Safer Sex

What is safer sex (safe sex)? Safer sex helps you stay healthy and may even make sex better.

STDs are infections that are passed from one individual to another during sexual activity. Safer sex (often called safe sex") means taking steps to protect yourself and your partner from STDs when you have sex.

One of the best ways is by using a barrier -- like condoms, female condoms, and/or dental dams -- each time you have oral, anal, or vaginal sex. Getting tested for STDs regularly is also part of safer sex, even if you always use condoms and feel totally fine. Getting tested protects you by letting you know if you DO have an STD, so you can find the right treatment to stay healthy and avoid giving it to other people. But if you are taking off panties and touching each other or with any sort of sex, using obstacles is the safer thing to do.

Getting wasted may make you forget how important safer sex is, and you may accidentally make decisions that increase your odds of getting STDs. The only way to be totally sure you won't get an STD is to never have any sort of sexual contact with another person. So if you are going to have sex, making it safer sex is the best way that will help you avoid getting or passing an STD. Using barriers like condoms and dams makes it possible to avoid contact with fluids and some types of skin-to-skin contact during sex. Vaginal or anal intercourse without a condom has a high risk for passing.

There are even a few completely risk-free methods of getting sexual pleasure and be intimate with another person, like masturbating, and dry humping (aka grinding) with clothing on. Nevertheless, it's still possible to find certain STDs from such items, so using condoms and dams to avoid contact with fluids and skin whenever you can helps you stay healthy. The best way to protect yourself if you're going to have anal or vaginal intercourse is use a condom each and every time.

When it comes to HIV, oral sex is much safer sex than vaginal or anal sex. So no matter what sort of sex you have, use condoms or dams to make it safer. If you find out that you have an STD, it's important to know how to have safer sex and prevent passing it on.

Fortunately, many STDs can be easily cured with drugs, so as soon as you complete treatment, you do not need to worry about giving your STD to anybody. Depending on what STD you have, there are things you can do to protect your partners. Don't have sex at all if you have any STD symptoms (such as warts or sores around your genitals, bizarre discharge from your penis, vagina or anus, or itching, pain, swelling or soreness on your penis, vagina, vulva, or anus). Your partner(s) should also be treated in the exact same time. Depending on what STD you have and where it is, you may need to use condoms/dams each time you have anal, oral, or vaginal sex.