Scary bugs, viruses, and HIV

[DarkLove]

Alright, here is a pretty good place to ask this, given that this is probably where people get A LOT of lays.

How safe are you from specifically HIV when u use a condom effectively?
I've asked doctors and stuff, but they've only been able to give very vague answers, and a lot of the answers weren't unified at all (and all they give is low risk, medium risk, or high risk).

I mean, HIV can't be that bad, or everyone here would have it. How often does this come up?(a number here would be nice) Anybody here have it? And how many lays did it take?

Alright, this might not be a very pleasant topic, sorry about that! But you've really gotta get this covered.

[sdnightfly]

I'll just talk about HIV- I think as far as diseases go, because there was so much fear placed into people when AIDS came out, people protected themselves and over time, HIV meds have gotten better.

To get HIV, it usually involved more than intercourse, it involved anal and someone who had a lot of partners, including IV drug users (some people keep it hidden really well and seem normal). But there are people who had intercourse the one time and got it.

The doctors are only going to tell you to get tested and try to stay with the same person, but use a condom. They're not going to say there's a 0 percent risk because condoms aren't 100 percent effective, but they're pretty high, and the likelihood of it with a condom is really, really low.

Fact is - a LOT of people don't use protection at least once. Most women skip taking the pill once. The pill isn't considered 100 percent effective, either.

If you get HIV for some reason, they make you contact previous partners, although most don't. If you give someone HIV or an STD and you never told them, you can go to prison in some states.

There are also a lot of people out there that have never been tested, and have no intentions to get tested. They'd rather live in ignorant bliss, until they get sick.

If I'm having bloodwork done, it's an option if I want it. So I get tests run on it.

No one is going to say here they have it or don't have it. I can only speak for myself and say I don't have it.

By the way, the TB test(PPD)? It also serves as a subtle way to see if someone has HIV.

If unprotected, you're less likely to get HIV than you are the other STDs like syphilis, gonorrhea, genital warts or herpes. Most of the time, women write those off as "yeast infection", esp. if they're not getting it looked at. Another head in the sand approach.

Bottom line - if you're engaging in high risk sex activities (unprotected anal sex being the highest risk), use a condom. If you don't want your dick to have breakouts,use a condom (but if you're allergic to latex, then the condom will cause problems).

[skystream92]

Yeah I should get myself tested. I never really did since I've only had 2 partners, and they were LTRs, and I used protection. The last girl I was with got tested and she came up clean, so I just assumed that I was clean :P.

Do college campuses do tests?

[sdnightfly]

Probably. If you have a planned parenthood in your area and no insurance, go that route. It's not just for women. Plus they give you free condoms, and you can take as much as you want, plus flavored lube.

I don't think the typical campus has anything more than info, a stash of condoms and someone trained in CPR in case something happens to students. Usually there's a fight or someone overdosing, which campus security gets the call on. All unis are different... but if the campus has med school, you're hooked up.

Sometimes clinics are not in the best areas, but they're cheap to free, and if you don't want them to be on your insurance, just go there.

You could just ask around and say "where do I get free condoms", and someone might tell you where the clinic is.

You might have to pay some cash (usually a donation), or you will qualify because you're a "starving student", which helps if you need to get meds for other stuff.

Originally Posted by skystream92

Yeah I should get myself tested. I never really did since I've only had 2 partners, and they were LTRs, and I used protection. The last girl I was with got tested and she came up clean, so I just assumed that I was clean :P.

Do college campuses do tests?

[Vapor]

I assume you are referring to a straight man having sex with women.

How safe are you from specifically HIV when u use a condom effectively?

Completely safe. You will not get HIV from having sex with women.

You can look up CDC infection rates. Straight men in the U.S. do not get HIV unless they are a) sharing needles, b) fucking guys, or c) there is no c.

[Vapor]

Guys,
http://www.aliveandwell.org/html/ris..._happened.html
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm

Health officials have known these things for years. A growing pile of federally funded reports on HIV transmission, published over the past decade and available to anyone who has the time to read them, shows that men almost never get HIV from women. In fact, according to a 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a disease-free man who has an unprotected one-nighter with a drug-free woman stands a one in 5 million chance of getting HIV. If he wears a condom, it’s one in 50 million. He’s more likely to be struck by lightning (one in 7000,000).

Female to male transmission is very inefficient, says Dr. Nancy Padian a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the University of California, San Francisco and the author of a 1996 10 year study of HIV infected heterosexual couples, the nation's longest and largest. She points out that “its two to three times easier for men to infect women.” But even so, if there are no other risk factors involved, the rate at which an infected man will transmit the virus to a woman is one in 1,100 sex acts.

If a man wants to lie about having had sex with other men, he can, and that makes it look like more people get AIDS from straight sex than really do. By re-interviewing victims, their doctors, and their families, Chicagohealth officials found in 1997 that in 85% of the cases the city had blamed on heterosexual transmission, other risk factors were present. This phenomenon became a source of black humor at New York City’s overworked health department in the late eighties. “What do you call a man who got HIV from his girlfriend?” the joke went. “A liar.”

[wanderer]

If you're sexaully active and you've got insurance, get tested every year. Whats it gonna cost, $30 a year in copay? Definitely worth the peace of mind. Just keep in mind, you have to ask the doctor to screen for the extra stuff. A generic blood test won't do it. HIV, and some STD's have to be checked separately but at most they'll take 2 samples.