I’ve always been curious to know if SPs that only have sex with heterosexual men or heterosexual women take PrEP for HIV on a regular basis, meaning during all the period of their lives they are offering services. BTW, I’ve only mentioned those two types of clients as PrEP is usually taken by men or trans woman having anal sex with other men or trans women. But as an SP, you can never know with who your client could have had sex with, every group having different risk factors, so in my view, taking PrEP would be a prudent thing to do. But all this is only an assumption on my part, that’s why I’m asking the question.
BTW, I really enjoy DATY and would find sex a bit boring without it and using a dental dam to reduce the risk is not something I’m willing to do as it would take away all the enjoyment of doing that. Even DFK exposes you to catching something, even if just a cold or the flu, both of which are not fun and easy to catch in regular daily activities, but of course have less of a health risk than other things you could catch while doing that, even if the risk is smaller.
As far as HPV, there is no diagnostic test for men, like a PAP smear for women and even if your body usually takes care of it by itself in a few weeks or months, genital warts come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and can be very difficult sometimes to detect or notice. They CAN look like something unusual and in that case, can be detected « easily », but sometimes it can look like a beauty mark or just a harmless shaving bump. Also, in the heat of the moment, you’re not paying attention to every little « defect » on your partner’s skin and can easily miss something that a condom will never protect you from if the « bump » in anywhere else than on the part of the penis that’s covered by a condom. Finally, I don’t think anyone is performing a genital exam before having sex as it would be rude and would kill the mood for sure.
I admit I don’t get tested as often as I should, but I don’t partake in this « hobby » very often and I’m willing to accept the risk that comes with it, although that doesn’t mean I don’t care about transmitting something to an SP I’m seeing, not in the slightest. But I do inspect my own body often to make sure everything is ok down there and always use condoms unless I’m in a committed relationship and birth control is taken care of by other means.
On more thing… I’ve recently seen that some SPs are advertising bareback services and are charging more for that service, which makes me not want to use their services since they are more of a risk. I won’t judge their decision to offer this service, but I just don’t get why they do offer it since they’re exposing themselves to a higher risk. Is money the only deciding factor in this ? I’ve seen ads where the cost is double the regular rate, but I’ve also seen « only » 100$ more : your health is worth more than 100$ in my view, not that any amount is worth your health. Maybe they just like the feeling of bareback sex ? That would make kind of a sense as it’s so much better, for me at least. Or it’s just marketing to attract more clients that look for that kind of service ?
Sorry for the long post, but I’ve been thinking about all this for a while and all of it just came out in this post. As far as MERB not being a « good » place for such a topic, I disagree as the people on this forum partake in what I would think more sex than the average person and surely with many more different partners, so their habits and lifestyles make them a good source of general information, although they will never replace medical advice. They can however share their experiences and give good advice on what works for them… you can choose to take that advice or not, but it’s stil info from « the horse’s mouth » that’s hard to get anywhere else.
Lastly, Luna, I have to thank you for taking part of this conversation and sharing your experience with everyone, I’m sure we can all benefit from it .
