By Jodee Redmond from In The Cloud Copy
Hannah Witton, a YouTuber with 600,000 subscribers to her sex and relationships channel, got tired of hearing comments that people with disabilities aren’t interested in being sexual or having intimate relationships. As a person who lives with a chronic illness, she knows they are untrue. The 27-year-old decided to talk about them openly and honestly on her YouTube channel in hope that they might be put to rest.
About Hannah Witton
Hannah Witton knows her subject matter intimately. She has ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes sores and inflammation in the digestive tract. It affects the colon and rectum. Ms. Witton underwent surgery in 2018 to fit a stoma bag after her condition flared up.
What is Ulcerative Colitis?
Symptoms of ulcerative colitis vary, depending on the location of the inflammation and its location in the colon. They may include the following:
- Abdominal pain
- Cramping
- Diarrhea
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Inability to defecate, despite an urgent need
- Rectal bleeding
- Rectal pain
- Urgent need to defecate
- Weight loss
There is no cure for this disease. With treatment, patients can experience relief from its symptoms and may even go into long-term remission.
YouTube Channel Addresses Questions About Sex and Intimacy
Ms. Witton uses her experience to teach others about how people with a disability can continue to enjoy sex and intimacy. She also relies on stories from others to help fill in blanks in her knowledge.
This landscape can be awkward and uncomfortable for anyone to navigate, much less someone living with a disability. The general public lives with the false impression that this part of the population is dead from the waist down. Alternatively, they believe the myth that if disabled people do have sex, they are so delicate they must be treated gently, so they don’t hurt themselves further.
On her YouTube channel, Ms. Witton discusses questions and concerns honestly. The kinds of issues that she has dealt with include the following:
- How can you hide a stoma bag (in sexy lingerie)?
- How do you have sex with a stoma?
- Can someone who has had stoma surgery still have children?
- Can someone who has had stoma surgery have anal sex, since the surgery removes the patient’s colon?
- What are the best toys for people with disabilities to use?
- Where can I get lingerie with pockets to fit stoma bags?
- How can pillows be used to increase comfort during sex?
- Which sexual positions work best for people with decreased mobility?
- How can I communicate my needs and wants with my partner?
Ms. Witton has been on YouTube for about nine years. She started addressing sex and relationships about one year after she started her channel. As she explains, sex education in school did not cover the type of information she discusses in her videos.
She goes on to explain the sex and relationships is a personal topic for many people. They can watch her videos in private to get answers to their questions or with a partner to improve their relationships. It’s an important factor in having a fulfilling sexual relationship.
Learn more about this story here.
