Avoiding infection

Men and Women - Avoiding STI's

New diagnoses of sexually acquired infections (STI's) continue to rise. More than 100,000 new cases of genital Chlamydia and 80,000 cases of genital wart infection alone are reported in the U.K each year.

Risks
STI's can be divided into blood-borne infections and contact-borne infections.
Blood-borne infections can only by caught if you get body fluids into your blood through a break in the skin or through very thin skin. They include HIV AIDS and Hepatitis B.
Contact-borne infections can be caught by skin contact, especially contact with the genitals or body fluids. They include gonorrhoea, chlamydia, and syphilis.

Multiple Partners
If you are someone who changes their sexual partner quite frequently, you should be aware that some groups are much higher risk than others. In particular, professional sex workers and those who have multiple partners are very high risk and if you yourself have had sex with them you run a much higher risk.

Penetrative Sex and Genital Contact
Engaging in non-penetrative forms of sex such as sensual massage, mutual masturbation (first check there are no open sores) or fantasy and role-play are much safer than penetrative sex or genital-to-genital contact.

Condoms and Dental Rams
Condoms provide a good degree of protection for all forms of penetrative sex including performing or receiving oral sex. They do not eliminate the risk entirely but they do reduce it when used correctly and consistently. The main remaining dangers are the condom breaking, coming off, contact of surrounding skin, or spillage of fluids.

A dental dam is a device for protection during cunnilingus (oral-vaginal sex). It is a small, square sheet of latex or polyurethane, which is placed between the mouth and the vagina. It provides an effective barrier to STI's during oral-vaginal sex.

Alcohol and Recreational Drugs
It is well-established that there is a much higher risk of catching STIs if you drink or take drugs. The reason is that they increase the chances of engaging in high-risk behaviour which you may later regret.

Sexual Health Screens
There is no simple answer to the question of how often you might need a sexual health screen.
If you have an active sex life with a number of partners, and particularly if these include professional sex workers, it is a good idea to have a sexual health screen at reasonably frequent intervals. It is possible to carry serious infections without any symptoms and therefore without being aware of any problem – until it may be serious for you and perhaps your partners too. We therefore recommend a screen at intervals of six months
We also recommend that if you change partners, even if you do not have multiple partners, it is best practice to have a sexual screen once a year, or when in any doubt about your whether or not you have may been infected, to make sure that you are clear – and are not liable to infect others.