Safer Sex
What is Safer Sex (safe sex)?
Safer sex is all about protecting yourself and your partners from sexually transmitted infections. Safer sex helps you stay healthy and can even make sex better.
How does safer sex help protect me from HIV?
HIV infections can be passed from one person to another during sexual activity. Anybody who has oral sex, anal sex, vaginal sex, genital skin-to-skin contact, or who shares sexual fluids with another person can get HIV. Safer sex (often called “safe sex”) means taking steps to protect yourself and your partner from HIV when you have sex.
There are lots of ways you can make sex safer. One of the best ways is by using a barrier — like condoms, internal condoms, PrEP dental dams, and/or latex or nitrile gloves — every single time you have oral, anal, or vaginal sex, or do anything that can pass sexual fluids (like sharing sex toys). Barriers protect you and your partner from sexual fluids and some skin-to-skin contact, which can both spread STDs.
Getting tested for HIV regularly is also part of safer sex, even if you always use barriers like condoms and feel totally fine. Most people with HIV don’t have symptoms or know they’re infected, and they can easily pass the infection to their partners. So testing is the only way to know for sure whether or not someone has HIV.
Getting tested also protects you by letting you know if you DO have HIV , so you can get the right treatment to stay healthy and avoid giving it to other people.
Sticking to sexual activities that don’t spread STDs — like outercourse or mutual masturbation (masturbating while with each other) — is a great way to safely get sexual pleasure and be intimate with another person. But if you’re taking off underwear and touching each other, sharing sexual fluids, or having any kind of sex, using barriers is the safer way to go.
