Factors That Can Increase Hiv Transmission
Research on heterosexual transmission has shed some light on the factors that can increase transmission:
Years ago, studies from Africa demonstrated that the amount of virus in a persons blood is a major determinant of whether a persons partner gets infected, whether they are male or female. In general, women need more virus in the blood to infect a man than a man needs to infect a woman. However, if we reduce the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels , almost no transmission occurs!
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Uncircumcised men are at increased risk of being infected by women. This has resulted in massive campaigns in many African countries to get men circumcised in communities where it is not commonly practiced.
In addition to this, the presence of an STD can increase infection by a couple of ways. First, the infection increases the production of HIV in semen or vaginal fluid, so the partner is exposed to more virus. Second, the infection damages the mucous membranes making it easier for HIV cross. Women may often have no symptoms of an STD and may not seek care in a timely manner.
Whats one factor that can help decrease HIV transmission? Sharing knowledge and helping to dispel these dangerous myths. Tell your coworkers the facts it may help save lives!
Experiment Experiment And Experiment Some More
Good news: There is no wrong way to give hiney-head! So long as it feels good to all pleasure-seekers involved, its kosher. Still, your first time going to analingus avenue can be intimidating.
Luckily, Kort has a few recs to help you along. First, he says, “The person who’s getting the rim job should stay stationary, and the person giving it should experiment with how much they want to do, how little, and how deep they want their tongue to go in.”
Both partners should embrace that experimentationby constantly communicating with words about what feels good, says McBride. Plus, the more open you are, the hotter it’ll be. Trust.
Think About Whether Or Not You Want To Prep Your Peach
Sadly, anal play is still shrouded in a whole lot of myths and misconceptions. The most pervasive one? That anal play will bring you face-to-face with dung.
Heres the thing: Assuming the receiver didnt do a half-ass wipe job, the risk of coming into contact with poop during analingus is small. Poop, after all, isnt stored in the anal canalit simply passes from the colon through the anal canal on the way out of your body, explains Queen.
Still, at the end of the day…a butt’s a butt. And considering you’ve probably spent plenty of QT with your own, you know what it does. So if you’re worried about cleanliness or smell, McBride and Kort recommend showering ahead of time. Or to get in the ~mood~, shower together.
While you’re there, why not warm up with these tried-and-true shower sex positions?
However you decide to suds up, McBride advises “washing gently with warm water and soap.” She also recommends staying far away from any cleansers that are too astringent. They can make your anus more prone to cracking “because some cleansers can actually draw moisture away from the anus and make the tissue more prone to contracting STIs,” explains McBride.
Look for body wash or bars labeled “fragrance free” since traditional soaps fall into that heavily astringent category.
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Risk By Sexual Activity
When discussing HIV risk, people often try to ascertain which “type” of sex is riskier vaginal, anal, or oral. From a purely statistical standpoint, anal sex is considered the highest risk activity with an almost 18-fold greater risk of infection compared to vaginal sex.
But this assessment is somewhat misleading, at least from an individual perspective. While vaginal sex may pose a lower risk comparatively, the figures neither take into account the way in which the disease is distributed between men and women nor the vulnerabilities which place some individuals at extremely high risk of infection.
Women are three to four times more likely to get HIV from men than the other way around. A young woman is more likely to get HIV from her first sexual encounter than her male partner.
There are some men who are far more likely to get HIV than others. Studies have shown, for example, that uncircumcised men are more than twice as likely to get HIV after vaginal sex than circumcised men.
Vulnerabilities vary by individual, so assessing the real risk of vaginal sex requires a better understanding of the factors that place some women and men at greater risk than others.
Multiple Vulnerabilities Increase Risk In Men And Women
Vaginal sex is one of the primary ways a person can become infected with HIV. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, it accounts for about 6,300 new infections among women each year in the U.S. and about 2,800 new infections among heterosexual men.
Globally, the figures are even more dismaying. While the sexual transmission of HIV in the U.S. is highest among gay and bisexual men , heterosexuals are by far the group most affected worldwide.
This is especially true in Africa where most new infections are among heterosexuals. In these populations, vaginal sex is the predominant route of infection.
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How Is Hiv Spread From Person To Person
HIV can only be spread through specific activities. In the United States, the most common ways are:
- Having vaginal or anal sex with someone who has HIV without using a condom or taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV. Anal sex is riskier than vaginal sex.
- Sharing injection drug equipment , such as needles, with someone who has HIV.
Less common ways are:
- From mother to child during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. However, the use of HIV medicines and other strategies have helped lower the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to 1% or less in the United States.
- Getting stuck with an HIV-contaminated needle or other sharp object. This is a risk mainly for health care workers. The risk is very low.
HIV is spread only in extremely rare cases by:
- Having oral sex. But in general, the chance that an HIV-negative person will get HIV from oral sex with an HIV-positive partner is extremely low.
When Is The Risk Greater
These risk factors can increase the chances for transmission of HIV:
- Status: Risk varies based on whether the person with HIV is giving or receiving oral sex. If the person with HIV is receiving oral sex, the person giving it may have a higher risk. Mouths may have more openings in the skin or lesions. Saliva, on the other hand, is not a carrier of the virus.
- Viral load: The risk of contracting HIV is higher if the person with HIV has a high viral load. Higher viral loads increase infectivity.
- Ejaculation: During oral sex, ejaculation may increase risk for sharing the virus, but ejaculation alone isnt the only possible way of contracting HIV.
- Cuts or sores: Openings in the mouth, vagina, anus, or on the penis are possible routes for HIV. These may be cuts or lesions from another infection or condition. For example, HIV-related infections like candidiasis can cause sores that compromise the integrity of the tissue in the mouth. Any break in the skin puts a person at risk for transmitting or contracting the virus.
- Menstruation: HIV-bearing cells do shed from the cervix during menstruation. Coming into contact with menstrual blood with the mouth may increase contraction risk.
- Urethritis: This condition causes inflammation and irritation in the urethra. It may increase the chances of HIV contraction, too. People with HIV are likely to shed the virus when they have this condition.
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Does Douching After Sex Prevent Pregnancy
Douching doesnt prevent pregnancy, shouldnt be used as birth control, and honestly, you just shouldnt douche your vag in the first place. It throws the delicate pH balance of the vagina out of whack and can lead to bacterial vaginosis, vaginal irritation, and other hella uncomfortable conditions.
If sperm got into the vagina accidentally, follow these tips and consider if you should also use emergency contraception like Plan B, copper IUD, or Ella.
Risk Factors In Women
The risk of HIV from unprotected vaginal sex is higher among women for a number of reasons. From a physiological standpoint, the tissues of the vagina are far more susceptible to HIV than those of the penis.
HIV is able to pass through these tissues when the immune system recognizes the invading virus and send defensive cells to “grab and drag” them through the lining to be destroyed.
Instead, HIV turns the table and attacks the very cells meant to help neutralize them. By doing so, the body helps facilitate its own infection. And, because the surface area of the vaginal epithelium is far greater than that of the male urethra, the opportunity for infection is increased, often exponentially.
Other physiological vulnerabilities include:
While the daily use of an HIV drug called pre-exposure prophylaxis can dramatically decrease the risk of HIV in an uninfected partner, there is evidence that works less well in women. Research published in 2016 suggests the level of the active drug molecule in vaginal tissue isn’t near as high as in rectal tissue.
None of this, of course, takes into account any of the social vulnerabilities that can place women at increased risk. These include sexual violence in relationships which not only steals a woman’s chance for self-protection but can result in damage to delicate vaginal tissue.
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Im A Top How Did I Get Gonorrhea In My Buttby Emily Land Ma March 7 2016 3minute Read Although Not Reaching Levels Anywhere Near To Those Seen In The 1970s And 1980s The Number Of Diagnosed Gonorrhea Cases In San Francisco Has Gone Up In Recent Years In 2014 There Were 2903 Cases Of Gonorrhea Among Men Compared To 1657 In 2010with Gay Bisexual And Other Men Who Have Sex With Men Experiencing A Disproportionately Higher Infection Rate Pierre
Gonorrhea is spread through touchnot semen or blood
Condoms do a good job of helping to prevent gonorrhea transmission. But theyre not 100%, and thats because of how gonorrhea is spread. A gonorrhea infection is caused by the bacteria N. gonorrhoeae, which can infect the mucous surfaces of the urethra , rectum , cervix , and throat.
Gonorrhea is spread by coming into contact with an infected body part. That means you can transmit gonorrhea even if theres no semen or blood exchanged during sex. If you have gonorrhea in your penis and you touch your penis and then finger your partners butt, you can give your partner gonorrhea in in their butt, for instance. Ive seen people who say, Im a top! How did I get gonorrhea in my butt? Maybe their partner put their fingers in their butt, or they shared a sex toy. You can get a rectal gonorrhea infection even if you dont bottom. The infection can even spread from your penis to your butt because they are so close to each other. You can get or give gonorrhea through mutual masturbation. There are a lot of ways it can spread.
You might not have any symptoms
Oftentimes, rectal and throat infections are asymptomatic. That means you can walk around with a gonorrhea infection and not know it.
Your body might clear the infection on its own
Dont be ashamed!
Eating Ass: A Guide For The Straight Man
Sometimes butt tastes like poop.
In fact, that very possibility might explain why something like 60 percent of the adult population has never once, in our entire boring little lives, dared to have anal sex, let alone place our tongue, however gingerly, on or about the butt hole of anotherperson.
I get that. Thats real.
And for straight men, the numbers are even smaller. But for the brave bung-diving brotherhood , this crapshoot, as it were, is simply not anobstacle.
Although the visibility of booty eating has increased significantly in recent years especially since Playboys canonical, groundbreaking 2014 study of eating ass and women and gay men have spoken openly about the topic, straight men have been slower to embrace butt lust, at least publicly. In private, it may be a different story. As the Cut has noted, it turns out the fastest way to get every straight man in a room to shut up is to shout, Who likes rim jobs? Meanwhile, according to one survey, some straight guys apparently wonder if receiving a rimming is going to make me gay. Remember Kanyes squeals of horror when Amber Rose claimed shed gone dirty south onWest?
It doesnt have to be this way. Butt cheeks both his and hers are designed to be parted. Im no sexpert, and my erotic life is far from glamorous, but I can tell you that Ive had some very delightful rimming experiences, and that eating ass is not as gross you might expect that is, ifyou take the properprecautions
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How To Protect Yourself
Since there is still a chance that you could get infected with HIV through oral sex, you should always take precautions. Here is what you can do to lower your risk:
Do not let a male partner ejaculate in your mouth. You can do this if you remove your mouth from their penis before they ejaculate, or if you use a condom.
Use a condom or dental dam. A dental dam is a thin square piece of latex or silicone that you place over the vagina or anal area during oral sex. You can also cut a latex condom lengthwise and use it the same way.
Both of these barriers also lower the risk of infection from other STDs such as gonorrhea of the throat or hepatitis. Use a new one every time you have oral sex. Check the expiration date on the package, and make sure there are no tears or defects.
Don’t use oil-based products like baby oil, lotion, petroleum jelly, or cooking oil on condoms or dental dams because that can cause them to break. If you need lubrication, use a water-based or silicone-based product instead. Always use a condom or dental dam during your period since the virus can be present in menstrual blood.
Don’t brush your teeth just before oral sex. If you do, your mouth or gums may bleed, which raises chances of infection.
Skip oral sex during risky times. This includes a time when you have sores around your mouth, genitals, or anus , gum damage, a throat infection, or after dental work.
Is There Anything You Can Do To Reduce Your Risk Of Contracting It
If youve potentially already been exposed, then taking PEP is the only way to reduce your risk from that exposure.
PEP or post-exposure prophylaxis is an emergency prescription for people who are HIV-negative who may have been exposed to HIV.
Its a 28-day course of anti-HIV medication that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by as much as when started within 72 hours of possible exposure and taken as directed.
You can get the medication at your nearest clinic or emergency department.
Yes, but keep in mind that not everyone shows symptoms in the early stages of an HIV infection. The only way to know for sure if you contracted HIV is to get tested.
In the first two to four weeks after infection, two-thirds of people experience flu-like symptoms.
See your doctor if you experience any of the following after a possible exposure:
- fever
If theres a chance youve been exposed to HIV, a convo with your other current or potential partners is a must until you get your results.
To help make the talk a little easier:
- Pick a time and place that you can talk freely without interruptions.
- Keep it simple and to the point.
- Be prepared with information and resources that can help answer their questions about their risk level and options for prevention.
- Be ready for the possibility that they may not take it well, and try not to take their reaction personally.
Theres a lot you and your partner can do to reduce the risk of HIV transmission.
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What Is Oral Sex
Oral sex is when a person uses their mouth to play with another person’s penis, vagina or anus.
People of all sexes, genders and sexual orientations enjoy oral sex!
Its not possible to get pregnant from oral sex.
There is very little to no chance of passing HIV through oral sex, but some sexually transmitted infections can be passed.
Using a barrier for oral sex can lower the chance of passing many STIs.
Increased Risk Of Fistula A Rare Complication
In very rare instances, it is possible that a tear in the lining of the anus or rectum can grow larger. Doctors call this a fissure or large tear.
Sometimes, this tear is so big that it extends beyond the bowel to other parts of the body. Doctors call this a fistula.
A fistula can be an emergency medical situation because it allows stool from the bowel to go to other places in the body.
Because stool naturally contains significant amounts of bacteria, having a fistula can introduce bacteria to other parts of the body, leading to infections and damage. Doctors usually suggest surgery to repair a fistula.
Again, this is a rare but potential complication of anal sex. For this reason, it is important to use proper lubrication and stop anal sex if pain occurs.
Some people believe that a possible risk of anal sex is that the rectum will stretch long-term, and that this damage can lead to fecal incontinence. For the most part, medical experts disagree with this.
However, a 2016 study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology looked at the sexual behavior of 4,170 adults. Researchers asked the adults whether they had ever had anal intercourse, and whether they had fecal incontinence.
The study led the researchers to conclude there was a potential link between fecal incontinence and anal sex. However, many experts criticized the study because it did not evaluate other contributing factors to fecal incontinence.
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