Hiv Isn't The Only Std

[RideMyBlkDik]

What about the other STD's?  Like gonorrhea, syphilis, etc.  So much attention is given to HIV. Yet I contracted gonorrhea twice in the past 12 months.  I visit lots of sex parties and bathhouses.  And I am a total top who never use condoms.  As a well endowed uncut black man, many guys at BH and parties want to get my seed.  My question is: are there ways of minimizing my chances of contracting a sexually transmitted disease like gonorrhea or syphilis?

 

With the over abundance of  information about HIV on this site, I wonder if we are forgetting about other STD's.  Even though antibiotics are readily and easily available to cure STD's, I found it mentally draining to deal with the symptoms and medication both times that I contracted gonorrhea.

 

Are there preventive methods that I should be using to minimize my chances of contracting STD's (that's not HIV)?

[jtonic]

Unfortunately, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis are easy to catch these days, compared to HIV. As a top, the most common infections are gono/chlam (infected through urethra), followed by throat gono if you perform oral. If you actively seek and enjoy bare sex like the rest of us, the truth is "you risk contracting the same or a new STI every time you have unprotected sex and/or have sex with someone who has that STI" (this is a quote straight from the CDC). Risk reduction methods for gay men like us mostly amount to the following :

 

- choose your partner(s) more thoughtfully (hard to do if you attend sex parties and bathhouses)

- openly discuss STI prevention with your partner(s)

- get tested often, detect early, and treat immediately

 

I think it's just something you need to get used to.

It's the trade-off for having really hot/sleazy sex. 

Whether the trade-off is worth it, or needs adjustment, is up to each person.

[bearbandit]

In the late seventies when I worked with what was then London Gay Switchboard, we had a policy of reminding male callers to have a checkup for STIs every three months "whether you think you need it nor not", and also to hightail it to the clinic at the first suspicion that there was something awry. Guys who are more erm... popular might want to make their clinic trips more frequent. Remember that a number of STIs can be totally or near-totally asymptomatic: especially in the ass or throat. Doesn't mean they're not there, though. In 1980 I went to the clinic with a rash that I thought was secondary syphilis (the initial chancre, I reasoned, would have been up my ass where it went unnoticed. Years later we figure out it was seroconversion illness. Making clinic attendance regular and "whether you think you need it or not" is one thing from the seventies that needs to be revived.

It's worth noting that condoms aren't necessarily a help in stopping STIs: some (eg syphilis and herpes) can be transmitted by mere skin contact. And everything you can catch up your ass you can catch in your mouth (except the chances of HIV, whose transmission is practically zero by this root, and I still look sideways at claims of oral transmission: too often they're part of "nice boys don't take it up the ass")

Difficult to tell who's got what (and they very often don't know themselves), so any sort of sorting on the basis of looks/recent experience is pretty pointless. Rely instead on regular testing and immediate treatment - and if you're prescribed antibiotics, take the full course. The idea is to get every last microbe dead, rather than just to free you of symptoms, which happens well before the treatment is finished.

 

[HereInLondon]

As a top, not cumming in the guy's arse might help reduce your risks of picking up STIs.

Turns out that when you cum inside a guy the force of the ejaculate leaving your cock creates a vacuum in the urethral tube which then sucks 'stuff' from the guy's arse into your cock.

How fucking horrific is that.

This is something I've only heard once - can't think of any time I've read it in any safe sex pamphlets or anything like that - heard it from one of the nurse practitioners at the clinic I go to.  When he told me, I could picture a slow motion video feed from one of those medical cameras stuck up into a guy's rectum.  Big close up in slow mo of a cock ejaculating in there, white spunk being blown everywhere, then immediately followed by the cock sucking up 'arse stuff' like a Hoover. I did think at the time, how many more ways can nature rain on the barebacking parade?

 

You could try using coconut oil as lube.

It's supposed to be very good at preventing infection, a few guys I know have mentioned that.

Also, drinking a lot of cranberry juice is supposed to help with urinary tract infections.

Both are probably something worth giving a go, but not something you'd base your whole sexual health strategy on (see the other replies for that).

 

 

 

 

[hungry_hole]

One of the reasons that I'm not interested in PrEP is that it only protects against HIV. If PrEP protected me against other infections I would try to see how I tolerate the drug. Plus,I know that if I were on PrEP I would have more anon sex, increasing the odds of catching other infections.

[RideMyBlkDik]

At best the 4 replies so far have been tepid. Am I to believe that only 4 members and myself have had STD's other than HIV?  Why do gay men find it so hard to talk about this topic?  Gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia rates are on the rise, so says the CDC. I raised the topic and shared my personal experience of contracting gonorrhea twice in the past 12 months because I need help.  And I need help in understanding the following:

Gonorrhea significantly slowed down my sex life (because by the time I knew something was wrong, got to the clinic, took the medication for so many days, then waited more days after fully taking all the pills; about 4 to 5 weeks went by where I did not have any sex)...so how has any STD slowed down your sex life?

Have you ever continued barebacking when you knew you were infected with an STD?

How often have you had any STD's? (Like I said, I contracted gonorrhea twice in the past 12 months)

Do you or can you do anything to minimize your chances of contracting STD's?

 

More and more I am convinced that STD's other than HIV is a taboo subject for many gay men.  Gay men would rather talk about HIV and AIDS but are silent when it comes to their personal experiences with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, etc. Why is this such a forbidden topic?

[hungry_hole]

More and more I am convinced that STD's other than HIV is a taboo subject for many gay men.  Gay men would rather talk about HIV and AIDS but are silent when it comes to their personal experiences with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, etc. Why is this such a forbidden topic?

I don't think other STDs are a taboo but something you have to put up with if we want to have sex. I agree that other STD should also be in the minds of guys who have sex with men, but then what?

 

The worry about other STDs is the use of antibiotics. Antibiotics resistance is something that has been in the news.

[drscorpio]

I just don't feel like there is much to say about bacterial STIs - You get tested, and if you picked something up, you take your meds. 

 

I don't know there is anything you can do to avoid them other than using condoms and being more selective about your fucking. 

[FillMyArse]

"My question is: are there ways of minimizing my chances of contracting a sexually transmitted disease like gonorrhea or syphilis?

Are there preventive methods that I should be using to minimize my chances of contracting STD's (that's not HIV)?"

 

Quite frankly, if you're gonna bareback then nope! And like BearBandit says, even when/if you did wrap up there's always still a chance of getting something anyway.

 

I've had gono at least twice, syphillis once (was suspected a 2nd time but they just gave me pills rather than the butt jabs again - it always appears as positive after your initial infection so once you've had it once, the labs have to do extra work to see if you've been re-infected). To be honest, I'm surprised I've not had them more often! Oh, and I had crabs once... pesky little things they were!!!! 

 

I'm also currently HepC+ and that's something you're really gonna worry about if you're worried about or already have HIV.

[HereInLondon]

As one of your four "tepid" respondents (thanks for that, man), let me add...

 

Like drscorpio said, maybe there isn't much to say about bacterial STIs.

On the occasions were I have picked up an infection, after a couple of weeks I feel I've already talked the situation to death; not only the visits and follow-up phone calls with the clinic, but reaching out to all the guys I've had sex with (and whose contact details I have) who fall within the 'danger zone' of possible infection. 

I don't think it's a "forbidden topic", it's just, y'know, crap to deal with.

Nobody wants to get a phonecall/text/email/online message telling them to go and get checked out, probably even treated as a precaution, but the overwhelming majority of guys I've had to contact in those circumstances have been grateful of the courtesy.  I'm the same (and hope to keep being the same) when someone's good enough to contact me when they're in that shitty situation.

 

You say about going to bathhouses and parties, I might be wrong but those sound like mostly 'anonymous' places to have sex. When you picked up gonorrhea those two times, did you, or were you able to, contact the guys you'd been with? Did any of the guys you'd been with have your contact details if they were diagnosed with an infection and wanted to reach out to you?

I don't mean those questions to be about the right or wrong of anonymous shags, or the right or wrong of deciding whether or not to contact past hook-ups about an infection. I'm just wondering if you've had to deal with having those conversations about infections.

 

The most I've been knocked out of action with an STI (treatment) is two weeks.

I used the quarantine time to catch up on my wanking.

 

On a slightly more personal note, RideMyBlkDik, looking back thru the posts you've made on the site, you mainly ask for things (advice, recommendations), and then ask again for more. You might want to give a little as well.  And appreciate what you've already been offered.

 

[RideMyBlkDik]

I am thankful for all the responses so far.  In particular HereInLondon, I thank you for your honesty and candid views on the topic.  Just a note, I have 2 friends (who do not know each other) who are both HIV positive and I tried to have this discussion about STD's with them and here's what they told me:

Friend number one, who is a total bottom and who cannot get enough loads in his hole, informed me that he has NEVER had any STD's in his entire life (except for HIV).  I do know for a fact that he takes multiple anonymous loads all the time.  He sometimes advertises online inviting all tops to his pump and dump parties where he's the only bottom. Yeah, he has an insatiable need to get lots of strangers' cum inside him (both orally and anally).  I do not believe that he has any reason at all to lie to me. He's 38 years old.  I have known him for several years and never caught him in a lie. Could he possibly be telling me the truth? I guess anything is possible.

Friend number 2 is currently an escort in New York City.  He is a total strict top and a former bareback porn star. I reached out to him when I got my first diagnosis of gonorrhea.  I wanted to know if he could relate and give me some advice....especially since he frequents raw sex parties and bathhouses like I do.  It was then, for the first time, he told me that he is HIV positive. More importantly he told me then that he doesn't contract any other STD's because of the medication he takes for HIV.  Yes, he said his HIV medication prevents him from contracting any other STD's.  Just like Friend # 1, this Friend #2 has absolutely no reason to lie to me. However, a little over a week ago, I asked a doctor who treats lots of HIV patients in NYC if HIV medication can prevent men from contracting other STD's....and she said that's absolutely impossible.

 

So based on the ambivalent and confusing information I was getting, I came here, to this web site; hoping to get some clarity.  Hoping that I can learn from the experiences of others.  If as gay men, we were silent about HIV and AIDS as it ravaged the gay community in the 80's and 90's, then I honestly don't believe we would be enjoying the rapid advances of medical science in treating the disease...to the extent where today a diagnosis of HIV is no longer a death sentence.  That's just my opinion.  By the same token, I honestly believe that our silence about gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, etc. will do us more harm than good in the long run.  Progress can start when we are willing to share our own personal experiences in a forum like this.  Here we can separate facts from fiction. Here we can learn from each other. I would like to think of this web site as a judgement-free zone for gay barebackers like myself.

 

Discussion about STD's (other than HIV) is at worst a taboo topic; and at the very least the topic is uncomfortable for gay men to face fearlessly. Again, I am thankful for all who have shared so far.

[drscorpio]

I have been an active bareback bottom for 14 of the last 20 years (husband and I were monogamous the first 6 years of our relationship). I have taken hundreds and hundreds of loads. In that time, I have had syphilis once and taken precautionary antibiotics for gonorrhea after being told I was exposed once. Your first friend like me might just be lucky. 

[andrewguestz1939]

Im waiting for an appointment get syph sorted out I can see the spots etc on my arms leg cock etc nasty sxxx ☹️ and I know I'll get a lecture from sti,clinic to abstain 

[LKMike]

I think everyone who is having anonymous bb sex should be expecting to get a bacterial sti. Statistically it's going to happen.  That's why you get tested regularly. I have gone years without catching anything, then had chlamydia and gonorrhea in my ass twice in a year. Once it's going around in your town or city, if you bb in that pool, chances are your going to get it, and chances are you are going to give it to someone between testing. My clinic warned me to use a condom or be more selective, or I would be infected again as it was in town and rampantly going around the bb community. I don't think it's taboo. It's just common sense and mostly common knowledge.  A porn star really thought hiv medication prevented STDs? Really! 

[hornycumslut91]

On 11/15/2015 at 12:52 AM, jtonic said:

Unfortunately, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis are easy to catch these days, compared to HIV. As a top, the most common infections are gono/chlam (infected through urethra), followed by throat gono if you perform oral. If you actively seek and enjoy bare sex like the rest of us, the truth is "you risk contracting the same or a new STI every time you have unprotected sex and/or have sex with someone who has that STI" (this is a quote straight from the CDC). Risk reduction methods for gay men like us mostly amount to the following :

 

- choose your partner(s) more thoughtfully (hard to do if you attend sex parties and bathhouses)

- openly discuss STI prevention with your partner(s)

- get tested often, detect early, and treat immediately

 

I think it's just something you need to get used to.

It's the trade-off for having really hot/sleazy sex. 

Whether the trade-off is worth it, or needs adjustment, is up to each person.

I couldn't have said it better.