There are many important aspects to sexual health, including birth control. Using condoms for birth control also protects you from STDs. Using hormonal birth control (like the pill, patch, or ring) is effective but doesn’t protect from STDs.
Among the important aspects of sexual health is birth control. If you choose to have sex, but aren’t yet ready to become a parent, then you’ll need to choose a method of birth control to prevent pregnancy. You have several different choices, and they each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
One way to prevent pregnancy is to use a condom every time you have sex. An advantage of condoms is that they also protect your sexual health by reducing the risk of getting an STD from your partner. However, as a form of birth control, condoms are actually less reliable than other methods. They can break or leak, and this can lead to a pregnancy as well as to STD transmission. In addition, if you skip the condom just once, you could end up dealing with a pregnancy. Adding a spermicide (a lubricant that also contains a chemical that kills sperm) helps to make them more effective. The spermicide also acts to decrease the risk of transmission of HIV and other infectious agents.
Another option is hormonal birth control. This can include the pill, patch, or ring. They’re similar in terms of how they work, but different in terms of how often you have to think about them. The pill must be taken every day, while the patch is changed once a week, and the ring is changed once a month. In addition to preventing pregnancy, the hormones can have other effects, some of which may be beneficial for your general and sexual health while others may be undesirable. If you choose to use hormonal birth control, you should know that it provides no protection against STDs. This type of birth control is best used in combination with condoms, or in the context of a long-term mutually monogamous sexual relationship.
One method of birth control that some people choose is to abstain from vaginal intercourse, and instead have other forms of sex. Although oral sex can’t lead to pregnancy, it is still sex, and it can still lead to the transmission of some STDs. If you have unprotected oral sex, then you’re at risk for getting HIV and should have an HIV test at least once per year. Performing unprotected oral sex on a woman is less risky than performing it on a man, but both carry some risk of transmission.
Having sex with a partner of the same gender also can’t lead to a pregnancy, but men who have sex with men are at even higher risk for HIV than are other people. In part, this is because they often have anal sex, which carries a higher HIV risk than other types of sex because it tends to cause irritation and small tears in the mucous membrane of the anus. If you’re a man and you have sex with other men (even if you also have sex with women), it’s recommended that you have an HIV test in Singapore even more frequently, every three to six months.
Sources:
Mayo Clinic. “STD symptoms: Common STDs and their symptoms.” Mayo Clinic. Published 18 Mar 2015. Accessed 25 Jun 2016. http://www.mayoclinic.org/std-symptoms/art-20047081
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 25 Feb 2014. Accessed 26 Jun 2016. https://www.cdc.gov/std/general/default.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Screening Recommendations Referenced in Treatment Guidelines and Original Recommendation Sources.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 4 Jun 2015. Accessed 20 Jun 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/std/tg2015/screening-recommendations.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “HIV Basics – Testing.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 5 May 2016. Accessed 20 Jun 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/testing.html
References
Sexual health at Shim Clinic, Singapore