Except when it is an STI! It is easy to get caught up in the moment but when that moment can result in a lifetime of something you would rather avoid you really need to plan ahead.  Foreplay needs forethought! Prevention isn’t an accident.  So, what can you do to help take care of your sexual health?

There are many different things to do to take charge of one’s health, whether one’s physical, emotional, sexual, or mental health. But they all begin with awareness and information.

Educate Yourself

STIs are best fought with knowledge and education. As with any infectious pathogens, understanding its transmission paths and how to prevent or reduce those paths is the best method of prevention.  By arming oneself with knowledge, anyone can take control of one’s sexual health and wellness.   This begins with the following:

• Open conversations regarding sexual activity that include protection options
• Removing the shame and stigma around STis
• Understanding how transmission of infection works
• Availability of sexual wellness products for all
• Easy access to testing for STIs
• Promoting sexual health as part of one’s overall health

Prepare Yourself

Preparation is a large part of prevention.  Educating oneself regarding what options are available for sexual wellness is an important aspect of prevention.  There are many different types of external condoms, assorted lubricants, oral barriers, and internal condoms.  Researching your options is helpful in knowing what works best for you.   

• External condoms are best used for penetrative sex, penile oral sex, with sex toys and also for mutual masturbation.
• Oral barriers are another sexual wellness product to become familiar with that are best used for oral/anal and oral/vaginal sex.
•  FC-2 Female condoms are a penetrative sex barrier to help prevent STIs and pregnancies.
• Lubricants can support the efficacy of the different barrier methods, allowing for increased pleasure while reducing friction that may cause any issues.
• And the final preventative step to take is getting tested to ensure you are not an asymptomatic carrier of one of the over 25 types of STIs.

Discuss Your Options

The excuses for not using prevention options are just that – excuses!  Safer Sex can still be fun.  There are different ways to incorporate protection into intimacy.   Intimacy is also a product of trust and openness.  This includes discussing sexual preferences that include protection.  And always understanding you have the option to say no to anyone.

• Discuss your choices and preferences for protection before you get intimate.
• Take charge of your sexual health and supply your own protection.
• Implement protection into your foreplay.
• Protection does not need to interrupt intimacy. Make it a part of it instead.

Testing 

Testing for STIs is imperative as testing is the only way to know if you have an STI for sure. Testing is available at Public Health Units, through your family doctor, and even online to name a few.  Most testing is simply a urine test, swab, or a blood test. 

Testing should be done every time you have one of the following situations:

• A new sexual partner(s).
• You or your partners have other sexual partners.
• If there are any changes in your body that could indicate an STI.
• You had oral sex without using a barrier.
• You had sex with someone who has an STI.
• Either you had sex without a condom or the condom broke.

It is important to get tested regularly to ensure you stay sexually healthy! 

But never underestimate the power that knowledge can bring to your health.  Education and awareness are the best path to knowledge and implementing the best safer sex practices that fit your lifestyle.