Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Not an abortion topic, if you even think of mentioning that, I'll kindly point you to the other one we've got in this forum.

Anyway, with sex on the brain (By the way, the whole men think of sex every seven seconds? Wrong.), people have sex a lot. This has contributed a lot to many nations having a rising problem of sexually transmitted diseases getting around.

Here's some information on HIV and AIDS in 2009. For example. It seems to be pretty prevalent in all ages, and to be honest? It seems to be the one thing people aren't really thinking about as far as sex goes. Not even a condom stops these things all of a time, even when it stays in tact.

So, the question is... how does this or how would it effect your sex life knowing that anyone could be carrying a disease like that and especially one that isn't curable?

Me, personally, while I have to admit it's added to my one partner ideal, I'd personally have a hard time getting myself to sleep with someone unless they've got paperwork from a clinic. On the other hand, I'm paranoid about my health. I see other people my age sleeping around and I just figure, it's only going to add to your health bill when you get unlucky.

On condoms: They are on the whole, with responsible use and correct application very effective. Although nothing is 100%.

On STDS:

I would prefer to make sure any sexual partners had a clean bill of health (STD clinic confirmation) as whilst there are many treatable STDS out there the more serious ones are quite scary. Also it depends on your friends/culture, as no health bill here but tax so sleeping around is financially limited, however if your group of friends is marginally educated they usually tend to have decent understanding of sex education. Also around my peer group there is the the 'looking down on anonymous sex without protection' opinion where if someone has admitted to it they do so in regret.

Well the technical name for 'em now is sexually transmitted infections. Not all the things you can get via boning are diseases afterall, take Trush for instance.

The thing with AID's is that NOTHING stops it, holding hands and kissing are as potentially likely to expose you as having sex. And you deal with it by getting it treated (if treatable) or by abstaining if not.

And once again score one for Free Medical help, should I fall in all they would have to do would be to stick a metal scraper down "lil' josef" and then get me treated. And yes, that is another reason I tend to dread this.

edited 1st Jun '11 6:16:06 PM by JosefBugman

Holding hands doesn't have any real bodily fluid exposure unless both parties have cuts that touch and really keep pushing the wounds together.

Also the the transmission rate through sex is so much higher than through saliva/kissing.

Obviously, but with Condoms I think (don't quote me) its about the same.

Sorry sex with a condom is as likely to transmit aids as holding hands/kissing?
Just to clarify what you mean.

Kissing. I thought sex with condom is about as likely to transmit as kissing.

I would say "kissing without condom" but that makes no sense.

Aren't they called Dental Dams?

But really, AI Ds isn't as bad as some diseases, it can take years to kill somebody.

I've never had sex and probably won't for some years if ever. So none. But I definitely would prefer to be having safe sex.

Ah ok. Haha at kissing without a condom.

Link.

That is on about blood in the mouth, saliva would be even less likely to transmit.

Edit:
A more relevant quote:

edited 1st Jun '11 6:26:40 PM by IanExMachina

There is no emoticon to enable you to understand the mental pain you just caused me blue harp. The closest I can come to it is as follows.

ØÆ

Ahhh, my mistake, I do apoligise.

Um, blueharp, that makes it worse. Seeing, having HIV/AIDS is an effective time bomb. You can't stop it and you die in a very set amount of time. And in that time you can cause other people to get that same time bomb and there's no cure yet. That's a very bad thing. You don't even get a quiet death, you get a death of physical pain and mental breakdown as your emotions go out of whack and your ability to remember and use logic disintegrates. Getting infected with such a disease is exceptionally horrible.

As for condoms, I'm not on the forefront of condom science, but it's definitely got a higher chance of transfer than kissing with a mouth that isn't bleeding. As for how effective the condom is at stopping it, I guess it depends on the brand and how well it's put on among other details.

No worries I only asked as I remembered asking the then local sexual health clinic doctor about it, paraphrasing roughly "Swallow gallons of the stuff" (saliva) to indicate how unlikely from kissing, but your doubt made me search out a more quoteable source so it is all good.

Not sure about real stats though

edited 1st Jun '11 6:45:30 PM by IanExMachina

Well, I think dying overnight is worse than dying over several years. At least you can have the chance to say good-bye. Sure, there's a certain stress from having that long death, but you can also adapt to it. Especially today, now that people know about the disease. It was a lot scarier when it was an unknown menace.

Plus at least you can avoid transmitting AI Ds a lot easier than say, the flu.

edited 1st Jun '11 6:47:47 PM by blueharp

Well, I'm planning to wait a long time to have sex - probably engagement at least, and I think it's likely that any partner I'll have would have similar intentions. So if we're both virgins and only have sex with each other I don't think there'll be much of a risk there. Maybe we'll get ourselves checked out before we do anyway, in case of something blood or saliva transmitted.

I don't know about that - I think I'd prefer a quick death to a lingering one in which I might infect everybody around me.

edited 1st Jun '11 7:01:05 PM by LoniJay

HIV does not spread that easily. It takes considerable effort, namely sharing bodily fluids.

And I think it doesn't even go through Mosquitoes. You could hang around somebody with AIDS for years and never worry about catching it.

edited 1st Jun '11 7:04:02 PM by blueharp

Just as well it doesn't go through mosquitoes, that would be catastrophic...

Yeah, HIV you'd need to transfer by blood or sex, otherwise the chances of it ever being transferred is quite literally nothing. You can't just breathe it in. You can, however, be a carrier and be unable to detect by even modern means until years after you catch it thanks to various strands of it mutating in weird ways and laying dormant. This means you can carry it and give it to someone else even when you went to the clinic and got checked out. Shit be sneaky, man.

Luckily for you, most strands can still be detected at any given point with modern medical procedures, but there's still always a few strands that are ahead of the game.

notsureifserious.jpg

First of all, it's AIDS, Accute Immmuno Deficiency Syndrome, which is caused by HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. And it can't be caugth from kissing or holding hands, and is more or less likely to be caught from different sexual acts.

And even with unprotected sex, the chance of catching it depends on what stage of the sickness the carrier is on, and at best the chance is at less than 10 percent. Not a nice chance, really, but still not a death sentence.

Also, the illness is treatable, albeit you'll be on daily medication for the rest of your life. But on the plus side, it's not a short life.

While I agree that a longer life is good one one hand Jethro, I can't help but feel that maybe dropping their viral load to 0 would be preferable than merely "Low."

Yes, I realize this probably makes me a horrible person. But It's what I feel, even for all my normal compassion. I'd say make it painless, make it quick, but don't drag it out, it makes me feel like they'd just be waiting for it then. The whole business scares the crap out of me, which isn't good because it clouds my clarity of thought, but I can't help it really.