Hey Dr Sue — Do I Have to Have A Safe Word to Have Safe Sex? What Word Do I Use?

Let’s dive into these terms just a bit. “Safe sex” is the term that’s used when we talk about people taking steps when engaging in sexual play to either help reduce the chances of getting an STI, or having an unintended pregnancy, or both.

Safe sex includes using a barrier method to prevent skin to skin contact during anal, oral, or vaginal sex. Barriers for oral sex can be a condom or a dental dam. For anal or vaginal use a condom. DON’T use a dental dam for vaginal or anal sex.

In order to prevent pregnancy people might use a barrier method, like an internal or external condom, along with another form of contraception like birth control pills, the implant, or an IUD.

But safe sex isn’t just about what you’re using during sexual activity. It also includes talking to your partner and sharing your respective sexual histories(ideally before you become sexually active with each other). This may mean you talk about how many people you’ve done things with and if you’ve been diagnosed with an STI before.

In order to know if you’ve had an STI that means you would’ve had to have been tested, and that’s the last part of safe sex I want to talk about here. If you’re sexually active then you should be getting tested for STIs regularly. How…