viking8x6

1 hour ago, leatherpunk16 said:

He'll pick me up from my workplace, take me home, and then he drags me out to a social event I really don't care to attend. Usually fetish night or something, and we don't really spend time together there.

Well, that sounds like a fairly unpleasant experience. Not that it directly explains your overall loss of libido, but it could certainly contribute to your general happiness (or lack thereof) and mood.

23 minutes ago, akula said:

I went to a Homeopath and he suggested I try a  hormone called  bremelanotide or PT141.

I looked this one up - quite interesting! It's an analogue of a natural hormone that's involved in regulating melanin production in the skin. Which, of course, is connected with sunlight... and, upon some further digging I found, also thyroid regulation of the metabolism.

@leatherpunk16, if you haven't checked thyroid and vitamin D levels, that's definitely worth doing.

Ouch, that's really terrible!

Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you for sure that depression can do that to you. My understanding is that it's actually a pretty well-known symptom of depression. So if you are still having trouble with that, it could well be at fault. And (also first-hand) I can tell you that depression can fool you by abating somewhat without being really gone - you feel sort-of OK and think you're "well", but your perceptual calibration is off because you've been in hell too long. So if you're not getting treatment for it, please do! It can definitely steal your life.

Other things I can think of that might contribute: Covid aftereffects / long Covid; shift in diet/exercise/self-care; shift in body/brain chemistry. Aging can do it too (and is notorious for that), but IMO you're not so old that I would expect it to.

Hugs and Tugs! Hope you can find some relief - sooner rather than later!

It's definitely worth considering flying into Ontario, CA airport if you're going to Palm Springs and/or LA. It's way over on the east side of LA, so you're already part way to PS, and tends to have significantly cheaper flights than PS.

16 hours ago, Guest50 said:

Did his hand have an open cut when the blood got on it?

16 hours ago, marcum said:

there must have been a direct contact between cum and blood, the doctors say

Sorry; somehow my description didn't make that key fact clear. My buddy had a hangnail (tear in the skin at the corner of a fingernail, a very common thing). The blood got onto that.

16 hours ago, marcum said:

(any of you into (m)preg risk?)

That topic doesn't belong here in the health forums. However, there is a topic thread on exactly that in the Softcore Fetish forum:

5 hours ago, leatherpunk16 said:

Let's speculate a little.

... a small amount can enter the other man's urethra, thus completing the transfer.

Is that possible? 

OK: possible, but let's say it's HIGHLY speculative. Remember that just getting HIV on you, or even in you, is not enough to result in infection. Sufficient virions have to encounter a very specific (and fairly rare) type of white blood cell, successfully bind to it, and infect it. The mucosal membranes are thinner than external skin, but they are still significant barriers, and it's not like T cells go wandering off into the spaces outside them. Receptive oral intercourse is a rather low risk of HIV transmission, and that's why. What you describe would be similarly low, only it's a lot harder to get cum into your urethra than into your mouth. It is obviously NOT a significant concern with regard to the OP's question.

Off the subject, with regard to highly unlikely events: I know a guy, for real (or at least I have no reason to doubt his claim), who caught HIV through a hangnail back in the '90s. He was at a gay festival weekend of some sort and was visiting a piercing shop. A poz guy was having his nipple pierced and the blood squirted out and somehow got on my buddy's hand. This kind of thing is possible, just so extremely unlikely that it completely isn't worth worrying about.

No. As everyone else here has stated, the chances are vanishingly small. HIV is actually pretty hard to catch.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you're exploring man-on-man sex and stepping outside your comfort zone. AWESOME! In the immortal words of Tom Lehrer: "Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared... BE PREPARED!"

In 21st-century terms, as many other topics here have explained, that means:

Remember that HIV, while serious, is by far the least transmissible of the various STI's running around out there, and some of them are quite unpleasant.

• Get on PrEP if you don't want to risk HIV. If you're not sharing needles or engaging in receptive anal intercourse, you're probably pretty safe without this one.
• Get your shots! HepA, HepB, mpox, meningitis, HPV. All of these are completely preventable.
• Get tested. Regularly. Gonorrhea, chlamydia, and especially syphilis are out there, and can be asymptomatic so you won't notice a thing. You don't want to be spreading them around, and we don't want you to, either.

A little elaboration: BZ is already built on top of an open source platform (like wordpress, but something else). However, the amount of additional structure on top of the forum framework is substantial (as you might imagine).  @rawTOP (the site owner and admin) has for quite some time now been working on a new site that is rebuilt from scratch. That site is already in beta testing. Therefore, modifications to the old site that involve much new engineering are probably not going to happen, but the suggestions are certainly welcome!

I'm moderately hairy all over, and like it that way (as well as in my partners - @Tanbbottom, I'd probably find you super hot in your natively hirsute state).

I've had crabs about half a dozen times, including at least once where I didn't actually have sexual contact (yes, you can catch these from a toilet seat). They are very easy to catch, but fortunately fairly easy to get rid of as well. I got prescription pyrethrins a few times, but they're also available over the counter, and in fact flea shampoo for dogs and cats is the same stuff exactly and works perfectly well (or does for me anyway). Make sure you leave it on a full 5-10 minutes! I find it's important to remove the nits (my fingernails seem to work better than a comb) and any lice that I can, as sometimes the insecticide only stuns them. Physically removing them is guaranteed. I used to have to treat twice on occasion, but since I started using this approach, I've not had any relapses.

On a related topic, scabies are ever so much nastier than crabs... they can affect you all over even if you're not that hairy, they itch like fury, and they are substantially harder to get rid of (read: coat your body with insecticidal lotion and leave it on for 8 hours, twice). Please, if you ever cross paths with them, exterminate them with extreme prejudice!!!

Keeping this short, I'd say "Western" rather than "American". Two factors come to my mind that I believe are likely to be responsible for the difference between Western ideas on homosexuality and those in other countries:

1. Cultural values, and in particular those regarding family structure, which vary pretty strongly between what I might describe as "major cultural divisions of humanity".

2. Judeochristian ideas regarding family roles and sex. Between Moses and St. Paul, those are IMO pretty thoroughly fucked up. Not that others aren't, but the JC versions specifically are what "gay" and "queer" culture is in opposition to.

On 5/26/2023 at 11:40 PM, minthulf said:

I will simply say: The thing you're suggesting, that's a crime against humanity; and mexico is in fact a signatory to those laws.

I like your post as far as it goes (I'm pretty sure having input to this discussion from someone who actually has the background to know real facts about it is a huge bonus)

I'm a bit confused about the part I quoted, only because @AlwaysOpen made several suggestions (although they appear to be intended to work together), it's not clear to me which of them you believe is "a crime against humanity", and why. I'd be appreciative if you would explain a bit more fully.

On 5/27/2023 at 10:29 PM, Eberhard001 said:

Please delete Eberhard001 account please. Thank you. 

Go back to the first page of the topic and read it. If you want your account deleted, you must follow those instructions.

54 minutes ago, Rillion said:

...other individuals come about their wealth is ways that did not include ever generating a large amount of income from their wages ...

...The most commonly mentioned of these are 'hedgefund managers' who in exchange for their work of running the fund receive a share of the funds profits ...

Absolutely true. My point was that most of the individuals in these categories actually do have some official employment, and that usually involves a salary. Those salaries are not small, even if the actual amounts money they receive in other ways are much much larger.

54 minutes ago, Rillion said:

But yes, tell me again how much undocumented immigrants cost us....

If you read my previous post, you'd have noticed that I'm very much of the opinion that immigrants, documented or otherwise, do not cost "us" substantially more than any other citizens - in fact, my belief is that they usually cost less.

On 1/7/2023 at 4:39 PM, BootmanLA said:

Meanwhile, plenty of rich people pay little or no social security taxes because they structure their income such that it's not "earned" income. Remember that interest earnings, dividends, capital gains, and so forth aren't taxed for social security purposes at all, because they're not "earned".

I'm dubious about this logic.  My understanding is a bit different: If people are actually "rich" (i.e. upper middle class or higher), while a large proportion of their income is not "earned" (and therefore incurs no social security tax), they usually have a fairly significant amount of "earned" income, on which they do pay social security tax. However, the amount of "earned" income that is subject to social security tax is capped at a fairly small number (in the low $100k's per year), so the capped amount of social security tax they pay on their total income (or even their "earned" income) becomes a very small percentage indeed.

Well! I've only read the OP's beginning to the thread so far, and I have to say that is not where I was expecting that post to go after reading the title. Interesting perspective, and that's an understatement.

On 12/30/2022 at 3:04 PM, hntnhole said:

I seem to be hearing some complaining about the "cost" of all the immigrants to US taxpayers, blah blah blah, and I have a potential solution.

As I try to do when considering issues of import, I ask myself "if X is true, then why is it true?"  

My contribution: In these days of Faux News and social media disinformation campaigns, I prefer first to ask the question:

"Is X true?"

I have yet to see anything much in the way of hard evidence that immigrants (or even immigrants from Latin America specifically) are a net cost to US taxpayers.

Not a known side effect of the drugs in Truvada. If the appearance of the symptom coincided with starting PrEP, here are possible connections you might want to get checked:

1. If you are taking blood thinners or medications or supplements that can have blood thinning effects, the Truvada might be boosting their effect because of a drug interaction. This group includes (in additional to actual blood thinners like warfarin and coumarin) a lot of common painkillers like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, as well as St. John's Wort.

2. It is possible (though not likely in this timeframe IMO) that the PrEP is causing issues with your liver or kidneys and the bruising is a side effect of that. You should be getting regular blood work to monitor for liver or kidney issues, though. If you are, I wouldn't worry about this one.

Of course, it is also possible that it is something completely unconnected that just happened to kick in about the same time.

Disclosure: I'm not a doctor or medical professional, I just know a lot about it; you should get medical advice from those people in preference to stuff you find on the internet.

57 minutes ago, relaxandchill101 said:

@moderator Please delete my profile as I no longer wish for my page to be in use

Go back to page 1 of the topic (using the convenient "<<" button provided). Read the instructions. Follow them. Otherwise, nothing will happen.

On 5/11/2023 at 5:07 PM, Olderkinkybiguy said:

On 5/11/2023 at 5:07 PM, Olderkinkybiguy said:

  On 8/15/2022 at 9:44 AM, ellentonboy said:

What I find concerning is that Quest Labs posts across your lab results HIV detected.

Then your actual viral load is less than 20, and your doctor tell you that you're undetectable.   Even the infectious disease specialist thinks it's confusing.....so what gives?  His explanation is that the labs are now so finite it can detect even the slightest trace of the virus.  However other patients who use Lab Corp don't have the "HIV detected" on their results. It's upsetting when you open the app and you see that message.  Ugh....

My lab is Quest and on my test results page, for the past couple of years, since I created my account, it just lists undetectable. The first two results showed a below 20 viral load. The last two results just states undetected with no value.

I’m by no means an expert or a medical professional, but it’s my understanding the test shows reactive or positive because the test checks for antibodies in your blood, not necessarily the virus. I know someone who has/had HEP-C and they get flagged every time they get tested, but the virus is still dormant in their system. I read an article where if an undetectable person was to perform an in home HIV test, they still will test positive because of the antibodies in our system. I agree, it’s very confusing. 
 

 meds. 

OK, here's how it works:

THERE ARE (AT LEAST) TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF HIV TEST.

There is an antibody test. Home tests (Oraquik) are this type. So are the ones that most clinics and doctors use for routine screening. This is the test people usually refer to when they say "poz" (you have tested "positive" for the antibodies). It detects the antibodies to HIV that your body makes when you are infected. Either you have them (if your body has had an immune reaction to an HIV infection) or you don't. Even if the HIV were to be completely removed from your body, you would still have them. This is why the Hep-C test shows positive even though it may be completely cleared. It is also why I test positive to Hep-A and Hep-B even though I've never had them. I had the vaccines, and those caused my body to generate an antibody response just as though it had actually been infected.

Then, there is a viral RNA test. This is the kind that tells you the "viral load". It measures the actual number of copies of viral RNA in one mL of your blood (approximately). The technology of these tests has improved over the years. They are currently capable of detecting 20 copies of RNA per mL. Anything less than that, and the signal is too small to read, so it is literally "undetectable". Some labs will report this as "< 20", and some will report it as "not detected". If you look at the actual test results, they will specify exactly what the valid range of measurement of the test is (in the results @Olderkinkybiguy posted above, this looks like "Reportable range: 20 copies/mL to 10,000,000 copies/mL").

For purposes of "U=U", the current state of the medical arts tells us that a blood virus level of anything lower than 200 copies per mL effectively lowers the chances of transmission by sexual intercourse to zero. Actually what it does is make them so small that they are unmeasurable given the amount of statistical data we have available. Practically, what it means is that your chances are much better of being hit by a truck [or insert improbability metaphor of your choice] than of catching it that way. This is how you can be "undetectable" even with a viral load of 20 copies/mL (which is in fact detectable with the sensitivity of modern tests).

Ain't science grand?

On 5/1/2023 at 9:02 PM, SoCalBBversbttm said:

The US has issued an advisory to not buy pharmaceutical drugs otc in Mexico.

This is not correct. The web site you linked specifically says that 2 members of Congress have sent a letter to the State Department asking them to do this. Whether the State Department has done so is explicitly excluded. However, (1) their concern appears to be based on fairly thin evidence and (2) there would be little conceivable purpose in adulterating antibiotics in this way.

I'll kick it off with this still - can anyone tell me a title/studio for this on with Drew Sebastian? He's a bit younger in it, so I guess it's from a decade back or so.

This topic is for posts in search of information about a full (professional) porn video, given a clip or still or some reasonable description.

Posts of this nature can be put here directly, and old ones may be merged into this thread (if I or another moderator gets time).

You are encouraged to respond with the name, studio, and optionally dates and stars, of the video in question. If you include a link, please link to a legitimate online source for the video. Remember, folks, we want to support the porn industry (or at least the better players in it), so they keep making this stuff. Because making it yourself is a LOT OF WORK!

Well, this topic is very timely for me! I'm sure this has happened a few times in the past, but as luck would have it, the most recent was only yesterday (literally)!

I was absolutely horned AF yesterday, cruising on Grindr and not really expecting anything, as I had a work meeting scheduled for 5pm and wouldn't really have time to get out to meet anyone before it. Spotted this cute ginger cub I hadn't seen before, only about 20 miles away (that's close by for here), with several public pics (kudos!). Gave him a compliment ("very sexy"), not thinking too much of it. He came back almost immediately with mutual interest and was really hot to play. In fact, he wanted to come over right away. Well, it was only about 2:30 and I figured "why the hell not? when the Goddess gives you a gift, you say 'YES'! "

So I give him address and directions, and he got here (after a slight detour for getting lost, because Google). Absolutely as cute as his pics and totally revved up and rarin' to go! He got his clothes off in record time, hopped on the bed on his hands and knees with his butt (a very cute butt it is!) all ready for eating. So I ate him out a bit, and then fucked him good and proper. Had the poppers handy, so he had some and I had some and before you know it I was unloading deep inside him. Plowed it into him and "churned the cream" (his words) for a while until I went soft. A very hot fuck.

As he's getting dressed, I suddenly have this feeling I've seen him before somewhere. So I asked if we had ever met. He said "no", so I wrote it off to deja vu. He was in a hurry to get home, so he had a quick wash at the sink and hit the road.

About 2 minutes after I closed the door behind him, my brain suddenly coughed up the detail on where I'd seen him. He and I had exchanged messages (and maybe a phone call) about 10 years ago when I was trying to find a job (at the time I was in the same - rather narrow - scientific field as he is, and his company would have been a very appropriate fit). So I had seen his picture on LinkedIn. I remember thinking at that time that he was super cute and it would kind of suck having him for a boss because I would be tempted all the time.

Small world, indeed.

Absolutely HATE the whole idea. NOBODY owns my ass but me. Nor my dick either. Not even my fiancé. And the idea that anyone would assert such ownership without so much as a nod to dialog or negotiation is repugnant. Further to that, my impression is that many of the guys who consider themselves "alpha" tops, or who are territorial, jealous, possessive, controlling, etc., have serious self-esteem problems and I don't want them anywhere near me... but if they do decide to tangle with me, and start to play that card, NOTHING brings out my top side faster.

I'm pretty sure there are some members who actually believe they were infected pre-1980 (and kudos to them for their tenacity in making it through those many years when meds were not what they are today!). I'll let them comment here themselves if they see fit.

Oh, such a delightful little twist at the end! And just for fun 🙂

On 5/13/2023 at 2:09 AM, JamesL100 said:

Had an unwanted comment on my profile but can't see how to delete it. I guess it will drop off with my activity?

You can't delete posts by other members (even ones on your own activity feed). If you have problems with a post on your activity feed, report it (button in the upper right corner) and a moderator will take care of it. You can set your activity so that others cannot post on it, but it's all or nothing, so it's not super helpful. All these things are features of the platform on which BZ is built (which is third-party software), so the site owner doesn't have control over them.