Does this concern you or give you pause?

America's STD Epidemic: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea & Syphilis Cases on the Rise

It makes me stop and think because we don’t use barriers for oral. Chlamydia and Gonorrhea can be transmitted orally and lay dormant for years while still being able to be shared between partners.

Stay safe out there, folks!

I agree with your sentiment; Stay Safe. Which I will interpret as manage your risk.

Reading this gives me no greater concern. Incidence of these STIs might increase in the general population but this does not necessarily translate into an increase among swing couples.

Discuss risks: Check!

Decide on safer sex practices: Check!

Get tested regularly: Check!

Get treated if necessary: Haven't needed to so far, but my Doctor is on speed dial, just in case

So, we're good.

My thoughts: All of the STIs in that list are all treatable (well Gonorrhoea is getting harder to treat, but still is), so the only reason that the numbers are on the rise is that folks don't know they are infected which means they are not getting tested and treated. Safer sex protocols help cut down transmission rates, but the only real way to stop the spread is to identify and treat those infected.

D

Edit to add: The first comment on that story though. Geez, whacks forehead never read the comments.

We get tested at least annually. We use a private service and pay approximately $400 for it. We don't want to alarm our doctors or health insurers unless warranted. May not be a bad idea for all sexually active people.

We get tested routinely as a part of annual physicals. The doctors don’t ask any questions about it.

Based on this article, no, I'm not worried, at least not any more than what level of concern we already have, meaning we practice safe sex. Right away, when I see something like "That's the highest number of cases ever reported for these three STDs combined since the agency began tracking STDs in 1941." I automatically start thinking alarmist sky is falling story lead to draw some eyeballs.

Population of U.S. in 1941 - 133.40 million

steady increase year after year to

Population of U.S. in 2017 - 325.34 million

So, color me not surprised that there are more cases of those STDs now than 1941. The writer does improve a little bit after that by shifting more into stating the numbers per 100,000 people. That is really the way you need to look at these things, not raw numbers, or the always impressive sounding but doesn't really help or mean much by itself "percent increase", since going from 2 people to 3 people is a 50% increase, and going from 1 million people to 1.5 million people is a 50% increase also.

1995 was the peak of deaths in the U.S. from the AIDS epidemic and then they declined sharply over the next several years. Add on a few more years before people's fear started to fade and it was back to business as usual, and then subtract back from today on "Just 17 years ago, cases of syphilis reached record lows, with only about 6,000 reported cases, or about 2 cases per 100,000 people in the United States, in 2000." and you get to when the syphilis was at record lows. Probably not a coincidence, less casual sex = fewer STDs of all types.

None of the above is meant to minimize the risk or the need to be safe yourself, but by the time you wade through misleading reporting of the numbers and try to adjust for all groups being lumped in together (i.e. IV drug using male street prostitute = suburban swinging wife), then it's easy to get caught up in it all. It really comes down to take the time to assess the risk on the best information available, decide what level of risk is acceptable to you and what precautions it will take to stay below that acceptable risk level, and then just take your chances. Nothing in life is risk free.

I think a good example of that is like the OP, we don't use any sort of protection for oral. Yes, there's a risk there, but we've just decided it isn't high enough for us to take that level of response.