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HOW
CAN I PROTECT MYSELF?
If you are
sexually active, help to protect yourself against STIs. Practicing
safer sex can help to reduce your risk of contracting STIs, including
HIV. Safer sex strategies avoid the exchange of body fluids, skin
to skin, and mucous membrane contact which can spread STIs, including
HIV. The most significant STIs are Genital Herpes, Genital warts,
Chlamydia, Trichomoniasis, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, Syphllis and
HIV. These can be passed on from person to person.
Follow these guidelines to help protect yourself against STIs:
- Don't allow any of
your partner's body fluids to enter your body. These fluids
can enter through any opening: the vagina, anus, mouth, and any
cut or open sore.
- Use a barrier method
every time you have sexual contact. Use a latex condom with
a water based lubricant for vaginal-penile, anal-penile, or oral-penile
sex. For vaginal-oral or anal-oral sex, use a latex dental dam
to help reduce risk.
- Only use water-based
lubricants with a latex condom. Oil-based lubricants like
hand creams, massage oils, Vaseline, etc. can cause a latex condom
to leak or break.
- Don't share dildos
or other sex toys. Keep your toys clean and don't share them
with others. If you absolutely must share-use latex condoms on
shared dildos and vibrators.
- Don't have sex while
you're drunk or on drugs. When intoxicated, many people abandon
the safer sex practices they ordinarily use when sober, putting
them at greater risk for unwanted sex and sexually transmitted
Infections (STIs), including HIV. Some can be passed from person
to person through sharing needles or injecting drug equipment.
- Understand the potential
limitations of condoms. While condoms can significantly reduce
risk of STI (especially HIV) transmission, it is important to
to understand their potential limitations. Condoms and other barrier
methods may only be partially effective against certain STIs that
are transmitted by direct skin-to-skin contact (e.g., herpes simplex
virus, human papilloma virus). When blisters or lesions that are
symptomatic of these STIs are not covered by a condom and are
in direct skin-to-skin contact with another person, viral shedding-transmission
of the virus-can occur. Only total absence of any touching of
infected tissue is 100% effective in preventing STI transmission.
- Some can be passed
from a mother to her child during pregnancy or childbirth
Person with Alternate sexuality
preferences and Lifestyle are susceptible to the same health problems
as heterosexual individuals. Many women mistakenly believe that just
because their partner is a woman, they are immune from certain STIs
and other gynecological problems. Although lesbians are at a lowered
risk for certain STIs including HIV, they are still at risk! Moreover,
if untreated, infections can develop into more serious problems such
as cervical cancer, damaged reproductive organs, and infertility.
Men who have unsafe sex with men are especially susceptible to contracting
STIs including HIV-unprotected penile-anal intercourse is a major
risk factor for HIV. However, it has been found that Sexual Minority
persons are less likely to seek STI testing, treatment, and other
medical care than heterosexual people out of fear of homophobia among
providers; this may lead to inadequate care.
Use of condoms is very important in preventing the spread of
STIs. Use of condoms reduces the person-to-person spread of many STIs.
Some STIs can spread from person to person even when condoms are used.
Sometimes STIs cause symptoms but very often a person can have an
STI without knowing it. A person with an STI may look perfectly healthy.
If you have had unprotected sex you are at risk of an STI. Go to your
local doctor, family planning clinic or sexual health clinic for a
sexual health check.
TO PREVENT STIs ALWAYS USE CONDOMS
General Comments
Micro tears in the gums (perhaps aggravated by recent brushing or
flossing), finger cuticles, penis, vagina, or anus can cause a breach
where a virus or bacterium may enter, even if the tears are not visible
or noticeable. Pathogens can also enter the body after landing on
the eyes. Basically, one should avoid any situation in which the body
fluids of another might make their way into one's bloodstream or contact
one's mucous membranes.
Some diseases show no symptoms, and the people carrying them may not
know they are infected or show any noticeable signs for years, though
they can still transmit the disease to you. When symptoms are observed,
common ones are pain when urinating, discharge or odd smell from genitals,
itching, burning, or pain in genitals (and sometime lower abdomen),
warts, sores, or discolorations on genitals, and flu-like symptoms.
There are other symptoms as well; see your health care provider if
you have any questions.
Some STIs (such as Herpes) may be spread by contact with the general
areas of the genitals, anus, or mouth. Rashes or outbreaks are often
a sign of infection and contagiousness, though it is possible for
some of these diseases to be transmitted when there are no visible
symptoms.
It is a myth that one may acquire "immunity" to STIs. Two other myths
are that one cannot have more than one STI at once (you can have many
at once), and that one needs to have multiple partners to acquire
an STI (one is sufficient). HIV and hepatitis may be spread through
sharing drug or steroid needles with someone who is infected.
However, if using clean equipment is not an option, the following
procedure may be used. Pour 100% bleach (i.e. Clorox) into a container
and repeatedly (3-4 times) draw the bleach into the needle up to the
top of the plunger, keep it there for a few minutes, and then eject
it down a drain (you can alternatively just take your rig apart and
soak it in 100% bleach for about 10 minutes). After this step, rinse
everything in cold running water for a few minutes. If a cooker is
used, wipe it with a bleach-soaked cotton ball, and then rinse the
cooker with cold water and discard the cotton. Never share any of
the water, bleach, or cotton once it has been used during this procedure
with someone else.
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