“My patients are students like you,” Dr. Miriam Grossman said. “Bright, ambitious kids at one of the top universities.” When it comes to issues of sexual health and decision-making, however, she has come to see the average student as “naive, misinformed and vulnerable.”
About 250 students gathered in the Maury Hall Auditorium last Wednesday to hear Grossman, a former UCLA campus psychiatrist, deliver a lecture titled “Sex, Lies and Hook-ups: A Campus Psychiatrist Tells It Like It Is,” sponsored by the Inter-Sorority Council. Some came to receive extra credit for a class, some came because their boyfriend or girlfriend asked them to and others came simply out of curiosity.
Third-year College student Melissa Woods, a Delta Gamma sister, said she attended the talk because she felt the issue is “very relevant to U.Va., especially the Greek culture.”
Glenn Phillips, another third-year College student, said he came for outside credit for an ethics class, adding that he “thought it sounded a little scandalous, too.”
Grossman was introduced by ISC Rep. Ashley Berrang, who noted that Grossman graduated from New York University Medical School, completed a fellowship at Cornell University and has 10 years of experience as a campus psychiatrist at UCLA.
“When I graduated from medical school, I took an oath,” Grossman said. “I swore to prevent disease whenever I could. I am here today to give you information in hopes of doing just that.”
She explained that students who come into her office generally face one of two types of challenges. The first type pertains to unforeseeable problems that cannot be controlled, such as a sports injury, a roommate problem or coming down with mono right before an exam. The second type includes problems that are completely preventable. They are caused, Grossman said, “by casual sex with multiple partners, or by ‘hooking up’ as it is called these days.”
This behavior has a number of negative consequences, she noted.
“Casual sex causes more anguish on our campuses today than you might imagine, especially with young women,” Grossman said, noting she travels around the country to college campuses to spread awareness in hopes of preventing such problems before it is too late.
Grossman said because of their “unique sensitivities,” she is particularly worried about young women. “It’s not politically correct to call girls vulnerable,” she added, “but it’s medically accurate.”
Women can be vulnerable to contracting the silent diseases carried by men. “[Men] can carry these things and have no idea they’ve been infected,” she said, noting that such diseases will not show up in a routine STD testing if they are not active at the time the testing is done.
Additionally, Grossman said this unique sensitivity is influenced by the chemical oxytocin, which affects maternal feelings and behavior. It is one of the chemicals that “creates a woman’s reality.” While Grossman said men also have this chemical along with a large amount of testosterone, women are more sensitive to the hormone. In women, oxytocin is released during labor and nursing and promotes an emotional bond.
“But it is also released in the female brain during intimate behaviors: touching, gazing, positive emotional interaction, kissing, nipple stimulation and orgasm,” Grossman said. Basically, she concluded, “we’re wired to have an emotional attachment, which goes against the casual, uncommitted nature of the hook-up culture.”
Oxytocin affects the amygdala, the part of the brain that sizes up situations and can either wave a red flag or flash a green light, she explained.
Quoting a statement by Dr. LouAnn Brizendine, who specializes in the effect of male and female neurobiology on relationship dynamics, Grossman said, “Research shows that the female brain naturally releases oxytocin after a 20-second hug ... Don’t let a guy hug you unless you plan to trust him.”
Grossman’s discussion of the mechanics behind certain emotions registered with fourth-year Engineering student Erin Hayes, who said the presentation helped “explain a lot of the emotions I’ve experienced in my life.”
Because emotions can turn into sexual encounters, Grossman discussed the probability that a young woman would contract human papillomavirus. A University of Washington study followed 82 female undergraduates for a year after they became sexually active, she said. Those who said they used condoms all of the time had an 37.2 percent incidence of HPV. Those who said they used condoms during less than five percent of their sexual encounters had an 89.3 percent incidence of HPV.
Grossman identifies “the immature cervix” as the reason it is so easy to infect a young woman with HPV, Grossman said. “In teenagers and young women, the cervix is immature, meaning that it’s only one cell thick.” As a woman gets older, she explained, the cervix grows to be 30 or 40 cells thick, making it virtually impossible for the HPV virus to travel through it.
She displayed an image of a mature cervix alongside an immature one. The difference, she noted, is “really quite striking.”
Looking forward to when people do get older, Grossman talked about the risk of not fulfilling one’s future goals. Three-fourths of college freshman students surveyed said having a family was an essential or very important life goal. By age 35, however, 55 percent of high-achieving women are still childless. It is important, Grossman said, to know that if you always put your career or something else first and the years go by, you might risk missing the opportunity to have a family.
“I’m not telling you to go out and have babies right now,” she said, “I’m just telling you that there’s a window of opportunity, and that window will close.”
Grossman noted that she simply wants young women to be informed so they can make sensible life decisions. True feminism, Grossman said, would encourage girls to learn about and understand their bodies and sexuality, thereby empowering them.
Second-year Engineering student Calvin Li, however, said that he felt Grossman’s interpretation of feminism was flawed.
“From what I understand about feminism, I don’t think she portrayed it correctly,” he said, noting that he does not feel feminism should focus on the differences between men and women as a source of empowerment. He said, however, he agreed that discussions such as Grossman’s are “good to have on campus” and noted that much of the information in the discussion was new to him. Second-year Engineering student Ricky Passarelli, however, said he had heard it all before. “I really wasn’t impressed,” he said. “Nothing really struck me as new or interesting.”
Grossman concluded the presentation by urging students to remember that “it’s all on your hands; just be smart. It’s not always nothing.”
She noted that students are able to act in a sensible way in terms of exercising, eating and succeeding in classes, so they just need to apply that ability to their sexual lives as well.
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