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If you need some evidence that we’re not actually in a post-racism world, here’s another bit of proof.
When adolescent women show up at emergency rooms saying that they’re experiencing lower abdominal pain and/or urinary or genital symptoms, just over 26% of them test positive for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and/or trichomonas. And since many adolescents don’t have primary care doctors, they end up at the ER, so it’s especially important that they get appropriate care. Of course, in a society that offered both accurate sex education and universal, affordable health care, we wouldn’t be asking ER staff (who are more used to dealing with actual emergencies) to deal with STIs, would we?
In any case, it turns out that when young women (13-21 years old) …
Continue reading Race Bias Influences Who Gets STI Tests
The NY Times reported today that anyone working out at a gym needs to be really careful to avoid skin infections such as MRSA, impetigo, jock itch, or athlete’s foot from contact with other people’s skin or from gym equipment. These Gym Transmitted Infections (GTIs- a term I just made up) can be annoying, in the case of athlete’s foot, or life threatening, in the case of MRSA. [As an aside, a great way to avoid jock itch is to put your socks on before your underwear. When you do it the other way round, you can transmit the fungus from your feet to your genitals.]
The article offers some great tips, such as assuming that you are being exposed to skin infections, washing …
Continue reading GTIs vs. STIs: Notice the Difference?
CNN posted an article today called “The Downside of ‘Friends with Benefits,’” which is another example of someone writing about sex without taking a look at their own assumptions about sex, relationships, and how people work.
The focus of the article is the increase of STIs and the claim that having more than one partner at the same time (“concurrency” if you want to get technical) increases one’s risk for sexually transmitted infections. I can buy that- if you’re exposed to more people (everything else being equal), you’re at a higher risk, just like you’re at a higher risk for the flu if you’re around lots of people than if you stay home.
According to the article The Contexts of Sexual Involvement And Concurrent Sexual …
Continue reading Love, Romance, Fidelity, and FWBs
This post first appeared on the Good Vibrations Magazine.
I recently received a press release about STD Test Express, an online service designed to make getting tested for sexually transmitted infections easier. At first, I thought it was a great idea. After thinking about it, I still think it’s a good idea but not perfect.
Here’s how it works. You go to their site, select which tests you want and pay with a credit card. You get a printout that you take to the closest lab (they have a search function) and give them a blood and/or urine sample. It’s fast, it’s easy, and nobody will know why you’re at the lab since the same sites also do lots of other medical stuff. …
Continue reading STI Testing via the Internet: Pros and Cons
A few days ago, I was following a Twitter conversation between @AlexaRPD and @audaciaray about the issue of mandatory disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners. In part, it was sparked by a news story about a sex worker whose arrest for prostitution became a felony rather than a misdemeanor because she’s HIV positive. And these two incredibly intelligent folks were on opposite sides of the question of whether disclosing HIV status should be mandatory (for people in general, not just sex workers).
As is often the case, I can see both sides of this issue. On the one hand, I absolutely agree that if you have a health condition that you could pass along to someone else, you have a moral responsibility to inform …
Continue reading mandatory HIV disclosure? no thanks
There’s been lots more buzz lately about the porn HIV case. Fortunately, there are some places where a more reasonable and informed conversation is taking place. Rather than reiterate it all, here’s a few pointers.
Ernest Greene’s blog, with lots of great comments & discussion: here, here & here. That third link has pointers to some blogs by people who are actually performers in the mainstream het porn world, which gives them much more credibility in my eyes that, say, MSNBC on the topic.
Tony Comstock’s blog, with some very thoughtful input: here & here.
I also recommend pornochromatic, with two very insightful posts here & here. The second one proposes some ways to make the industry safer that seems to …
Continue reading it’s not an outbreak, dammit!
Given that the Obama administration has stopped funding abstinence-only sex misinformation, I’m sure that lots of schools are scrambling to figure out what to do. Fortunately, Planned Parenthood just launched an amazing site which is full of resources, information and support. If you work with kids, or if you have kids, or if you know someone with kids, pass the link along. I’ve embedded it above, but here is is, so you can cut & paste it:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/resources/index.htm
A big thanks to Planned Parenthood! (again)…
Continue reading Planned Parenthood has sex ed tools for you
From Aidsmap via Carnal Nation
New research in the online journal AIDS shows that more than 50% of HIV transmissions among gay men are from main (as compared to casual) sexual partners and 46% of infections were from partners who thought that they were HIV-negative. That’s pretty scary- lots of people out there are telling their partners that they’re HIV-negative in good faith, without actually realizing that they’re not. This is why you need to get tested regularly, dammit!
Bottoming accounted for 69% of infections, while topping was responsible for an estimated 28% of infections, and oral sex was responsible for 3% of transmissions. Remember- risk reduction doesn’t mean risk-free. Use condoms. Use lube. Get tested.…
Continue reading just because you think you’re HIV-negative…
It’s official! The White House has released the proposed 2010 federal budget and funding for abstinence-only education misinformation and propaganda masquerading as science is gone!!!! Community Based Abstinence Education funding is gone!!!! Title V abstinence-only funding is gone!!!! (scroll to page 39 of the pdf for the section on sex education)
True to his word, President Obama is proposing funding programs based on “evidence-based and promising models” to lower teen pregnancy rates that are based on science. You know- that system of developing models of how things work based on evidence, research and peer review, rather than lies. Pretty darn cool.
Of course, there are still some unanswered questions, such as what exactly “evidence-based and promising models” means. And the question of how funding for …
Continue reading the end of funding for abstinence-only miseducation
Violet posted about this recently, so I thought I’d take a look. iTrick takes the concept of a little black book a lot further and all I can say is “why didn’t anyone do this before?”
iTrick is a piece of software designed to help gay men keep track of the men they’ve had sex with. (Click on the image for a better screenshot.) You can keep track of who, when, where, what you did, how it was, all the contact info you have, and more. You can even run reports to keep track of who gives the best blowjob and how often you have safer sex. Plus, it’s freeware. How cool is that?
One really great thing about this is that it makes it …
Continue reading now we just need an iphone app
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