Reducing STD Risk

Can you enjoy an active sex life and still be well protected against sexually transmitted diseases? By adopting healthy habits—some intuitive, some not—and avoiding a few dangerous behaviors, you can greatly reduce your STD risk. Here are nine important changes to make.

1. Don't decide about sex when under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Just as you wouldn't endanger yourself or a friend by getting behind the wheel, don't make sexual decisions when your judgment may be impaired. If your singles scene is one in the same with the bar scene, this can be a difficult guideline to follow. But under the influence of drugs or alcohol, people tend to relax their own rules and standards. In such a state one is more likely to choose the "wrong" partner—especially an anonymous one—and less likely to use protection.

Drugs and sex mix together in an even more dangerous cocktail when one partner has HIV or hepatitis B. Both of these blood-borne illnesses can be contracted by needle and then passed along through sexual contact, or vice versa.

2. Think ahead.

On a great date or a fun night out with friends, it's easy to be taken adrift by waves of adrenaline, intoxication, or passion. If you decide ahead of time what you will and will not do—and perhaps tell a friend who can look out for you—your good judgment may come to the rescue later in the night. Thinking ahead goes hand in hand with No. 1 ("Don't make decisions under the influence").

3. Have a candid discussion with your partner.

Information is protection. While this may not be the sexiest notion out there, it's invaluable to know everything your partner knows about his or her sexual health—bearing in mind that a person could be infected with HIV, HPV or herpes without knowing it.

Granted, initiating such a conversation is awkward.

"People can get defensive about this, so make it a two-way conversation—not a lecture or monologue," advises Fred Wyand, media and communications manager at the American Social Health Association (ASHA). "Insist on using protection, and if the issue of testing comes up then it's something both partners can do. The reality is that STDs can affect anyone regardless of number of partners, so it's not a question of sleeping around."

If you manage the situation well and your partner is still not mature enough to have the conversation, you may want to rethink the sex. Also, it's hard to establish much trust on a one-night stand—another reason to use protection or resist anonymous encounters altogether.

4. Decrease the number of sexual partners.

"People most commonly think that by having two partners instead of one, they will only double their chances of contracting an STD. But that is dramatically incorrect at the population level," says Dr. Douglas Kirby, a veteran research scientist at ETR Associates, a nonprofit health education organization.

We don't add risk with each new partner—we multiply it. How can this be? Think back to Sex Ed 101, where we learned that we "sleep with everyone our partner sleeps with." According to a nationwide survey released in 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the median number of sexual partners over a lifetime is seven for men and four for women. With a first encounter we make our debut into that sexual network.