Gay men versus condoms. Where are we at?
Our sexual health education has had to evolve.
Let's talk about condoms.
While we can avoid transmission of HIV through PrEP and TasP, what about other STIs?
Hepatitis A, B, and C
While condoms reduce the risk of contracting Hepatitis, they really only protect you against Hep B as it’s mostly spread through blood and sexual contact.
Hep A and Hep C are generally transmitted in two different ways. To get Hep A you need to ingest faecal molecules - easily done through rimming or any other way your mouth comes into contact with someone’s ass such as fingering, unwashed hands, or ass-to-mouth.
Hep C transmission happens mainly through injecting drugs, and rarely through sex.
For both Hep A and Hep B there’s a vaccine which is a lot more reliable from of protection than condoms.
Although there is no known vaccine for Hep C, there is effective treatment. Plus, many people clear the infection without medication.
Herpes (Human Simplex Virus)
Herpes spreads through skin contact, which renders condoms useless in protecting you against it. Although herpes is incurable and may be painful during break-outs, it isn’t actually dangerous and for most people the breakouts are rare.
Most sexually active adults contract HSV-1 (cold sore) or HSV-2 (genital herpes), but because routine sexual health screenings don’t include a herpes test, many people just never find out. Why waste time and resources on something that’s inevitable, negligible and likely to cause unnecessary distress?
You may be thinking - “okay, but cold sores and genital herpes are surely not the same” - and you would be right. Strictly speaking, they’re just cousins. But there’s a twist. Most of the herpes appearing in genital areas is the cold sore virus transferred from non-genital areas.
HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)
Moving on to HPV (the wart virus). Transmission wise, pretty much the same story - condoms won't protect you. However, unlike herpes, HPV is not something to take lightly - it can cause cancer. The great news is that although condoms are ineffective here, there is a vaccine that protects you against HPV.
Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, and Syphilis
What about the bacterial infections - chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis? Well, condoms are very good at preventing anal transmission - particularly when you’re the one getting fucked.
But, to avoid bacterial STIs altogether, you’d have to forget about sucking, rimming, and kissing - they can all result in transmission. Some recent studies indicate that kissing is the number one cause of oral gonorrhoea and chlamydia.
The good news here is that all three of these are easily treatable, and don’t cause complications - as long as they’re detected early.
Plus, there's now a vaccine that provides protection against gonorrhoea.
The conclusion on condoms
Condoms aren't particularly effective at preventing the transmission or acquisition of STIs.
That shouldn't put you off using them, if you want to, but they're not some silver bullet keeping you safe - you're still going to need to get regularly tested for the full range of STIs.
The NSFW edition
If you want to admire some man-on-man action, our NSFW edition gives you every inch.
Sign in and check out our NSFW content - it's free!
Gaydar
