A service provided by the BC Centre for Disease Control
In the years since SmartSexResource launched, we have developed a library of questions asked by you, and answered by our expert sexual health nurses.
Our answered questions library cover a broad range of sexual health topics and common questions we hear at our clinics.
Hi
There are a couple different ways in which HIV medication can be used to reduce the chance of having HIV pass to you
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is when you take HIV medication after being exposed to HIV. To be effective, the treatment needs to be started within 72 hours of exposure to HIV and taken correctly over the next 28 days.
Health initiative for men (HIM) has a good web page on PEP with information on how it works and where you can get it.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is when you take HIV medication on a daily basis before you are exposed to HIV to reduce your chance of getting HIV.
Health initiative for men (HIM) has a good web page on PrEP with information on how it works and how to get it in BC.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
Yours is a very common concern.
There are a few things that you can do that may lower your risk of getting HPV.
First, use condoms during sex. This will lower the risk of HPV passing. However, condoms will not protect you completely. HPV can be found anywhere in the genital area and if your partner has it in an area that is not covered by the condom, the virus could still be passed to you.
Second, get vaccinated against HPV. The vaccine protects you against the two strains of HPV that cause most genital warts and will also protect against the strains of HPV that cause most types of cancer related to this family of viruses. The problem with the vaccine is that it takes a minimum of 7 months before you will have the maximum protection and so that would mean no sex until then. The vaccine will not protected you against strains of the virus that you may all ready have.
So what to do?
Know that:
– HPV is a very common virus. 70-80% of adults will have at least one HPV infection in their life. You may all ready been exposed to the strain of HPV your partner has and not know it because you did not develop warts.
– Most people who have HPV will never know they were exposed to the virus and will experience no health issues related to it.
– The strains of HPV that cause warts are not the same as those that can lead to some types of rare cancers.
– Your partner will eventually clear the virus, which means that he will not be able to pass it to you. If he was treated for warts in January and has not noticed any other warts since, this may have all ready happened.
– If you do develop warts, they can be removed quite easily.
All interactions between people have some risk related to them and sex is no different. HPV is like many viruses that pass through contact with other people; the difference is that it can affect our genitals so we tend to consider it more serious.
Check out our page on HPV and genital warts and the resources listed there if you would like more information.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.
Yes, it is possible to pass Gonorrhea and/or Chlamydia by rubbing a guy’s penis against your vagina.
If a guy has either of these infections, the bacteria can live in the urethra (the tube that leads from his bladder to the end of his penis). The bacteria can be pushed out of his penis and onto the outside of a woman’s vagina during rubbing either in the pre-cum that men produce when they are sexually excited or in the discharge that some men have when the bacteria is there. Once the bacteria is on the skin outside the vagina it can be pushed inside after the condom goes on or if any fingers or toys are inserted into the vagina. If these bacteria get into the vagina they can cause an infection.
Condoms are a great way to reduce the risk of passing Gonorrhea and Chlamydia during sex, but it is because these infections are quite easy to pass around that we recommend regular testing for anyone who is sexually active (even if you are always using condoms).
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.
Erotic massage is considered a relatively safe activity when it comes to passing STIs.
There are some infections that you still have to be aware of that can be passed through skin to skin contact. These are Herpes, Syphilis, Molluscum Contagiosum and HPV. These are most often passed through oral to genital or genital to genital contact but there is a small risk that these infections could pass through oral to skin or genital to skin contact; In other words, if a person who has the herpes virus on their genitals is rubbing their genitals against the skin on your leg the virus could pass to you. This is not typically how we see these infections being passed but there are cases where it has happened.
To make massage safer, avoid contact with the genitals or the mouth of the person giving you the massage.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.
Hi
It is possible that infections like HIV, hepatitis B & C can be transmitted if someone was poked by a needle that had some blood on it.
These infections will not live for long when they are outside the body so it really depends on how long the needle was there before you got poked. HIV does not survive for very long when it is outside the body but hepatitis B & C can survive for a period of time on a needle. In most cases not more than a few days but really depends on things like quantity of blood, type of needle, temperature, humidity etc…
Most of the time when someone gets HIV, hepatitis B or C they do not get any symptoms, given this the only way to find out if something has been passed to you is by going for a test. As it has been 3 months since this has happened I would recommend going to see a health professional about getting a test. Three months is a long enough window period for these tests to be accurate.
If someone gets poked with a used needle the best thing to do is.
– Allow the wound to bleed freely and then cover lightly.
– Do not promote bleeding by cutting or squeezing the skin.
– Do not apply bleach to the wound or soak it in bleach.
– Go straight away to see a health professional for a risk assessment, the best place to go is usually the emergency department.
The reason it is best to go straight away for a risk assessment is because if there is a concern that HIV or hepatitis B has been passed to you. There is some medication you can get to reduce the chance of this happening ,but you need to take the medication within a certain time frame.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.
Hi
I am not sure if I understand your question correctly but I will answer the question as if you asked does hand washing prevent gonorrhea. Let me know if I got the question wrong.
Gonorrhea can be in the urethra (pee tube), throat, vagina or rectum and can be passed when having oral, vaginal or rectal sex. It is common that people do not get symptoms when gonorrhea is in the throat, vagina and rectum.
Hand washing may be helpful in preventing gonorrhea in certain situations for example having sex with multiple people and a hand is used on one person’s genitals and then transferred to another persons. It may also help if the person is using their hand to masturbate and then use’s the same hand to sexually stimulate someone else.
Have a look at our “Know your chances” web page, it provides information on your chances of getting or passing an STI depending on how you are having sex.
It is also common that many STI do not show symptoms, given this we recommend that people go for STI testing. How often you get STI testing really depends on your personal situation. Have a look at our page on when to test.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.
Hi there,
If used correctly, condoms are extremely effective at preventing HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Condoms prevent fluids from transferring between partners, so they are great at stopping these kinds of infections that are passed in body fluids. Condoms can be less effective at preventing STIs like herpes, warts and syphilis that are transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, but they still do give some protection by covering some (but not all) of the skin on the genitals that touches during sex.
Using condoms is a key part of having safer sex. We also suggest getting tested regularly, talking to your partners about getting tested, or going to get tested together when you start a new relationship. Lowering the amount of partners you have can also lower the possibilities of being exposed to an STI.
Hope that helps answer your question,
Health Nurse
When choosing a condom to prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections, it is important to know what the condom is made of.
Condoms made of Latex, nitrile, polyurethane and polyisoprene give the best STI protection (this includes HIV). The condom you mentioned is made of latex and though the box did not mention HIV specifically, since it is made of latex, these condoms will lower your risk of being infected with HIV.
Good for you for checking the package of your condoms as some condoms are sold as novelty items and may not protect against STIs. Also, remember to do regular STI testing if you are sexually active even if you are using condoms all of the time.
Look at our Condoms page if you would like more information about the use of condoms.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful
Thank you for your questions. The answer will depend on a few things: First, if you are a man or woman receiving oral, second, if you are using any protection during oral sex and third, what kind of oral sex you are having.
We have developed a Know your chances chart that breaks it all down for you. Please check out our Oral Sex Chart and leave a comment if you need more information, clarification or have more questions.
As with all sexual activity, if you are receiving oral sex, consider testing regularly for STIs. Our Find a clinic feature will help you locate a clinic in your area.
Health Nurse
Hi
We know that washing your hands helps from passing on other infections like the common cold.
I haven’t seen any research studies that show that washing your hands before sex would lower the risk of passing an STI. But it would make sense that washing your hands before touching someone’s genitals (especially if you were touching your genitals or someone else’s), may help.
Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.