In most of Lebanon’s obstetrics and gynecology clinics, a single question, only allowing for one of two ostensibly unambiguous answers, is used to elicit a woman’s sexual history — married or single?

A seemingly benign question, it alienates scores of women for whom marriage is not necessarily a prerequisite for engaging in sexual activity — creating an uncomfortable clinical environment in which patients might feel incapable of being forthright with their doctors about their needs and concerns. For not even the Lebanese medical community is free of the stigma shrouding the public discussion of sex in the country. But a handful of professionals such as Sandrine Atallah, the country’s first sexologist, are trying to remedy the lack of sexual health awareness that this reluctance has facilitated, and which has bred detrimental misconceptions about sex.

These include fallacies about safe sex, sexual infections, sexual performance and pleasure. From masturbation depleting an imagined, finite reservoir of sexual capacity to birth control pills causing infertility, Atallah has confronted a variety of sexual myths. She sees a high number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), many of them the result of the erroneous assumption that familiars couldn’t possibly be carriers. “People think if they know a person, if they know their parents, they’re infection free,” Atallah explained.

Diana Abou Abbas, the manager of Marsa, one of Lebanon’s only sexual health centers, lists personal hygiene, education and family background as some of the irrelevant factors used to incorrectly determine whether a partner is carrying an STI. Both she and Atallah point to a widespread disdain for condom use, with men viewing them as barriers to intimacy and women reluctant to pressure their partners into wearing them.