Sex can provide you with satisfaction and pleasure and is deemed to be good for your health. Women will find that sex is an excellent way of reducing their emotional stress levels and it also serves as a bonding experience that can be great for strengthening relationships. Most importantly, sex is fun and something your body needs every now and then. However, this doesn’t mean that it comes without risks. You become vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), which can cause physical, mental and emotional discomfort. You can even become infertile due to an STD due to which it is essential to protect yourself.
STDs can cause chronic pelvic pain that can impact your sex life as well as your everyday life. Sex will no longer be enjoyable for you and rather than being a source of pleasure, it will become a chore you just have to do. It is true that the risk of sexually transmitted diseases increase when you have sex with more people, but you are not completely safe even when you are having sex with the same person. For instance, women need to keep an eye on their husbands to ensure they are not cheating and sleeping around as this puts increases the chances of them becoming susceptible to an STD. A lot of people spy on their cheating spouse to find out the truth. You can’t blame them. In fact, there are people who also look into the possibility of downloading a monitoring software on their partner’s phone when nothing else works for them.
Does this mean you have to abstain from sex altogether? Definitely not. There are some simple steps you can take and protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases and they are listed below:
Get yourself properly vaccinated
Currently, you can protect yourself from two types of STDs by getting vaccinated and they are hepatitis and human papillomavirus (HPV). Gardasil and Cervarix are the two vaccines you need for protection against HPV. HPV 16 and 18 ae responsible for most cases of cervical cancer and Cervarix can protect against them whereas Gardasil protects from HPV that can often lead to genital warts. These vaccines are most effective if you get them done just when you have started having sex. There is also a vaccine for Hepatitis B you should get.
Always practice safe sex
The most effective way to protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases is by practicing safe sex. This can keep you safe from diseases that spread due to infected secretions. While it is true that a condom cannot protect you against STDs that are transmitted through skin contact, it does mitigate the risk to some extent. When you are constantly using protection such as condoms, you are keeping yourself safe from transmission of diseases through sexual acts like oral, vaginal and anal sex. Bear in mind that diseases such as HPV, syphilis and herpes can also be transmitted through oral sex.
Go for testing
You can reduce the long term consequences associated with an infection by getting yourself tested from sexually transmitted diseases. For instances, a bacterial disease like gonorrhea can cause numerous complications, which eventually lead to infertility. Moreover, it is not just you who should make an appointment for getting tested for STDs; talk to your husband and you both should go in together for the tests. In this way, both of you are ensuring that you are not putting your partner at risk. As long as you get tested from time to time, it will enable you to maintain control and keep yourself safe. Bear in mind that STDs can affect people of any age and the risk is greater if you have a new partner.
Go for a pap smear regularly
When you go for health checkup, don’t ever avoid getting a pap smear because it can be helpful in detecting signs of cervical cancer. It is possible to treat precancerous changes before they become a major problem. HPV is the primary reason behind most cases of cervical cancer and getting vaccinated and practicing safe sex is the way to prevent this. However, there are several types of HPV and not all are covered through the vaccines due to which pap smears are of the utmost importance. Not doing so could leave cervical cancer undetected, which is very invasive and can have a negative impact on your fertility and sex life.
Most experts will say that the only surefire way of protecting yourself from sexually transmitted diseases is by not indulging in sex at all, but the fact is that it is often indispensable, especially if you want to enjoy your life. Therefore, it is necessary for you to take the necessary precautions outlined above as they enable you to get the benefits of sex without putting yourself in harm’s way. Furthermore, when it comes to STDs, you should not pay attention to the taboos associated with them and don’t feel ashamed at all when it comes to getting the tests done as it is better to be safe than sorry.