STI Prevention Tips: Essential Reminders for Safer Sex and Reducing Transmission
STIs are on the rise in the US. Here are a few reminders for safer sex and reducing the potential for transmission.
1) We are educated and socialized to believe that STIs/STDs and people with them are dangerous others. You can do everything “right” and still get an STI. It doesn’t make you a bad person.
2) STIs aren’t dating and relationship death sentences. You were taught that they were. Many people lead fulfilling sex and saying lives post-diagnosis and post-treatment.
3) Sex with multiple people is still possible for people living with herpes, you just didn’t learn that it was an option. The @who estimates that 67% of people globally live with HSV-1 (oral and genital) and 13% live with HSV-2 (mainly genital). It’s more common than you think.
4) You can’t tell that someone has an STI just by looking at them or asking how many people they’ve slept with. Your sex ed (or lack thereof) trained you to make that assumption.
The only way to know someone’s STI status is to communicate with them about their testing history.
5) Fear of testing and stigma of testing positive are some of the biggest barriers to testing and treatment, not to mention actually talking about these things with potential partners. “The talk” is often described as awkward, unsexy, and a moment-ruiner. But it doesn’t have to be!!
6) If you are sleeping with multiple people, or just haven’t been tested recently, be sure to be proactive when it comes to your sexual health. Sexual health is self-care 🛁
7) Remember that it’s not your fault for how you were taught or raised to think about STIs, but it is your responsibility to do better and take action when confronting these inadequacies in sex ed.
Dating and sex in summer can be FUN 👙☀️🍉🕶️🩳 🍦You can still preserve that sense of spontaneity while prioritizing your and your partners’ sexual health!