subject: Essential Facts - Safe Sex and Condoms [print this page] Essential Facts - Safe Sex and Condoms Essential Facts - Safe Sex and Condoms
They say the only way to have safe sex is to abstain. That's great advicein a perfect world. But we don't live in a perfect world. And sometimes abstinence isn't an option. We've all been there. Things are getting hot and heavy and all of a sudden you both sit up and the record player needle screeches to a halt. Who's got the condom?
This is where decisions are made that could affect the rest of our lives. On one hand, you have already made out with this person and you probably know them and their parents. They seem harmless enough. Sex without a condom won't hurt, as long as we pull out. That's one option. On the other hand, even the cleanest looking person might have a disease that can't be cured. And sometimes even condoms can't protect you. Having Sex Without a Condom
We're taught that if you are having sex with a person that you should always wear a condom. They even say to put a condom on sex toys like a vibrator before you use it, but who does that? Besides condoms hurt, they come off at the most inopportune moment and they let the passion die down while you wrestle with trying to get that damned wrapper open with your teeth. They're just a pain and so some people decide they don't like to use them, so they're not going to use them. This is the wrong attitude to have. Regardless if they hurt you or cause you to have to stop in the middle of 'just getting started', they will protect you from things that may harm you, and they may protect the other person from the same things.
Even using a vibrator without a condom can give you a nasty infection, especially if you are sharing your adult toys with others. And, just like the invisible bacteria that may remain on a used vibrator, many diseases are just as hard to see.
Dormant and Hidden Diseases
You cannot tell if a person has a disease by looking at them. And you also can't tell even if you get an up close inspection of the other person's genitals. Some diseases don't show themselves physically, like HIV. And some people might be carriers for certain diseases. That means they don't show symptoms but they will pass that illness on to someone else. Then there are those diseases that have symptoms, but they're too small to see. Take HPV, for instance. HPV causes genital warts, which can cause cervical cancer in women. You may think you can see warts, but some are so small you have to use a magnifying glass to see them.
All of this means you never know if someone has a disease or not, and we haven't even begun to talk about pregnancy yet.
Pros and Cons of Condoms
The truth is, if you are going to have sex outside of a committed relationship, you should use a condom every time, even if they hurt or cause discomfort in some way. They make all types of condoms so you should be able to find one that feels great. Wearing a condom during sex will help to protect you from many diseases, and they'll keep the woman from getting pregnant. That's what we're always told. Here are the facts.
Condoms don't always protect you from diseases. STDs are spread by skin to skin contact. Condoms rarely cover the entire penis, so there's still likelihood that the other person will become infected if, in fact, the person wearing the condom is infected. And wearing a condom doesn't even guarantee that a woman won't become pregnant. Condoms can break, form small tears, they can come off during sex, and a hundred other things can happen that result in infection or STD.
That being said, it is still better to wear a condom if you are going to have sex, or use a vibrator, than to not wear one at all. If abstinence isn't an option, then safety had better be.
