Dr. Cara Quant
Dr. Cara Quant
Photographer credit: Trokon George
Occupation: Internal Medicine Doctor and Founder
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
The Sex In My Business: Sex plays a major role in both my lines of work. In the clinic, I see patients who want to get tested for STIs, are concerned about their vaginal or penile health, or have symptoms concerning an STI. I also run the platform Viva La Vulva, which empowers female sexual health through different art forms and a podcast.
A Typical Day: On a typical day, I work an eight-hour shift at the Urgent Care then go home to send Viva La Vulva related emails or plan another podcast episode.
The Best Part: My favorite part of this job is when people open up to me and I am able to provide them with quality information and humanness in our interactions. Often, I meet a patient who is anxious after looking up their signs and symptoms on the Internet. So a large part of my job is easing their fears, which is rewarding.
The Worst Part: The most difficult part of my job is giving patients a bad diagnosis. As many times as I have done it, I would expect it to get easier, but it doesn’t. I am human and feel a great deal of compassion for others.
How I Got Here: When I was in high school, I had an anatomy teacher bring a cadaver into our class and allowed us to dissect it. After that, I was fascinated by how the human body works. I got into female sexuality in response to my own experiences as a young adult when I did not get the information about sex that I wanted from doctors. While in medical school and residency, I found there was not much information about female sexual issues like pain during sex and problems with orgasm, so I decided to do something about it.
What Society Thinks: Most people are impressed with my doctor title, but when I discuss Viva La Vulva’s mission, people either love it and we have a great conversation, or they feel uncomfortable and change the topic quickly. I like having conversations around taboo topics, because like the American author Neale Donald Walsch says, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” My work creates opportunities to talk about female sexual health and I get satisfaction out of making people a little uncomfortable in positive ways! The rare times I encounter negative attitudes are when I am invited to speak at events but asked to not talk about sex or vulvas too much.
When I’m Not At Work: I absolutely love salsa dancing—especially with a live band. The music and the act of dancing fill me up inside and relieve stress. When I’m not salsa dancing, I’m hiking, cooking, traveling, and running.
Published in Issue VIII: Art