What's the big deal about "just once"? The big deal is that unless the person you are with has NEVER before been intimate with another partner, you are not exposing yourself to "just" one person. When you get together with "Justin" (insert the appropriate name here!), you are actually hooking up with all of Justin's former partners, AND everyone THOSE partners have been with, and SO ON, and SO ON! Think of it as a pyramid. This is the number one reason that you can catch an STD from "just once", because once might mean once, but usually means five, ten, fifty or a hundred.
I had a patient last year who had three direct contacts, but after we discovered she had positive tests for not only Chlamydia, but also HIV, we went back and did the math. Her first boyfriend had around ten previous partners, the second had closer to twenty, and the third was around twenty. Therefore, my patient had been exposed to at least FIFTY, and what are the odds that those fifty were all "virgins" (meaning no prior sexual contact of any type)? Gee, I'm guessing none! So, with only three partners, my patient had effectively been with over a hundred other people.
BOTTOM LINE: When you are sexually intimate with one person, you are exposed to everyone they have hooked up with in their past, AND those partners' former partners, AND so on!
1 comment:
Okay, I don't speak Chinese, but my online translator says this means "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." An appropriate comment- let's not fear STDs but instead, arm ourselves with knowledge.
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