My boyfriend and I share a close group of confidants to whom we divulge an excessive amount of relationship information. The other day after one of them made a crack about one of our (very) private kinks I had to ask myself – had we revealed too much?

If your group of friends is privy to a similar list of unmentionables you may consider yourself infected with INAPPROPRIATE INFLUENZA:

1. They know you have sex on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays – plus if you’re away on vacation or if it’s a statutory holiday.

2. They know he has a mole on the inside of his butt cheeks that you once mistook for a piece of feces and totally flipped out over.

3. They know after a night of excessive partying he goes to the drugstore to pick up a pack of gravel for you (and no, not just any gravel – exclusively the gravel that goes in your bum). In fact, they usually accompany him.

4. They know he jokes your breasts would be perfect – if they were slightly bigger. They know you tease him back by letting him know it would be ok if his penis magically grew an inch or so.

5. They know that the reason he’s walking funny is because last night you felt "experimental" with a certain sex toy of yours. They also know this sex toy has been deemed: "The Purple Monster".

The cure? Well, if I had that figured out I wouldn’t be continuing to share these tidbits with my friends, or writing about them in a weekly SDTC column for that matter. However for me it all comes down for showing respect for your partner and their wishes. Luckily I’m dating a dude who also relishes sharing these intimate details in order to disassemble and dissect them, and not to mention experience the delight of testing people’s shock-o-meter to the limit (I know, we’re freaks). But I run everything by him before I make it public – and vice versa – and would never post anything he was uncomfortable with.

So if like us you’re comfortable with airing your private life in public, go for it. If done within your personal boundaries and limits (however lax they may be) INAPPROPRIATE INFLUENZA isn’t a terminal disease – it can in fact be surprisingly liberating. Personally I think it’s absolutely fascinating to learn about others experiences, the rawer and realer the better.

DISCLAIMER: To live with INAPPROPRIATE INFLUENZA it helps to develop the proper antibodies to sustain one’s overall well being. These include a thick skin and fantastic sense of humor.