Hello, I love you, let's get tested for AIDS

[MapleSwingers]

Both the wife and I have gotten tested for HIV, herpes, hepatitis and a slew of other popular std's and have come up clean. That was back in May and we still have our seal of cleanliness intact (hoping to change that this up-coming week-end!).

Just figured we would do our own public service announcement. When is the last time you got tested? When you wake up tomorrow, make an appointment with your doctor, you will thank me for it later. Besides, that makes for a great headline on your profile...I can read it now: Clean bill of health as of June 2008

[VegasLee]

I hope you know that test is good for the day you took it only and does not mean anything the next time you party with someone else.

I have been tested before, yes, many times. 30+ years and have not caught as much as a cold.

The problem with testing is it seems to give many a false sense of security.

[theflamekasters]

Originally Posted by VegasLee

I hope you know that test is good for the day you took it only and does not mean anything the next time you party with someone else.

I have been tested before, yes, many times. 30+ years and have not caught as much as a cold.

The problem with testing is it seems to give many a false sense of security.

he is right!!!

[lott]

Originally Posted by VegasLee

I hope you know that test is good for the day you took it only and does not mean anything the next time you party with someone else.

I have been tested before, yes, many times. 30+ years and have not caught as much as a cold.

The problem with testing is it seems to give many a false sense of security.

That's a good thing to hear for someone like me!.

Throughout that time did you wear condoms or not?.

[MapleSwingers]

Not sure why but isn't it still a good idea to get tested if you catch something you can deal with it sooner rather than later? Vegaslee, glad you are immune to colds as well as std's but just because you've been lucky so far is no reason to not get tested, I understand that a test is just as good as the day you took it (or at least until you have sex with someone else actually).

Not a false sense of security if you catch something early on and can deal with it before it gets out of hand.

[bendmeovernow]

yes.. i've been thinking about it for a while.... we are new to the style... a little over a yr.. and although we are a safe sex cpl, i still want to have all the battery of test done. when i get a car and all that and can get to the planned parrenthood i'm going to make the trip. i know it's worth the testing.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by MapleSwingers

Not sure why but isn't it still a good idea to get tested if you catch something you can deal with it sooner rather than later? Vegaslee, glad you are immune to colds as well as std's but just because you've been lucky so far is no reason to not get tested, I understand that a test is just as good as the day you took it (or at least until you have sex with someone else actually).

Not a false sense of security if you catch something early on and can deal with it before it gets out of hand.

Getting tested in order to be able to identify that you have something and deal with it is one thing (and yes important). The problem is that too many people seem to think that getting a clean test back PROVES that you DON'T have something and that's totally not true. The statement "The test is only good for the instant you take it" isn't even really accurate for two reasons:
1. Many STDs don't show up immideately (includiing AIDS) and
2. MOST STDs aren't even tested for in a standard STD test.

[VegasLee]

In all honesty if you want to be safe, get tested now. Then don't ever have sex with anyone besides your spouse if your spouse also tested negative for every STD there is known to man.

There are many people that have been tested, with good results and they pass on STD's every time they play. They are carriers, they show no symptoms at all.

I have never told anyone they should not be tested but I also remind them that those tests over time mean nothing at all.

Each time you have sex with someone you are having sex with everyone they have ever had sex with at the same time.

I don't care how well you know someone, you will never know the truth about who they have had sex with in their lifetime.

Don't ever let tests lead you into a sense of security in any way.

Yes, I have been lucky and honestly, I have not wore a condom more then six times in my life.

Julie always makes an excellent point, many times things will not show up on a test, sometimes for months, sometimes for years yet you are still carrying the STD with you and could be passing it along each and every time you play with someone else. You don't know it at the time and either do the people you are playing with.

You want to be 100% safe, keep it in your pants and only have sex with your wife after she has also been tested every six months for a few years.

There are no guarantees in life, you have to decide what your life is worth to you and what you are willing to do it in. Tomorrow on your way to work you might get hit by a bus. Then again, you might not.

[lott]

Originally Posted by VegasLee

Yes, I have been lucky and honestly, I have not wore a condom more then six times in my life.

So does this mean you wore a condom most of the time or is this a typing error because it seems from your post that you don't wear condoms?.

[VegasLee]

That is no typo. It is what it seems and I said.

[good times]

I have to admit, if a potential play partner suggests that we should be tested we are pretty much done with them at that point. The reason for that is that I have spent a considerable time educating myself regarding std's, and came to the same opinion as Vegaslee alludes to. That is, if someone believes that a play partner is safer based on an std test, then they are uninformed and suffering from a false sense of security. We have also noticed that people who place so much value in testing, not always, but usually engage in more risky behavior, based on their false sense of security, than I am willing to. Frankly, I would much rather play with someone who had never been tested but was reasonably knowledgeable of the risks, than someone who believes that if their play partners are tested they are somehow safer than someone who hasn't been tested, an opinion that their is absolutely no credible evidence to support.

Another red flag along the same lines as testing that the title to this thread suggests, is that we also avoid folks that are so uninformed as to believe that we, as swingers, are at any more than a minuscule risk for catching AIDS. Again, the uninformed usually believe that AIDS is as easily transferred as the common cold, when in fact, it is almost impossible to transfer through straight vaginal sex. The problem is, that someone who doesn't know this basic fact about it, always indicates to me that they also do not know how AIDS is transfered, which means they are more likely to engage in those unsafe behaviors than I am. The fact is, if you don't engage in anal sex with playmates, and don't have any open sores in your genital area, you have almost zero chance of getting AIDS from someone. So, for us, AIDS is a total non-issue.

[MapleSwingers]

Some of you make good points...

The title of the post was my attempt at spoofing a doors song nothing more...

I did not realise that they don't sell condoms in sin city?!?

[fun4Ds]

I have been tested for many things.... I do it for me.

[MapleSwingers]

Not too sure what this means, but someone left us a 'reputation' for starting this post with the following comment: How can someone so ignorant report on Swingers and their Lifestyle?

Can't answer the question because Julie has asked me to refrain from discussing my site here. But my other half works in health care and asked me to post a simple message possibly reminding some folks to go out and get tested. We didn't realise that made us ignorant....blissfully ignorant apparently?

[VegasLee]

The ignorance idea may come from you thinking they don't sell condoms in Las Vegas or maybe that was just your way of taking shots at me because I don't live up to your expectations and the way YOU THINK this lifestyle should be.

As stated, with a closed mind or ignorance like that how can you objectively report on this Lifestyle?