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bjbj So here s where we really start to talk about the mechanical aspects of how you would
keep yourself safe. Your goal with anything related to safer sex is to keep yourself fluid-free.
You don t want to be coming into contact with any kind of bodily fluid that would be shared
during *** activity. So, there are four main offenders that you really need to watch
for, and those are blood, ***, venereal fluids (which can be things like pre-*** or
vaginal secretions), and also breast milk. A lot of people are really concerned about
saliva. The thing with saliva is that it s not a major carrier for ***, but it can be
for *** and various other infections, and there are also just things to watch for in
general, like colds, flu, mono, so be careful about it, but as a general rule, anything
that is involving kissing or minimal amounts of saliva is generally considered to be a
fairly safe activity. Sweat and tears also contain negligible amounts of viruses and
bacteria, so again, it s not really something that I would seriously be concerned about.
Urine is normally sterile, so unless you have blood in the urine, in which case you have
a bigger problem, I also really wouldn t be worried about it. It s also a pretty safe
activity as far as most things are concerned. Now, what part of your body do you want to
protect during safer sex? You really want to be watching out for the mucous membranes,
so anything that s the very fine or very soft tissue, you really want to be aware of. So
watch for genitals, the ***, the urinary tract, anything around your eyes and your
mouth. And also keep in mind that with certain unprotected practices like oral sex, it can
be possible for the infection to get into your throat and also your upper respiratory
tract, so you really want to watch for that. For a lot of people it s really kind of intimidating
when you start to talk about STI s because for folks who haven t had biology in a while,
it can be pretty confusing. There are frankly a lot of them out there, and it s difficult
at times to really be able to distinguish them from each other because the symptoms
can be so similar. So one thing that I find is really helpful for people in learning how
to take better care of yourself is to just simply be aware of what are the five major
categories that you can group these STI s into, and the first two are really your main
ones to be watching for. Those would be viral and bacterial. Viral would include all of
the major ones that you know, which would be ***/AIDS, ***, HPV, hepatitis, and it
can also include things that you haven t really heard about as commonly, like molluscum contagiosum.
Bacterial would be your next biggest concern, which include chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis,
and it can also include things that are not necessarily sexually transmitted, but ***
activity can aggravate them, especially if conditions are unsanitary or the sex is very
rough. This could include things like BV (bacterial vaginosis) or also UTI s. In addition to a
bacterial condition, you can get things that are fungal. This would be, like, yeast infections,
and again too, they re not necessarily sexually transmitted, but certain kinds of *** activity
can aggravate them. STI s can also be protozoal like trichomoniasis, or they can be parasitic
like crabs, which are *** lice, and scabies. So, a few things to know about STI s in general
is that they re equal opportunity. So in one way this is how we can actually say that they
better than people in the sense that they don t discriminate. Anyone can have an STI.
Anyone can get an STI, regardless of identity or anatomy. STI s are often asymptomatic.
You can have them and there might not be, in fact there often aren t, any visible signs
that you do have it. Most people who are infected don t actually realize that they have STI
s, and although sometimes people will lie about their status for malicious reasons,
it s normally because of not that, but the normal reason is the stigma and the shame
that we have around having an STI in this culture, and you know, people don t want to
be rejected for their STI status any more than, you know, we really want to be rejected
for being trans. So one thing that I would pose to you to consider is, say for instance
you re negotiating sex with a partner, who then discloses to you that they re ***-positive.
For many people then, the reaction will be to lose interest and no longer wish to have
sex with that person, but think of it this way. The person who just disclosed their ***
status to you took a really big step, and one that required a lot of guts, frankly,
because when you re disclosing, you re opening yourself up to the possibility of rejection,
and that rejection happens fairly frequently. So just think about it! There s a lot of similarities
between disclosing your STI status and disclosing being trans, or really disclosing anything
that s of a very sensitive and very personal nature. Many people are also under the impression
that if they ve had a pregnancy test, if they ve donated blood, if they ve had a check-up
at the doctor s office recently, that they ve been tested for STI s, and this is NOT
the case. STI s are not normally a part of anything that I just listed. You have to really,
you have to know how to advocate for yourself. You have to explicitly ask for it, and you
have to make sure you re asking for the full battery of tests. Even when you do that, you
have to really push and make sure your needs and services are being met completely. For
instance, you might really want to make sure that they are testing you for ***, and
if not, you need to do something to correct that situation. If left untreated, STI s can
be painful, they can cause infertility and internal organ damage (including neurological
problems), they can compromise your immune system, and they also put your partners and
public health at risk as well. Another thing to keep in mind is that STI s are not a death
sentence. They most of them are curable by simple antibiotics, and even ones that aren
t, even things that are not curable like ***/AIDS or ***, there are ways that we can treat
that and we can alleviate the symptoms, so you don t have to it doesn t even have to
be the end of your sex life forever. You can live a very long, fulfilling, and happy, and
*** life and still have these conditions, so please don t think it s the end of the
world if you do end up having one. What do you do if you do test positive? Well, then
you go and you get treatment, and when you get the treatment, ABSOLUTELY make sure that
you are taking ALL of the antibiotics that are prescribed to you. If you don t, what
you can do is actually help to create drug-resistant strains, and what happens in that case is
that the bacteria and the viruses have now evolved, and they don t respond to the normal
line of drugs that we have been using to treat those kind of conditions. So even if you start
feeling better, DO NOT stop taking them until they are completely gone. You want to totally
finish that treatment that you get. You need to notify your partners so that they can get
tested. You need to stay healthy just like you would in any other situation. Eat right,
get enough sleep, just in general take care of yourself. You want to do follow-up testing
to make sure that the treatment has worked and that you re now negative. And also when
you get one, don t beat yourself up, and I realize that this is far more easy to say
than to do. However, it with an STI, it s bacteria, it s viruses. It s nothing that
s an indication of poor morals or weak character, regardless of what people tell you. It s a
health condition, and it s something that can be treated, and it s not anything that
s a sign that you re a bad person. So how do you protect yourself? You can protect yourself
through regular screening, and you need to know where to go to find those kind of services.
You can usually do this for free or relatively affordable prices at your local health department,
or if there s a Planned Parenthood or a similar kind of clinic in this in your area, make
sure that you can go to them as well. Consistent and correct safer sex practices can reduce
your risk by up to 70 to 90 percent. And also in general, just healthy communication with
your partners and being assertive and being respectful of yourself will be really invaluable
tools that will help you. How often you should get tested, that depends on a lot of different
factors, but in general, we d say a regular screening for STI s should occur about every
3 to 6 months and certainly whenever you have a new partner. So, what can you do then besides
everything that I just told you? Well, you could also consider abstinence, and many people,
I think whenever we talk about safer sex or we do this kind of outreach and education,
we miss the opportunity to really talk about abstinence, and I feel like that s a failing
because the benefits of abstinence can actually be very far-reaching and abstinence is not
something that is strictly for people who are doing it for religious or ethical reasons.
It can be for a number of personal reasons. And also just consider it: abstinence is free,
it s 100 percent effective at preventing STI s and pregnancy, it can be done at any time,
it s temporary unless you want it to be permanent, it doesn t require any trips to the doctor,
it has no side effects, it encourages building your relationship in ways that are not ***
and creating intimacy in other ways that are not physical in nature. It minimizes anxieties
about disclosure, so if you re a trans person, if you re not entering a *** situation
with somebody, you know, it s pretty unlikely, particularly if you re farther along in your
transition, that you really would have to disclose that kind of information about yourself,
so certainly, avoiding having sex would avoid having to bring that issue up, so there is
that to consider as well. It could also just be the right choice for you, especially if
you re asexual or if you naturally have a very low libido, this could just be the right
thing for you to do. You don t have to have sex if you don t want to. Just always remember
that. It is always your choice. And abstinence doesn t even have to mean that you don t have
sex ever. You don t have to be a sexless being in order to practice things other than actual
intercourse. You can still ***, you can talk about fantasies, you can read slashfic.
I mean, really, there are so many different things that you can do. But abstinence is
always at least something to consider and at least be open to the option and think about
whether it would be right for you. h6Z, [Content_Types].xml _rels/.rels theme/theme/themeManager.xml sQ}#
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