193: Embracing Desire: Celebrating Sexuality and Aging

Our Better Half

As an older adult, if your doctor is not comfortable asking about your sexual health but you’ve got questions, this episode is just what you need. Our guest this time is Dr. Jennifer Vencill, an assistant professor, board certified clinical health psychologist, and AASECT certified sex therapist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She is passionate about answering patient questions and teaching her colleagues.

She is dually appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, as well as the Division of General Internal Medicine, where she spends the bulk of her time providing integrated sexual health care and educating fellows, residents, and medical students about the importance of sexual and gender health.

Dr. Vencill’s research focuses on sexual health, health disparities and minority stress in marginalized sexual and gender communities, and mixed orientation relationships. She sits on the editorial board of The International Journal of Sexual Health and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women’s Section on Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns. Dr. Vencill received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Texas Tech University and completed her postdoctoral training as the first Michael E. Metz fellow in Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.

Along with her co-author, Lauren Fogel Mersy, Dr. Vencill is co-author of the new book, Desire: An Inclusive Guide to Navigating Libido Differences in Relationships. You can reach her at the Mayo Clinic or on Instagram.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!