No STI’s in 2006

Hello, campus, and Happy New Year! I had many ideas for this first column of the new semester, some of them involving lingerie, but I decided to make it my New Year’s Resolution to just go ahead and give you all of the preachy safe sex ramblings I’ve been having the desire to deliver. So I present Charlotte’s Four Step Method for Not Contracting an STI in 2006!

Men/Women, whichever you date, are lying fiends who only want in your pants. Well, maybe only some. Regardless, no one really wants to tell a new partner about having anonymous sex or toying with intravenous drug use. And if you pause in the middle of a fantastically romantic first encounter to say “But Sam, are you positive you don’t carry any sexually transmissible infections?” the answer is rarely “Gosh darn, I’m not. We had better stop.” Condoms greatly reduce the risk of some infections, but they are not 100% effective. Even if you and your partner are completely trusting of one another, it is a fantastic idea for you both to get tested, to set minds at ease. When neither of you has been tested, you are not only trusting each other, you are trusting every partner either of you has ever had, on a subject where you can’t always entirely trust yourself. This brings me to the next topic.

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. You can have and transmit gonorrhea, syphilis, HPV (the virus causing genital warts), chlamydia, herpes, and HIV without having any visible symptoms. So a partner can also unknowingly pass these things to you. Believe it or not, HPV is rampant on the Clemson campus. You can have the virus for a long time before any genital warts appear, and not all of the strains of HPV cause visible warts. Chlamydia is another especially stealthy STI, which left untreated can cause infertility in women. If you are a sexually active female, a good option is to request a screening when you go in for your annual Pap test, if your health care provider doesn’t do it automatically. (Redfern does not.)

Next, oral sex is not safe sex. I would like to say that again. Oral sex is NOT SAFE SEX. There is no such thing as “just a blowjob.” While I heartily agree that oral sex is a good alternative for committed couples not yet ready to take on the responsibility of intercourse, it is not a good first step for two people who just met at a party. Most STIs have at least some risk of transmission from oral sex. The biggest risk is genital herpes, which you can contract by receiving oral sex from someone with a cold sore. You do not want genital herpes. At all.

Finally, getting drunk at a party without a trustworthy pal to watch out for you is a phenomenally bad idea. There are many unwise sexual decisions that occur following the enjoyment of malt beverages. While you may only be concerned that your beer goggles will make a potential partner seem more attractive than he or she really is, you should be more worried that your inebriated state will keep you from remembering a condom. Or common sense. So drink with friends who will keep you out of trouble.

I hope you will follow this advice to keep yourself and your partners healthy and safe. Well, that is one resolution down! Now, if I can only keep my trips to Fike from stopping the first week of February…