Happy New Year chaps and welcome back! I hope you had a tip-top Christmas and lots of (healthy and safe) sex!
We’re into a new 12 month period and you might be thinking about the changes you can make to improve your wellbeing in 2020. But have you incorporated your sexual health into these efforts?
Chappie has put together some resolutions for you that encompass your sexual welfare.
Be honest about your sexual history
We hear the saying all the time, ‘honesty is the best policy’. This might sound like the world’s biggest cliché but when it comes to maintaining good sexual health, it’s true chaps. Failing to disclose that you have an STI and then having unprotected sex with someone is only going to end in misery. Not only are you in danger of the person you infected launching a relentless vendetta against you (admit it, you would probably deserve it!), this kind of attitude means you’re likely to receive the same kind of treatment towards you in the future in general.
In short, if everyone is more honest about their sexual exploits and whether they do/could have an STI, the spread of infection would be reduced – simples!
Don’t have sex (without someone you don’t know) when you’re blotto
It’s a well-known fact that alcohol impairs your judgement. With this in mind, when you’re out and about on the town, preserving your sexual health may not be at the forefront of your priorities. In fact, it may have escaped you altogether. There’s a simple answer to this one lads, DON’T HAVE DRUNK SEX WITH STRANGERS! Even if you do manage to wrap your chap up safe despite having 10 shots, there’s a good chance you might have put it on incorrectly in the heat of the (drunken) moment! What’s more, you open yourself up to forgetting and being nonchalant about protection when you choose to have drunk sex. If you’re worried you might get tempted, ask a friend to look out for you and divert you away from the pretty lady/man!
Get tested!
This is something I encourage in most of my blogs and as much as it might get annoying to hear, it’s so important chaps. It’s clearly still necessary to be encouraging this: an estimated 10% of men in the UK don’t know they have an STI…! If you’re in a monogamous relationship, use condoms and you both got tested when you got together, you won’t need regular testing, though you should ask your GP to confirm this just to be sure. But, if any of the following apply, make getting tested a definite resolution, not for new year, but for as soon as possible:
- You don’t use condoms with your regular partner
- You recently slept with a new partner without condoms
- Your partner has cheated on you in the past
- You have multiple partners
- You have a symptom that might suggest you have an STI
Chappie signing off. Happy New Year chaps J.