An Informational Look At STDs And Prevention
Monday, November 22nd, 2010I love getting questions to my email and responding as best as I can to them, but it seems like more and more lately I have been getting questions from guys and girls about STD risks and their concerns. With recent fantasy bloggers who post unsafe sex practices while claiming to be real sex workers, I feel like the community needs to be better informed and educated to help protect themselves when seeing providers in the future. It seems like I have to also teach other girls locally in the industry of what are good safe sex practices even if they are only giving oral or a manual release. When I explain to clients at the beginning of the session what my simple rules are, it shocks me sometimes how many people scoff at my two rule list: no kissing and no touching of my genitals or oral on me (well, touching of breasts is okay). They roll their eyes, cry out “why?!”, and very rarely, I even have clients who cancel outright immediately and end the session over this. So I’d like to explain more on here why I have these rules, and why you should have these rules, as well, when experimenting with anyone. By the way, I will only cite references to the CDC.gov website. It’s commonly cited within medical references and journals for all of the information on sexually transmitted diseases and isn’t open to user generated content like Wikipedia, so at least in theory, it’s rock solid science (government and politics aside.)
It seems like some clients feel justified with getting a sexual act done without a condom by paying more. No price justifies something that could potentially harm your own health and is incurable, even something like oral sex. Both HPV and Herpes (HSV-1) can be readily transmitted through oral-genital contact. This is why it is important to use condoms or dental dam when performing or receiving oral from partners. I also learned something while researching this topic: you shouldn’t use silicone-based lubricants with dental dams. Herpes HSV-1 is more commonly known as fever blisters, but can be transmitted orally while HSV-2 is associated with blisters on the genital area. Both forms of the herpes virus are incurable and medications can only reduce the outbreaks. Also, a person with herpes can increase their susceptibility to the HIV/AIDS virus due to open sores. HPV is highly transmittable through oral and even genital-to-genital contact without penetration. Also there has been relation between head and neck cancers being linked to HPV when contracted orally… even in this study on couples in which one partner had a form of the human papillomavirus. In the study they tracked the spread of the disease between the two partners. One study notes one case of contracting HPV between scrotum and anus — just from the skin-to-skin contact. I always make my clients wash up beforehand to hopefully reduce the risk of this form of contracting the disease even though I avidly use condoms for any sexual contact. This is why on my Twitter a week or so ago I commented on this status update from Angiewa about a prank call she received. Looking at it now doesn’t seem like much of a prank!
This type of contact brings me onto hepatitis. All of the forms of hepatitis can be linked either to bodily fluids and fecal matter. The back door is not too far from the areas we commonly come in contact with sexually which makes it more important to wash up and use protection even during oral stimulation. You can read more on Hepatitis A-E (I didn’t even know there were that many!) here.
Gonorrhea and Chlamydia are very common sexually transmitted diseases, of course, and can be contracted orally. Since the bacterial infection of Chlamydia is sometimes a silent one, people can easily go undiagnosed for years. Chlamydia can even be found in the throats of women and men who have sex with an infected partner. In gonorrhea, the bacteria can grow in the cervix, uterus, and the urethra of both men and women. It can also grow in the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus. I found this information about gonorrhea when I took the sexual education class after being arrested years ago and it only confirmed my concerns about kissing and contact even via hand.
Of course last but not least is the importance of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. Since so many people know how the transmission of this autoimmune disease is spread, I think it’s what most people use condoms to protect themselves from yet don’t realize there are a slew of other STDs that are so easily transmittable.
Now, I know I am not a doctor nor am I person in the medical field, but I feel like more people need to be better educated of the many ways that STDs can be transmitted and how they are not just transmitted through vaginal penetration, like many believe. I hate to roll out the list of diseases that can be communicable through oral contact when a client wants to argue about my safety rules, but they need to know and educate themselves even if it’s an uneasy topic in the middle of a session. No price nor gift will sway me to change my rules and I hope it will only benefit others to be more aware of the spread of disease.
As far as my personal health goes, being safe has worked for me, and I believe it will work for all of you, too.
