Safe sex – your best defence against STIs
The best way to reduce your chance of getting an STI is to have ‘safe sex’.
Safe sex means always using a condom or dam for any sexual activity involving vaginal, anal or oral sex. These barrier methods of protection minimise the amount of skin-to-skin contact and stop the transfer of bodily fluids.
Some ways to encourage safe sex with your partner:
- offer to buy condoms together
- buy condoms online
- experiment with different styles, sizes, shapes and flavours of condoms
- involve condoms / dams in foreplay
Preventing an STI is easier than treating an STI.
Explore the different methods of protection available and become a safe sex expert.
You don’t have to have sex to be intimate with your partner
There are many ways to be physically intimate with your partner without having vaginal, anal or oral sex. If you don’t want to have sex, or don’t have any condoms or dams with you, there are safer sexual activities you can do together that have no risk or low risk of STIs and pregnancy.
Low risk sexual activities
- Kissing, cuddling
- Deep kissing
- Massage
- Stroking, rubbing, touching
- Mutual masturbation (when touching your own genitals in front of your partner, and your partner touching their own genitals at the same time)
- Dry sex with clothes on (sometimes called ‘dry humping’)