The question; do you tell your Healthcare provider about your nudism?

I have been seeing the same dermatologist for 6 or 7 years now. On my first visit she checked all of my skin not covered by my boxer shorts. She found some precancerous cells on my face and a basal cell. The basal cell was surgically removed a month later.

In the six months leading up to my next dermatologist appointment, I read several articles about basal cells...specifically reoccurring basal cells. I learned basal cells have a high reoccurring rate and can be found anywhere on your body.

I decided I needed to talk to my dermatologist about my nudism. So on my next appointment, before my skin exam, I explained to my dermatologist that I was a nudist and spent lots of nude time in the sunshine. To my pleasant surprise, she suggested including all skin under my boxers, too. The exam has been that way every time since.

When I told my dermatologist I was a nudist, I was very nervous. My heart was beating quickly because I didn't know how she would react. Looking back, her reaction was perfect for any Healthcare professional and I was thankful.

Over the years, she has found another basal cell and many precancerous cells. I am thankful to have such a well qualified and caring dermatologist.

I used to go to the VA for medical care. I would have them remove my basal cell carcinomas. About the time I got tired of them not listening to what I wanted I found a black topical salve that I now use to remove them and, usually there is not even a scar. I have been using it for a few years not.

I have told my Primary Care doctor of my nude recreation. I got a referral to a Dermatologist for an unrelated condition, but I also told her about my occasional full skin exposure to the sun. I can relate to your anxiety about sharing this detail, but I knew it was important to get professional screening.

During my full-body exam appointment the PA gave me the lovely open-backed gown and said to undress and put on the gown, and that I could leave my underwear on. When the doctor came in I told her that I had totally disrobed under the gown due to my full sun activities. She said I did the right thing by doing that, it makes it easier to examine everything necessary.

Luckily, I received a clean bill of health so I have a year until my next visit.

Choosing to enjoy nude recreation isn't a negative in my book.

We accept the risk posed by the sun because the benefits from moderate sun exposure are so great.

A few minutes of exposure can stimulate the body to produce vitamin D, a hormone so essential to good overall health. People who are fair-skinned may want to rely on vitamin D tablets for most of their vitamin D, but as people get older, the body has a more difficult time assimilating the D in these tablets. You may find that exposing your skin is the most effective way. Incidentally, if only your hands and face are exposed to the sun, it takes a lot longer to get your daily dose of D than if your body is nude. Someone who is nude can put each and every skin cell to work and then come in from the sun that much sooner.

And there is so much we can do to mitigate the risk. In Florida, many people put shade cloth on an arch or lathe frame over their swimming pools to allow them to play outside longer. In that climate, adequate sun will still get through to allow people to make vitamin D.
You can move to the shade after you have reached a safe limit; or play outside in early morning or late in the day, or even after dark if you have good lighting.

You can put mineral sunscreens on your skin to provide a degree of protection.
(In contrast to physical/mineral sunscreens, chemical sunscreens are absorbed into the body where there is the potential for harm to the body).

Jerry, that black salve may be working for you, but obviously you have learned how to apply it and I am not sure everyone is prepared to use it safely. All I can say is, "Folks, do your research, talk to the experts and be careful!"

I agree with you Ramblinman, nudist activities are a positive in my book as well. I'm also doing what I can to minimize risk. Annual screening exams are just another means of reducing the negatives.

Stay nude, stay happy :sunglasses:

Ramblinman, I agree being in the sun for vitamin D is a good thing, however, I would also agree with mTr. Go to your dermatologist for annual full body skin exams. Nudists all love the sun so we are a higher risk group for skin cancer.

It looks like we are all in violent AGREEMENT. :grinning:

Dermatology refers to the dermis, or skin. All of it. Tinnea cruris, commonly called jock itch, is just one of many conditions or problems that can affect the skin near the penis or vagina. Cysts, lipomas, etc, and many more affect those areas. Your Dermatologist is well acquainted with both the entire human body but also knows there are many different lifestyles that his/her patients may participate in. Their job is not to judge but to diagnose and treat problems and assist the patient to resolve health concerns.

You and others should have no hesitation or qualms about revealing naturist/nudist activities. It will serve to assist them to do their job as a medical professional. They might br a bit surprised to learn something new about you, but their holistic approach is to treat you, as a whole person, including any activities that come with associated health problems.

PS: As a health care provider in an acute care setting, I've treated open, prurient cysts (draining abcesses) in the gluteal cleft ("butt crack"). Checking for skin cancer on a practicing nudist is much less of a challenge. I've also dealt with self inflicted injury from grooming "manscaping", as well as a variety of skin disorders, dermatitis, etc. It's all in a day's work as the saying goes. 😀

Beachbunny, thanks for chiming in. Your nude experiences and thoughtful stories are always welcome.

"I've had a few occasional female issues over the years (mostly UTIs) that in at least one case might have been due to swimming at the lakefront cottage while nude, thanks to an application of farm fertilizer shortly before a major rain that caused lake pollution we didn't know about until later."

Farms using fertilizer that will pollute a lake is disheartening, especially when you own a lake front home. We love our farmers, but sometimes we should insist on all organic farming methods. Does your state have such laws?

My wife has experienced UTIs in the past and found them most displeasurable. Doses the possibility of infection make you hesitant to swim?

Good questions, Computerstation.

No, one bad experience (and my UTI may not even have been due to the heavy rainstorm washing fertilizer into a river that ended up in a cove of a large lake) isn't enough to get me to give up swimming. It wasn't really the farmer's fault either. Unexpected heavy rain washed away valuable fertilizer he needed. If we're going to swim in open water — rivers, lakes, ocean beaches — we have to accept the water comes from places we know nothing about. I'm not willing to restrict myself to heavily chlorinated pools. Even in pools, unless we own the pool and maintain the water filtration system and the pool chemicals, we don't know if they are being run right. At even the best-maintained public pools, one parent who wasn't monitoring their child's bowel or urine needs, or a child who doesn't "fess up" to an accident, can create a problem that may never be detected, or if it is detected, won't be until after everyone in the pool has been swimming in something much more likely to cause problems for humans than a highly diluted fertilizer runoff. The big problem with fertilizer runoff is it promotes growth of algae and other unwanted plant life. In a long inlet or cove with somewhat restricted water circulation, it can take a while to flush algae blooms or unwanted plant growth out of the cove and into the main body of the lake, where it will dissipate quickly due to water currents.

The next question you didn’t ask but others have asked who wonder about potential problems of nudism — swimming nude almost certainly made no difference in acquiring that UTI and nude swimming may have helped me prevent many others.

Unlike men, women have a fairly large opening "down there," and it's warm and moist inside. That means there are very real risks to women wearing a damp swimsuit for hours on end, especially one that is tightly fitting with padding intended to conceal the outline of women's pubic area and prevent the swimsuit fabric from rubbing against or irritating sensitive skin. Most people are familiar with padding on the upper part of women's swimsuits to conceal the nipples, and on men's swimsuits so the penis won't be obvious, but bikini bottoms or even one-pieces that are designed to fit snugly in the pubic area may have padding. Some women who regularly have UTIs while swimming wear looser-fitting swim shorts, but unless we're going to wear an industrial strength wetsuit designed for diving into sewage, nothing will keep water and bacteria from getting inside "down there." Water penetrates any swimsuit and whatever is in the water goes with it.

What can help is taking off the swimsuit after swimming instead of keeping it on all day, which is why women who have trouble with UTIs or yeast infections or other issues while swimming sometimes go inside the house, take off their swimsuit and dry themselves off, and then change their bottoms to a dry set or put on a loose-fitting skirt or shorts.

What works much better than putting dry swimsuit bottoms on a still-damp body is letting things dry out down there by suntanning nude, and what works best of all is never putting on a swimsuit at all and swimming nude so the fabric never collects bacteria and puts it next to a moist opening down there. E. coli, the bacteria that most commonly causes UTIs, does live in open water in nature, but it's much more likely to get into women's urinary tracts by transfer from their own anus. Think of what happens when a swimsuit gets wet, and stays in close contact with women's bodies for hours, and how easy it becomes for bacteria to migrate a few inches through wet fabric.

Or maybe it's better not to think about what can be growing inside bikini bottoms. It's pretty gross.

Maybe it's better to think of the UTI risk as a great reason for women to swim without a swimsuit and let things "air out" down there.

Think of that: a health campaign encouraging nude swimming to avoid infections caused by unhealthy swimsuits. Maybe (in a different world) we could start by encouraging swimming pools and beaches to be clothing-optional for health reasons, and someday get to the point that pools and beaches would start to ban swimsuits as a health risk, like most places today ban smoking cigarettes.

The more I think about this, the more I like the idea. It's totally unrealistic in today’s world and I know it, but tons of women have suffered unnecessarily with UTIs due to wet swimsuits, and at least some of those women would be open to swimming nude if more beaches and swimming pools allowed it and it became socially acceptable as a good health practice. Long ago men were required to swim nude in public pools for health reasons, so maybe it could happen again.