infection

Article
  • Finn Black

About one in five people in the United States over age 12 — approximately 45 million individuals — are infected with HSV-II, the virus that causes genital herpes. Around 50-80 percent of the adult population has oral herpes, which most people contract through nonsexual contact in childhood.

Article
  • Samantha Benac

Not so sure about the foreskin? Whether you have a foreskin yourself or a sexual partner does, this is your article.

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

When I was in high school, I was -- as I still am now -- in the habit of hugging friends and warmly kissing them on the cheek, the sides of their mouth or on the mouth entire when greeting them, passing them in the halls, or just because I loved them and liked to demonstrate my affection. You can...

Advice
  • Susie Tang

Assuming that it's definitely not menstrual blood, whenever a person with a vagina bleeds after sex, it's generally the result of an injury. Sometimes if there's blood spotting and pain after sex, it's because there's an infection in the cervix like trichomoniasis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. Irritation...

Advice
  • Sarah Riley

You know, as a culture we've somehow developed an awfully funny idea of what is "sex" and what isn't "sex" that seems pretty darn arbitrary. Think about it, manual sex, oral sex, anal sex...all those things have the word sex in them. So quite honestly, from a sexual health and public health...

Advice
  • Sarah Riley

Sperm are hearty, but they're not that hearty! As long as your hands were dry when you had contact with your girlfriend, you've got nothing to worry about from this situation. Dry ejaculate or pre-ejaculate poses no risk. I'm not quite sure what you mean by saying you "poked" your girlfriend, but I...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Take a big breath. It's all going to be okay, and there's just no reason for you to be so scared. For starters, it's totally normal for ejaculate to run out like that after intercourse where the partner with the penis ejaculates without a condom. That's plain old gravity: when you're laying down or...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. However, please understand that that bad experience did not likely cause permanent changes to your vulva or vagina. While certainly, if you were tense or underlubricated, that could have caused a tear to the tissue of the vaginal corona, which may cause mild...

Advice
  • Sarah Riley

Unless his sperm came equipped with flame throwers and chain saws, it's pretty much impossible that it could make it through that many layers of clothing! Sperm can be pretty hearty, but all of those layers are more than they could ever survive through. So no, you have no pregnancy risk from the...

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Anon: first things first. Obviously, on top of giving oral sex when you don't even want to, you've also been doing it unprotected. So, the very first thing I'd advise you strongly to do is to go into your doctor or sexual healthcare clinic and get a full STI screen, including a screen for your mouth...