Inspired by the also foundation’s take care {out} there safer sex education program, and the piles of free condoms we have hoarded by our beds from it, opinicus rampant is collating our own risk-reduction safer sex guide.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be updating each section as listed below. If you have any great links or ideas, let us know by submitting a comment to this page.
Safe sex guides generally suck, and just say things like ‘always use barriers’. The fact is, the risks are different with different sex acts and different STIs. We don’t know anyone who practises barrier sex all the time (even those with a latex fetish).
Safer sex guides tend to be written with the broadest possible definition of ‘unsafe’. We’re trying to do the opposite, by thinking about how things are safe or could be safer, and detailing the actual risks involved in each sex act so that consenting adults can decide for themselves which risks to take.
Get tested regularly so you know the status of your sexual health (at least once per year if you’ve had sex, at least once every 6 months if you’ve had sex with multiple people). Most STIs are treatable, and if you get one which isn’t – knowing about it and how it affects your body and the possibility of passing it on is the only responsible way to have sex. If you do test positive to an STI it is important to tell your recent sex partners, which you can do anonymously via e-card or sms from here.
Most contact with other people doesn’t lead to infection. In order for an infection to be transmitted from one person to another all of the following must occur:
- the organism (virus, bacteria, fungi or parasite) must be in or on a person’s body and still be able to be transmitted;
- the organism must leave the body of the person who has the virus;
- the organism must be able to survive in the environment;
- the organism must find its way onto or into another person; and
- the organism must be in sufficient quantity to infect that person.
There are 4 types of STIs:
- Viral: HPV; herpes; hepatitis A, B and C; HIV;
- Bacterial: syphilis; gonorrhoea; chlamydia
- Fungal: thrush; BV;
- Parasitic: public lice (crabs); scabies
Hepatitis B is the most highly infectious (easily transmitted) and most durable of STDs. Most STDs are fragile and do not live long outside the body, Hep B is the exception. There are vaccines for Hep B, Hep A and some (but not all) strains of HPV. The 4 strains of HPV that the vaccine Gardasil prevents account for 90% of genital warts cases and 70% of cervical cancer cases.
With Hepatitis C there is a low risk of infection in sexual activity that does not involve blood. This is because the virus needs to be in sufficient quantities and enter the blood stream in order to be infected. While the virus is still carried in body fluids other than blood, they are in lower quantities.
Cuts on the body (especially hands and including mouth) greatly increase the risk of infection-transmission. You are not always aware of cuts on your body, especially under and around fingernails or inside the mouth and back of the throat. Cuts inside the vagina or anus (of which you will be unaware) makes transmission easier, however the mucous membranes of these areas allow transmission into the bloodstream (without cuts).
Crabs (public lice) are the most infectious STI, if you share a bed or are naked with someone who has them, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get them.
While we hope to eventually have collated a complete safer sex guide for all genders and sexualities, our priority is to detail that which is most relevant to women and transguys who have sex with women/transguys.
Almost all safer sex guides are cock-centred, if you can’t find one on your own – here you go: the drama downunder.
For transguys who have sex with guys, there is one online guide available Back Pocket Guide for Transmen and the Men Who Dig Them and 2 works in progress: tm4m and DUDE!
Our complete safer sex guide is here. Where appropriate, further advice should be sought from a medical practitioner.
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