HIC/Hep C question

[grateful heart]

Recently talking to a friend of mine who frequents brothels, I was telling him that this is dangerous and could end up with HIV or Hep c if he keeps doing it, he laughed and said they are so safe there is no way he could get this unless they had unprotected sex, what do you guys think?

 

[David Gould]

Recently talking to a friend of mine who frequents brothels, I was telling him that this is dangerous and could end up with HIV or Hep c if he keeps doing it, he laughed and said they are so safe there is no way he could get this unless they had unprotected sex, what do you guys think?

Certainly in the parts of Australia where prostitution is legal and regulated you are safer going to prostitutes than picking up people at nightclubs.

However, there is always the possibility of getting HIV or Hep C. It is a question of whether the individual thinks the risks are high enough to deter them.

 

[grateful heart]

But wouldnt a girl who has sex 5 or 6 times a day more likely to get STD's than a person who has sex casually by picking up in a nightclub?

 

[David Gould]

But wouldnt a girl who has sex 5 or 6 times a day more likely to get STD's than a person who has sex casually by picking up in a nightclub?

Perhaps, but prostitutes must get regularly tested for STDs in the places where it is regulated. They are required by law to have the test documents availble for clients to view. Thus, it is less likely that they are going to be infected than your average sexually promiscuous young lady - especially when you consider that alcohol is usually involved in bar pick-ups, with thus more likelihood of unprotected sex. Prostitution is required by law to be carried out using a condom.

 

[grateful heart]

hmm yes i see your point, and i gather you cant get HEpc or HIV by waering a condom unless it falls off or breaks????

 

[Spherical Time]

But wouldnt a girl who has sex 5 or 6 times a day more likely to get STD's than a person who has sex casually by picking up in a nightclub?

In places where legalized prostitution exists, prostitutes are required to use protection, while you can never be to sure about someone you pick up at a nightclub. Further, they usually have to be continually tested for common STD's in order to maintain their licenses.

That said, yes, someone that engages in multple sex acts every single day, even with protection, is probably at a greater risk than someone that engages in casual sex rarely.

 

[maha]

I'm not sure, but the girls at those brothels may have to get tested for STDs on a frequent basis. Whereas girls in night clubs may never get themselves tested...or even use protection for that matter.

But the point remains that he is having sex with people who have a large number of sexual partners. Even with protection, this increases their chances of contracting an STD--and it subsequently increases his chances.

There are dozens of STDs that a person can catch. A condom won't necessarily protect you from crabs or herpes or things of that nature...even if the condom doesn't break. If it does happen to break, then you could get anything...including HIV. There is a misconception that only unprotected sex can get you STDs. This is simply not true.

Tell your friend to be careful and to think about what he's really doing.

 

[grateful heart]

I'm not sure, but the girls at those brothels may have to get tested for STDs on a frequent basis. Whereas girls in night clubs may never get themselves tested...or even use protection for that matter.

But the point remains that he is having sex with people who have a large number of sexual partners. Even with protection, this increases their chances of contracting an STD--and it subsequently increases his chances.

There are dozens of STDs that a person can catch. A condom won't necessarily protect you from crabs or herpes or things of that nature...even if the condom doesn't break. If it does happen to break, then you could get anything...including HIV. There is a misconception that only unprotected sex can get you STDs. This is simply not true.

Tell your friend to be careful and to think about what he's really doing.

Yeah for sure, he thinks just because he wears condoms he is safe, what a silly idea huh?

 

[David Gould]

hmm yes i see your point, and i gather you cant get HEpc or HIV by waering a condom unless it falls off or breaks????

By wearing a condom, a person significantly reduces the risk of catching an STD. There is always the risk of breakage, but that risk is low provided the condom is used properly. It is an advantage that a prostitute is likely to know how to ensure that a condom is put on properly - it is in her interests, after all.

As I said, there is still a risk. Going to prostitutes is riskier than being monogamous with someone who is also monogamous, obviously.

Going to unregulated prostitutes is actually incredibly risky, I would think.

 

[grateful heart]

Going to unregulated prostitutes is actually incredibly risky, I would think

if they still wera condoms wouldnt it be the same?

 

[grateful heart]

Sorry bout all the question, just naive in regards to this stuff, I always thought if you went to prostitutes you would at some stage get STD's and HIV eventually

 

[David Gould]

if they still wera condoms wouldnt it be the same?

No, because of the lack of testing and the much higher levels of drug use in the criminal population. To analyse the risk of catching an STD from a prostitute there are two factors to consider:

1.) The likelihood that the prostitute has an STD; and
2.) The likelihood that that STD will be transmitted to you.

The second does not change if everyone is using condoms.
The first increases if there is no mandatory testing or higher drug use.

 

[David Gould]

Sorry bout all the question, just naive in regards to this stuff, I always thought if you went to prostitutes you would at some stage get STD's and HIV eventually

I would guess that eventually you would. But that eventually might be hundreds of years. For example, if there was a 1 in a 100,000 chance of getting infected each time you went to one and you went once a week, it would take 2,000 years (on average) before you became infected.

The trick, I guess, is trying to weigh the odds.

 

[Spherical Time]

Yeah for sure, he thinks just because he wears condoms he is safe, what a silly idea huh?

He's certainly safer than he would be if visited prostitutes and didn't use protection.

To suggest that condoms aren't safe or don't work isn't doing anyone any favors. The spread of HIV in Africa is partially related to the religious propagation of the meme that condoms don't work.

 

[justin88]

what is this world coming to lol....

 

[justin88]

BTW, the HIV virus is in fact smaller than the latex weavings of a condom thus making little to no difference whether you can catch the disease or not. It is still possible to catch HIV even with protection.

 

[peepnklown]

I think the main point is unprotected sex is highly unsafe and you should protect yourself. It doesn’t matter how many people you sleep with, you only need that one who is infected to get something. I am sure your friend has weighted the risks and it wont matter what you tell him he will continue to do whatever he wants.



(just be sure to point and say I told you so if he gets something…)

 

[Spherical Time]

BTW, the HIV virus is in fact smaller than the latex weavings of a condom thus making little to no difference whether you can catch the disease or not. It is still possible to catch HIV even with protection.

Actually HIV can't easily leave the seminal fluid, which is contained by the latex condom. Besides which, neither I nor David suggested that it isn't possible to catch HIV while wearing a condom, but a condom does decrease the chances of catching something.

Saying that HIV can pass through a condom is like saying that since HIV is smaller than people's pores, HIV can fly out of a person's pores and into yours to infect you.

 

[trunks2k]

hmm yes i see your point, and i gather you cant get HEpc or HIV by waering a condom unless it falls off or breaks????

HEpc, I'm not so sure of. With HIV, the chances of transmitting the disease when using a latex condom properly is just about 0. There's been at least one study that looked at couples in which one partner was HIV+. The couples identified into two groups, one group that used latex condoms every time they had sex, and another group that didn't. In the group that used condoms all the time, there were no instances of disease transmission. In the group that did not use condoms every time, there was a transmission rate of, IIRC 25%.

 

[trunks2k]

BTW, the HIV virus is in fact smaller than the latex weavings of a condom thus making little to no difference whether you can catch the disease or not. It is still possible to catch HIV even with protection.

This is just outright false. Lab studies have consistently shown that latex condoms for a continuous barrier against HIV. This myth came from an FDA study. However, the Center For Disease Control says that the FDA study was bogus (used a higher concentration of HIV than would realy exist and involved 10 minutes of constant "thrusting" after [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]), and even if it wasn't, it showed that in the worst condom only 1 virus would leak through for every 90 condom uses.

See this site for a summary of the FDA's study, and the CDC's position:

http://www.righto.com/theories/condoms.html

edit: the above link also mentions the study I mentioned in my previous post, it was a 10% transmission rate, not 25%. And there was a second study of a similar nature, in which there was a 2% transmission rate for people that identified as using condoms all the time and a 15% transmission rate among the inconsistent users.