Doing A Safer Sex

There are ways to make it much safer and protect yourself from the risk of contracting HIV when you are having sex. It it is important to be able to talk about sex. It can be uncomfortable to have direct conversations about sex, but it does get easier if you are confident about your facts. Good communication is important, with friends, health care providers, parents/family, and your boyfriend or girlfriend.

To make yourself "safe" from HIV infection, you should avoid contact with certain bodily fluids, namely blood, vaginal secretions, and semen (including pre-cum). Small, vulnerable cuts and sores exist all over your body, especially on the penis and inside the mouth, vagina and anus, where skin is very delicate. You need a physical barrier between your body and your partner's bodily fluids to protect you and your partner from infection. Means that, before you take your clothes off (even for oral sex), reach for the right protection.

Use condoms for vaginal and anal penetration, as well as oral sex with a penis. Condoms should be made of latex or polyurethane. Animal tissue condoms do not provide adequate protection against HIV.
Using Female condoms if available in your area, this kind of protection is effective way to protect against HIV during vaginal penetration.
Use a dental dam, a latex or polyurethane square, for oral-genital or oral-anal sex.

Other ways to be intimate without putting you or your partner at risk is masturbating together (keeping your fluids to yourself), massage, sex talk and touching each other are all safe. With such sex creativity, you can find other ways to pleasure your partner without putting either of you at risk.

If a couple is going to have sex, it's important for them to talk things over first. Discuss topics like their sexual boundaries and contraception so they can protect themselves against pregnancy and STDs. Try to :
a. discuss concerns, fears, safer sex choices
b. remember that being honest is being respectful
c. decide together what you are both comfortable doing

If your partner refuses to practice safer sex, you can always say NO. Whatever he or she says, there is never a valid reason to not protect yourself!

Remember! It is up to you to protect yourself in every sexual relationship. Just talking about safer sex is not enough - you have to practice it!

posted by SureMedia Press