Disclaimer

Neither am I medically trained nor have professionals been involved in the creation of this talk or it’s accompanying materials. Please consult medical professionals if unsure about any of the provided information.

Audience notes

Feel free to share your notes, resources and tips here:

https://md.darmstadt.ccc.de/9thu-nDbQ5mJzEKMQpzZAA#

STI risk management in NMEs

1. Risk awareness

know your risk and that of your sexual partners

  • When was your last STI test (and for what did you test)?
  • How much do you trust your sexual partners to inform you if they have attracted STIs?
  • How many sexual partners do you have? Did you talk with them about safer sex/testing/communication of infections?
  • What sexual acts do you perform with partners?

2. Individual safety requirements

everyone has different requirements and that’s okay

  • Fluid bonding?
  • increased health risk (pregnancy, age, chronic disease…)
  • Individual willingness to accept risks

3. Precautions

…depending on your risk

  • barriers (condom, dental dam/latex sheets, latex gloves…)
  • PrEP
  • vaccines
  • regular STI testing
  • requirements for sexual partners (e.g. tested, aware of safer sex, willing to talk about it…)

4. Transparency

  • Agree with your sexual partners what you need to know from each other to feel safe
    • This can involve things like new sexual partners, accidents when using barriers, test results…
    • However, this is about both of your boundaries. It’s totally valid to not want to share some information, but be open about it -> if you cannot meet your partner’s meets in terms of transparency this might have implications for the risks you can take together, but it’s entirely valid
  • Tell your recent sexual partners if there’s a risk of infection (that’s, imo, the bare minimum of transparency)
    • It might be important to tell them even if you don’t know for sure if you’re infected to avoid spreading the disease further

Tool for risk assessment (covers steps 1-2)

alone or with partners (polycule, fluid bonded peers, …)

Testing

Note

  • Testing against STIs does not give you complete safety. Some STIs are detectable weeks after infection (e.g. HIV, Chlamydia, Trichomoniasis, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, hepatitis), some months (herpes, HPV). This means that there’s always a period of time where you could have attracted an STI even if you just tested negatively. Source/more information: https://doktor.top/std-symptome-wie-lange-manifeste-und-wann-zu-testen/#different-st-is
  • Some STIs (HIV, herpes, hepatitis C, chlamydia, syphilis, HPV) can be inactive (without symptoms) for months or even years, so testing is the only way to know if you’re infected (apart from avoiding any risk of infection)

Where (in Germany)

  • Gesundheitsamt and some NGOs (e.g. Aidshilfe)
  • Physician (general practicioner, gynecologist, dermatologist, urologist)
    • will be covered by health insurance if there’s a reasonable suspicion or a sexual partner is infected
    • strongly depends on the specific physician whether they test when there’s an STI in your polycule or similar
    • if it’s not covered, you can pay the test yourself, but it can be quite costly
  • Self-test kits, e.g. S.A.M. Health
    • provided by Deutsche Aidshilfe (German aids support)
    • costs ~60 eur per kit (+15 eur for first order)
    • covers HIV, chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea
    • includes phone support for the first order and on positive test results

Resources / support

License

This document is provided under CC0. Feel free to use it however you deem useful.