conception” overview in 6th grade. However, we had Sex Ed as a mandatory 6-week segment of gym class our freshman year, which I took in 1999. It was team-taught by the football coach and the school nurse. They covered everything in a great sex-positive way that emphasized safety, consent, pleasure, and positivity. It was truly great and delved into everything. They showed how to put a condom on yourself and how to put it on a partner,” shares stimilon.

“They talked about masturbation, sex toys, orgasm, how to have conversations with partners about what you were or were not comfortable with, and how to communicate about what feels good or bad. The last 20 minutes were an unstructured time for question and answer, and there was “the question box,” which was a shoe box for each class section in the cafeteria where you could anonymize your question. They would answer every single question without you as the author. Well… I was a freshman. My sister was a senior. She and all of her friends ate in the same cafeteria where the question box lived.”

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2. Teamwork (Part 2).

Stimilon continues, “They decided to stuff the box with all sorts of questions and put my class section number on them so they’d be read in my class. They ranged from easy ones like “I slipped on my bike falling on my seat and broke my hymen. Am I still a virgin?” “One of my teammates asked if he could suck my penis to see if I’m gay. I got hard. Does this mean I’m gay?” To “my parents make my siblings sleep in the basement so they can have friends over for a “key party.” Is this common?”

“To even mention every masturbatory practice or locations for ejaculation you can imagine. The funniest part was that the teachers thought all of these questions came from my one friend in the class. They totally thought this for the rest of his high school career. The real truly best part was that they took on every question and tried to give each a medically sound answer without judgment. I probably owe a lot of my positive attitudes about sex to how seriously this football coach and the school nurse took on a tough task.”

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1. That one awkward question in sex ed.

“I’m not a teacher, but instead, I was the awkward student that asked the uncomfortable question. I must have been about 12. I’m 28 now, and I live in the UK. For some reason, our whole year group received one mass sex ed class with all the form teachers (class heads?) standing awkwardly in a row at the front of the large classroom to help answer about 70 cramped children’s questions. I have no idea why this was the chosen format to educate us on the intricacies of sex. After one of the braver teachers gives her a rundown on the basics with seemingly very little rehearsal to this class, and confident male students get up to incorrectly point at the clitoris on the giant vagina projected on the board, the classroom is opened up to questions,” shares Rhydonal.

“Now, I am a cheeky chap. I figured this was my chance to ask a question. Also, hopefully enlighten the year group on correct oral sex procedures. After raising my hand, my teacher pointed to me. “I know it’s safer for girls to spit when it comes to oral sex. But is it safer for guys to spit when going down on a girl?” The teacher that’s answering awkwardly stumbles over her words, unsure how to answer such a ridiculous question. Seeing how uncomfortable this made her, I decided to step in and say something along the lines of “So a guy should spit then, yeah?” Nodding my head as I look directly at her. “I suppose.” I think was the conclusion. The other pupils and teachers stared quietly at both the teacher and me. Everyone was wondering what to make of this awkward exchange.”

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