How Often Do You Get An STD?
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4 January 2010 | 19 Comments
IMPORTANT: This poll is only for guys who are sexually active with a bunch of different guys. If you don’t bareback or you’re generally monogamous, or you just don’t hookup much, DON’T FILL OUT THE POLL.
My 2010 is starting out with a leaky dick, so no sex for me for a bit. Callen-Lorde’s Saturday drop in clinic was closed for the holidays when I tried to go this weekend, but luckily I was able to get an appointment for today, so I’ll be back in the saddle by Wednesday or Thursday… Which seems sorta pointless since I know I’ll have to go back in a couple weeks to clean up what I catch at MAL. But that’s just how it goes…
But that made me wonder how common STDs are for those of us who bareback. Mind you, I managed to get HEP B years ago back when I was playing safe, so condoms aren’t totally effective, but they do help a bit. But I know for me I’ll get something when I go for weekends like IML or MAL (I can just count on it), and then I’ll probably get an STD 2-3 other times in the year depending on how much I fuck. So I’m at 3-4 times a year on average.
What’s your experience?
IMPORTANT: This poll is only for guys who are sexually active with a bunch of different guys. If you don’t bareback or you’re generally monogamous, or you just don’t hookup much, DON’T FILL OUT THE POLL.
UPDATE: So I went in and got meds to clean up whatever it is I’ve got. Also got an HIV test – and once again it was negative. The funny/frustrating part was how the HIV testing counselor kept trying to talk me into safe sex. Finally I just had to be abrupt and tell her I’ve been around the block, understand the risks and I’m fine with them. She got all weird after that, but I was just there for the test – not a lecture.
From someone who has already been where you are (and 15 years older), let me offer you a couple suggestions that may help alleviate future health issues:
1. If you’re taking antibiotics for the STD’s, go to drug store and buy “Lactobacillus Acidophilus”. You’ll find them in vitamin section. It will help replace the human bacteria that the antibiotics kill that help retain your digestive system, otherwise you may develop IBS or other gastrointestinal problems.
2. Although you might get over the HEP B, it can come back in later years (watch for elevated liver enzymes). If you take “Milk Thistle” vitamins daily, that will help keep your liver clean.
Like you, I’ve done my share of lots of BB’ing and I’m still HIV neg, but there can be unexpected long term effects from STD’s.
Oh, forgot another one:
3. If you do get the “leak”, besides the antibiotics, try drinking “Cranberry Juice”. The cranberry contains a natural chemical that helps relieve the symptoms of urinary tract infections. And if you don’t like drinking it, you can get it in vitamin form.
But taking any of them is up to you… these are all effective in helping later after effects.
Good Luck.
I do HIV testing in a bathhouse, and the training I received to be certified was irritating that way too. While it was a lot less preachy than I expected, our goal is supposed to always be about “how could you reduce your risk?” I did what I have to do to get certified, I got my certificate, and now I’m doing testing without the judgment. Sure, if I come across someone who hates condoms I might talk about why the guy hates them, or discuss other elements of risk reduction (like choice of partner and activity), but only if the guy seems open to it. I bareback myself, so I would be a total hypocrite if I tried to hard sell condom use to someone or make them feel guilty for taking the same risks that I routinely take.
One of the tenets of risk reduction, as I understand it, is that we’re supposed to respect everyone’s autonomy and power to make personal decisions. It bothers me when someone doesn’t respect another person’s autonomy and personal power, and only takes on the guise of risk reduction as just another schtick to impose one’s personal beliefs on another person.
Your poll should have had a few more options for less then once a year. I got pozzed same time as I got syph about 3 years ago. Went on meds straight away (did not want to wait untill my cd4 got up or my viral load extremely low.
To maintain my own health and reduce infectuousness to others . Since then starting on meds earlier has become standard here (NL). Have yet to get another infection since. Before the pozzing incident it was also more then 3 years since the last std.
Also have naturally aquired Hep B resistance ever since the vaccine trials came around, some 25 years ago. Did have a checkup on my hep resistance status some years back, when I went in extensive travels; it was still fine.
Do fuck bare (versa) with different guys about once a week on everage. I never do enema’s (like natural tasting / smelling assholes too much myself) But mostly do insert a decent wadd of good old un-scented vaseline up my ass at home before I go to my fav bars for a fuck.
My poz page: http://www.queerlog.nl/log/poz/poz2.html
Rawtop, I disagree with something you said.
Bareback sex with a poz guy isn’t any safer than bareback sex with a “neg” guy. How do you know that the poz guy doesn’t have a high viral load? Just like someone who tested negative might have acquired the virus since his last test (or might be lying), someone with an “undetectable” viral load may have developed a high viral load since his last test if the medicines stop working in the meanwhile (or he may be lying).
I know that you don’t care and I’m cool with that, but I wanted to raise that point for anyone who might…
50% of the voters say they almost never get a std. Is this possible? Or do we not believe the std stats for the number of people infected with the various std’s? How many of these guys probably have or have had a std but had no symptoms?
Wonder how many of those “almost never” get an STD, also “almost never” actually get tested.
Interesting discussion. I am one of those that responded “almost never” and it is the truth for me. I am a bb poz top and love to fuck slutty cumdump bottoms. Have had my share of scares, via a phone call from one of them telling me they have tested positive for syphilis or chlamydia and I have gone to my doc asap to get tested for all stds. My results have been neg every time. It has surprised me each time, especially as my ex was a real slut and in the course of our relationship he had syphilis repeatedly and also contracted hep c. I don’t want to have or spread any stds around, but do wonder sometimes if there isn’t something that is preventing me from catching anything. I did have syphilis and gonorrhea back in my college years when I wasn’t fucking around nearly as much. Just lucky I guess.
I do piss afterwards most of the time. I also have a piss slit that does not open out into a circle at all, it is just a slit at the tip of my head. I have sounded for a few years and have gotten up to about 3/8″ diameter sounds in my cock, but my slit still has the same narrow appearance.
Hi,
I am a poz 24 yr old, have been for two years. Before getting pozed I had sex with only 10 guys at bathhouses, always with protection, never swallowed, and rarely deep throated. Naturally when I got the news I was shocked. Unlucky I guess. Ironically now that I’m poz I fantasize with bb sex all the time. I once took a load up my ass and came hands free it felt so good. Part of me wants to start having bb sex but worried about superinfection and Hep-C (I’m vaccinated against Hep A&B). I started meds, Atripla, and I have been side-effect free, like taking a vitamin. I have also never been sick since my diagnosis. My doctor says with new generation meds such as Atripla I should be able to lead a normal long life and that if I am rigorous with taking my meds, I should not develop any resistance and could keep my regimen for years. I don’t want to change that… I was wondering rawTOP if you could do a poll directed to poz men, to find out if their bb lifestyle has led them to acquire an hiv strain resistant to their regiment and thus having to change it. I wonder if it’s true that there are only a dozen recorded cases of superinfection out there. I would please like your guidance in this rawTOP.
Thanks rawTOP for your quick response. I am very familiar with thebody.com. They do admit that superinfection tends to happen earlier in one’s hiv infection and not later as you state. But as thorough and varied as their answers usually are, they will never state that it is virtually very safe for a monogamous poz couple with equal strains to bb (assuming they don’t have other std’s and that they are in fact monogamous). I guess it is natural that as doctors they are always going to preach safe sex no matter what, but I get the impression they are cautious of fully giving their readers the full real risks of certain behaviors (which in some cases are very low) out of the fear that people will have more unprotected sex. For instance whenever I ask them about how many documented cases there are of patients who have had to change their regimens due to a superinfection (assuming it was through bb sex and not lack of meds adherence) they never answer. They basically want to keep poz men safe at sex as much as possible which I guess is a natural thing. That is why I asked you if you could start a poll aimed at poz barebackers. Hep C does worry me, whenever I bottom I always get some blood no matter how much lube I use. I do get tested several times a year, even if I don’t have frequent sex. I’m also curious about the readers of your blog and how often they get hpv strains that can lead to anal cancer. And rawTOP since you are experienced in this, how detrimental to one’s health in the short and long run is frequently getting STD’s like gonorrhea, syphilis or clymedia if they get detected and treated early? Particularly in the case of someone poz? I’ve never caught an std other than hiv or anal hpv, but I’m dying to become a cum pig as soon as my viral load becomes undetectable, but before I decide on that, I’d like to know all my potential risks from someone who is not a doctor. Thanks a lot, I’m an avid reader of your blog!