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Safer Sex
Anything we do during sex play to reduce our risk of getting a sexually transmitted infection is safer sex. There is no kind of skin-to-skin sex play with a partner that is totally risk-free, but being "safer" when we engage in sexual activity is something everyone can do.
These are the most important ways to practice safer sex:
- Understand and be honest about the risks we take.
- Keep our blood, pre-cum, semen or vaginal fluids away from each other's bodies.
- Always use latex or female condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse.
- Avoid sex play when we have a sore caused by a sexually transmitted infection.
- Find fun and interesting ways to make safer sex as pleasurable as possible.
You can lower your risk of getting a sexually transmitted infection using safer sex in several ways. One way would be to only have one partner who has no sexually transmitted infections and has no other partners than you. This isn't always the safest kind of safer sex because most people don't know when they have infections and are likely to pass them on without knowing it. Also, people aren't always as honest as they should be. As many as one out of three people will say they don't have an infection when they know that they do, just to have sex. So, most of us have to find other ways to practice safer sex.
Another way to practice safer sex is to have sex play that has no risk—or a lower risk—of passing STIs. This means no vaginal or anal intercourse. Many of us find that great sex is about a lot more than a penis going into a vagina or anus. It is about exploring the many other ways you and your partner can turn each other on. Not only is it a way to discover new sexual pleasures, it's also safer.
No-risk safer sex play includes:
- Masturbation
- Mutual masturbation
- Cybersex or phone sex
- Sharing fantasies
Lower-risk safer sex play includes:
- Kissing
- Fondling—manual stimulation of one another
- Sexy Massage
- Body-to-body rubbing—frottage, "grinding" or "dry humping"
- Oral sex (even safer with a condom or other barrier)
- Playing with sex toys—alone or with a partner
The highest risk kinds of sex play are:
- Vaginal intercourse
- Anal intercourse
Luckily, we can use condoms during vaginal and anal intercourse to make them safer.
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Yeast Infection (UTI)
