I firmly believe in making the hobby as safe as possible.  It will never be 100%.  But nothing is.  Everything you do, from driving a car to eating red meat, is a risk.  We have all chosen this lifestyle because we have decided that the benefits outweigh the risks.

That being said, I would like to see our community move in the direction of establishing some cultural safe-sex norms, as the adult movie industry has done.  I would be happy to see a registry where providers and clients could post their latest clean-bills-of-health.  I'd be happy to see a list of providers who refuse to see clients without recent test results.  I'd like to see a room where users can frankly post any STD positive results they've had, linked to a database of who's-been-with-whom.  I'm sure that there are those who would appreciate certain closed STD+ communities, for example a herpes community or a hepatitis community, etc.  

Absent such institutional developments, I would still strongly urge all hobbyists, as well as providers, to have yourselves VACCINATED against hepatitis, TESTED regularly for other STD's, and TREATED for infections as necessary.  Educate yourselves about STDs, their transmission, prevention, and treatment.  Avoid seeing providers in Africa, Asia, or 3rd world countries.  I would encourage everyone to get into the habit of keeping your STD test results and bringing them with you.  Most importantly, I would certainly hope that anyone who is knowingly STD positive would be considerate enough to stay out of the hobby altogether!!  

Realistically, our culture of middle-upper class American providers and hobbyists is relatively safe.  I would probably feel safer having condom-protected sex with a provider than unprotected sex with a girl I picked up at a party.  But there's always room for improvement.  I would encourage TER to take the responsibility to host an STD-conscious arena where we can all learn and work together.  

I like your ideas.  Not sure how well they would fly, but I would support your position.  

It's scary to think that there are those who knowingly provide or hobby while infected, but I'm sure it happens.  I guess they figure it's an all or nothing proposition.  While doctors might cringe, I would be happy to have communities for herpes, genital warts or even HIV, if I ever contracted one of those.  Since my only responsible alternative would be a blow up doll or a life of porn and pud-pounding, if I were part of a group that was already infected, we could take care of each other without putting the rest of the world at risk.

Some very good ideas. The STD boards already existfor those trying to date others that already have their disease. Never heard of it applying to our hobby, but wouldnt surprise metheir is a board somewhere.

The database of 'clean' people would difficult to maintain and verify. It would be best if some one like AIM would issue a card that could be verified online, stating a persons last testing date and the results. I understand there may be something like this for the people in the industry, but I have no proof only rumor. It would be great if it existed and anyone could dial in. Database could simply be a number with results. Cards would have numbers and names, preferably with photos.

It's sort of surprising to hear the desire for a database, with a record of all your sexual conquests, from a HOBBYIST... wow!

I believe for a number of different reasons, it wouldn't work. In a recent post, some gent (I'm sorry I don't remember who), summed it up.... the day after someone gets tested, they can be infected, thus  test results are useless. The BOTTOM LINE is that each of us should do research on STD transmission and determine what risks we are willing and not willing to take, and proceed accordingly.

Many of us do everything we can to spread awareness... I think if you review my posting history you'll see I'm one of those people. But I think if the STD problem in America could be solved by usage of a big national database, it would already be in use, don't you think?

Hugs*
Nicole

I dare say that you wouldn't.

Is knowing that someone was disease free yesterday any better than not knowing anything about their STD status? You say no, it isn't. I would agree that yesterday's test doesn't mean much when we are talking about a highly infectious STD such as gonorrhea, but I would not agree that a test is meaningless when it comes to HIV.

Can we find a meaningful upper bound to the probability that someone is infected with HIV today if they tested clean six months ago?

The most dangerous hetrosexual activity I can think of is to have unprotected sex with a steady partner known to be HIV positive. There has been a study of the risk involved in doing exactly this. (See link below.) A person having unprotected sex with a steady partner who is HIV positive stands about a 7% chance of becoming infected in a year. It seems likely that the risk is roughly linear with time and the probability would be 3.5% after six months.

In the absence of a test you can't bound the probability of a person being HIV positive at less than 100% (although the probability for a person picked at random is around 1%). A six month old test bounds the probability at around 3.5%. This is a risk reduction of about 30.

Most experts put the risk reduction achieved by using a condom at about 30 also (although the study cited indicates that it may be as low as 7 in actual practice). Thus it can be argued that a six-month old HIV test provides about the same protection as a condom (assuming that the person is not bisexual and has not engaged in anal intercourse).

-- Modified on 4/10/2003 1:03:11 PM