As an avid contact wearer, I use saline solution to rinse my contacts daily before each use. Recently, a friend told me that many commercial saline solutions contain preservatives, which could affect the overall health of my eye. Is this something I should be concerned about? The saline I use has always felt comfortable so I never thought it could pose a problem.

I have had Crohn's disease for 16 years and am in remission right now. Recently my boyfriend and I have been toying with the idea of anal sex, but I'm concerned about it given my health issues. I have a lot of thickening of the terminal ileum walls and worry that the "trauma" of anal sex could set off a flare up and be painful because of the narrowing. Any thoughts? I'm way too embarrassed to discuss this with my male doctor. Thanks!

About six months ago, I experienced pain when urinating after having intercourse. Typically, I have pain/burning the first time I urinate after sex, but then the pain tends to go away or diminish. I am a 38-year-old male. I have no pain otherwise.

I've been hearing a lot on the news about the new virus [novel coronavirus, COVID-19] and I'm seeing students on campus wearing masks. The news seems to have conflicting information and I'm not sure what to do. Should I be worried? Do I need to wear a mask too? Thank you.

I read that disposable contact lenses are actually worse for your eyes than the normal one-year ones because they allow less oxygen to go to your eyes, and the only advantage is that there are less cleansing problems. Also, it is claimed that inadequate oxygen to your eyes (possibly caused by prolonged wearing of contact lenses) leads to a condition when extra blood vessels sprout around the iris, which leads to sight problems at old age. Is that true?

I am very concerned because I normally wear (one-year) contact lenses from 8am to 8pm, and maybe to 12am during reading periods. I don't feel very comfortable with glasses because they give distorted visions and fatigue. I thought switching to disposable contact lenses would do my eyes good. My current lenses contain 38 percent water. Is this good enough?