Five frequently asked questions by women on sex and sexual health, points out Dr Cuterus

A lot of people know her as Dr. Cuterus, a lot more know her as that one doctor who talks about sexual health on Instagram, but Dr. Tanaya Narendra is someone a lot of millennials and Gen-Zs turn to when they need advice about their own sexual health.

Breaking taboos and demystifying medical jargon, Dr. Cuterus is Narendra’s attempt at normalising conversations about sex, pleasure, menstrual health, and the human body.

While she started creating content on social media in 2019, Narendra feels that her journey as Dr. Cuterus began way before. “I think Cuterus was always inside me because I really enjoyed sharing information and myth-busting even amongst friends and family,” says she.

While not many know this, she actually started the page on World Menstrual Hygiene Day in 2019 as “uterosaurus_rex”, combining her love for science and dinosaurs together. She shares, “I was talking about menstrual cups on my personal Instagram account, explaining how they work. My friends and family liked it and encouraged me to disseminate this information publicly.”

An Oxford graduate, Narendra shares that her journey on social media has been difficult, rewarding and joyful at the same time. But unexpected too, because she never realised that innumerable people out there are insecure about their bodies. She sighs, “I thought I was the only one that grew up thinking I’m not good enough because my boobs aren’t perky and my vulva is darker - turns out everyone has those same concerns!” But she’s also found that these insecurities bond us all in a “deep-rooted way”.

But Narendra does acknowledge that the journey hasn’t been easy. She’s received a lot of gyaan from people about how she is “maligning Indian culture” and “ruining her life”. More than that, she’s had to face harassment, she's had to be at the receiving end of unsolicited pictures of genitalia, and even threats for just doing her work. And while a lot of people have still supported her, the platform itself has not.

The doctor explains that Instagram does not have an “accountable” redressal system in place for creators who face harassment and threats. She says, “Instagram is well known for its crackdown on sex education-related content. The most violent, misogynistic content doesn’t get flagged, but one discussion of the nipple will automatically restrict the reach of your content.”

What keeps her going despite everything is the joy that content creation brings her. The creative scripting, editing, packaging, and everything else that goes into posting a video online is something that her hospital job doesn’t require. It’s a totally new arena where she is free to play around with ideas, believes the doctor, adding, “It’s challenging in a different way compared with my work as a doctor, but it’s also fun in a different way!”

With Narendra’s account gaining traction on the platform, a lot of other such pages have also come up that talk about sex-positivity. As happy as Dr. Cuterus is about that, she also feels that as viewers, we need to verify the authenticity of the information we’re getting from social media. Says she, “Sometimes well-meaning people accidentally add to health-related misinformation, because Science interpretation requires serious thought and a lot of training.”

Is there anything that the doctor feels all women should know about when it comes to sexual health? Yes, there’s a lot, smiles Narendra. But the most important of all, “get vaccinated against HPV and always use condoms.”

Currently, Narendra is also working on a book with Penguin Random House India that talks about human bodies, sex, and pleasure, which she hopes to launch soon.

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)