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Can you get an STD from oral sex?
While you can’t get pregnant from oral sex , you can get a sexually transmitted infection (STI, a.k.a. STD). The risk of getting an STI from oral sex is a little different from the risk of vaginal sex, so let’s go over the details. First, the basic biology STIs are bacteria or viruses that rely […]
Comprehensive safer sex part 1: It’s personal
Part of a three-part series originally published to Tumblr on April 18, 2013. At 30 years old and after 14 years of living with an STI—genital herpes—I’ve had my fair share of experiences with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). At 16, when I contracted herpes, I had been armed with the ever-familiar fear-based sex ed, in […]
My glamorous life with HPV
“Just want to give a shout-out to all my HPV ladies out there,” is a thing I posted recently in an online forum for young women. The comment was in response to a poll that asked, “Do you have any STDs?” Whenever someone asks me (usually in a medical setting) if I have any STDs […]
Oral HPV: Another reason to brush and floss
As if having sweet-smelling breath weren’t reason enough to brush and floss every day, there’s a study showing that people with good oral hygiene are less likely to have human papillomavirus (HPV) living in their mouths. In the study, about 7% of people with good brushing and flossing habits had measurable levels of HPV in […]
The HPV vaccine, new and improved
In December of 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) called Gardasil 9. Sound familiar? Gardasil 9 is the beefed up version of the original Gardasil shot , which protected against four strains of HPV. Gardasil 9 protects against—you guessed it—nine types of HPV. Young […]
He’s smart and funny, but is he vaccinated for HPV?
The bad news: Some strains of the super-common STI human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause genital warts and cervical cancer . The good news: There’s a vaccine that protects against the most common of these strains and it is recommended for both girls and guys. Among young women who’ve gotten the vaccine, there has been a […]
Sex toys and smooching: Can they give you HPV?
We’ve said it before: human papillomavirus (HPV) is incredibly common . But scientists are still working out some of the details when it comes to how the virus is transmitted and how it can affect people who get it. What we do know is that HPV is sexually transmitted and that most people’s bodies clear […]
Slacking on the HPV vaccine
The HPV vaccine protects against cervical cancer and genital warts. The national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that all girls and boys ages 11 and 12 get all three doses of the vaccine. (Ladies and gents ages 13-26 who haven’t had all three doses yet can get catch-up shots.) Yet national studies tell us […]
It’s official: the HPV vaccine is making a difference
In an article last year , we said it was still too soon to tell whether Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against 4 common strains of HPV (human papillomavirus), would make a difference in HPV rates on a large scale. Just a year later, a new study has shown that among 14- to 19-year-old women, […]
4 STI myths that get in the way of a healthy sex life
Safer sex— comprehensive safer sex, that is —includes more than just using barriers consistently and correctly. You also need to talk about risk in advance of any sexual activity. That’s where most people get stuck. As soon as someone utters the letters S-T-I (short for sexually transmitted infection) in sequence, people run for the hills. […]
