treatments - issue 84 health news
positive nation
Compiled and edited by Laurence Gibson

Not all STIs are due to dumping the condoms

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Gay men who get syphilis are more likely to have got it from oral sex than 'barebacking'. This was one of the more surprising research findings announced at the IUSTI STI Conference.
Another surprising finding was that being rimmed (oral/anal contact) was more likely to give you an STI in your arse than getting fucked - with or without a condom.
The findings imply that the safer-sex messages that apply to HIV may have to be restated to prevent STIs, and that lack of obvious symptoms does not mean you don't have one.

poster

Dr Ulrich Marcus studied the kinds of sex between men that led to sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia.
Detailed questioning of 53 men - 19 of them HIV positive - revealed that 40 per cent - 22 out of the 53 - acquired STIs in ways other than having anal sex without a condom.
Seven got an STI from sucking; six got it from being fucked even though they used a condom; five got it from being rimmed; and four got it from being sucked.
21 had gonorrhoea, 20 had syphilis, 12 had chlamydia, two had non-specific urethritis, and one had anal warts. Three had more than one of these at the same time.
Nearly everyone (45) caught their STI from casual sex - only three got it from a regular partner.

STIs: a condom is only partial protection

Symptoms weren't always in the places you'd expect. For example, more men who got their STI from sucking had things like whole body rashes than mouth ulcers.

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