All the people on this planet love to have sex, possibly every day. Well, having casual sex is all about that: having sex every day with a different partner. Sounds like a fairytale, right? While it does sound really nice, there’s a lot involved in having casual sex.
If you’re one of those people who are actively having casual one night stands, you need to know how to keep yourself safe during your little intimate adventures. So, with that in mind, here’s how to keep yourself healthy while having the time of your life.
Aside from the tips on how to unleash your real sexual potential, these are the most important tips simply because they will show you how to take some precautions so that you can fully enjoy your sexual endeavors, knowing that you don’t have to worry about STDs.
Most stressful sexual health situations have a solution, but let’s make sure that you don’t find yourself in such situations in the first place.
The Biggest Threat of Having Casual Sex
To know how to protect yourself and stay safe and healthy during your casual sex adventures, you first need to know what the biggest threats are. While sex is all about fun and games and having a good time, unwanted diseases and health conditions can make it extremely stressful.
The truth is, no sex is ever 100% safe but you can do a lot of useful things to make sure you put yourself in the safest situation possible each time you’re having casual sex. While most sexual health educators and websites say things like having sex with fewer people is the best way to protect yourself, we advise you not to listen to this, as hooking up with people who want the same thing as you, is absolutely fine.
It’s in your nature to want to sleep with lots of different partners and thanks to the most amazing hookup apps, you can. The only thing you need to make sure you’re safe and healthy while doing it. So, the first step you need to take is educating yourself on how you get different sexually transmitted diseases, also known as STDs.
STD as well as an STI, which stands for sexually transmitted infection, is a fungus, parasite or a virus, as well as any other thing that affects your well-being and health in a negative way and is a direct result of sexual activity.
Some STIs don’t require sexual intercourse to get transmitted, they only need skin to skin contact but, most of the time, penetration and exchange of bodily fluids is required for a person to get infected with an STI.
Of course, the most important thing here is to know that, if your partner doesn’t have an STI, you can’t get it. Even if a person has an STI, it doesn’t mean that you’ll get it for sure. Knowing if your casual partner has an STI or STD is very important for your health, so you can start from there.
With all this in mind, here are some great tips on how to have casual sex safely and protect your health.
1. Protection Is a Must
When it comes to the proper protection from STDs and STIs, there are three options: female condoms, condoms, and abstinence. Since abstinence is out of the question, we’ll focus on the other two methods that can help you stay safe during your casual sex adventures.
Both condoms and female condoms are known as barrier protection, as they keep your and your casual partner’s bodily fluids from getting in contact by putting a literal physical barrier between them. Condoms are effective in 98% of cases so using protection on your casual dates should be your number one priority.
There are two kinds of protection at your disposal:
- Barrier protection
- Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
Pre-exposure prophylaxis is a new daily pill that greatly helps minimize the chances of getting an STI. If taken on a daily basis, it can protect you very effectively.
2. Test Yourself Regularly
Setting up a regular testing schedule is one of the best ways to take care of your health and it’s a mandatory thing if you’re up and running when it comes to casual sex. This goes especially if you’re really active in your hookup adventures and love sleeping with multiple partners. It all depends on whether your casual partners are carriers of STIs, but you’re probably more exposed to STIs than the average person.
Therefore, getting tested routinely for STIs is your best option if you want to safely continue with your lifestyle. Doctors that do the testing can be more helpful if they know how often you have casual sex and with how many partners.
Test yourself regularly because even if something bad happens, at least you can find out about it on time and take all the necessary steps to ensure that you recover with as few consequences to your health as possible. You know what they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
3. Lag Times Are Important
One of the important things that you should also know is that tests need time. They work a few weeks after the intercourse. This is mostly because different tests look for different things like antibodies in your immune system instead of going after a parasite or the virus. If you get infected, your immune system uses these antibodies to fight the intruder or the unwanted visitor.
Your body needs a few days before it notices the STI. Once it becomes aware of the foreign intrusion, it mounts a response to fight back. Sometimes it takes a month to receive the results. Most of the time, you can get a result after a week or two. The lag time is a window period between you getting exposed to an STI and getting the results.
The most important thing here is to know that you can test positive for a different kind of STI while waiting for your tests. The best thing to do is to avoid contact from the moment you took the test until you get the results so that you can make sure that you’re absolutely clean.
4. Talk Contraception With Your Partners
Having a one night stand is all about having good times, sharing some emotions with someone you like and having fun while experiencing something new, experimenting with your sexuality, and so on. You don’t want to end up with an infection or a baby for sure. Therefore, you can solve both problems by communicating about contraception with your casual partners.
First of all, by having a normal conversation with your partner, you’re showing that you’re a responsible adult that cares for both themselves and their partners, which can only contribute to your casual efforts. Then, there’s the safety of both you and your partner.
Since different people have a different perception of what it means to stay safe during sex, talking about this will get you synchronized with your partner, so that you can just let go and do your thing without interruptions.
5. Don’t Go Anywhere Unprepared
Before you go on a casual date with your hookup, make all the necessary preparations to ensure you have a good time. So that means, eat well, get plenty of rest and sleep, take care of your hygiene, dress nicely and, of course, bring your supplies of protection products. If you know you’re going to have sex, it’s always good to come prepared.
Knowing that you’re covered at all times isn’t only about caring about your health and safety, it’s about feeling good about what you do and being confident about yourself. It will improve your performance, ensure that you have fun and on top of all that, keep you and your partner healthy and safe.
Having condoms with you is always a good way to go but it’s especially important if you’re active and having casual sex frequently.
6. Share your Thoughts on STIs With Your Casual Partners
Since this is your health in question here, talking about STIs with your partners is an essential step to taking care of your health on your casual sex journey. Talking about these things is everything but sexy and it’s stressful, there’s no doubt about it. There’s no need to find out about an STI after you’ve had sex, as that’s the worst possible situation, however you take it.
Instead, if your casual partner isn’t comfortable speaking about STIs, it’s probably because they have or have had it. You can break the ice by telling them about the last time you got tested. That should make them feel comfortable enough to share their STI history with you.
With that in mind, you should go only with those partners who aren’t afraid to share their experiences with you. Of course, before you ask your partner about their experiences with STIs, don’t do it aggressively or intensely, just be mindful of their emotions and think about how you’d have felt if someone asked you the same.
7. Be Responsible and Demand Safe Sex
People aren’t always quite responsible when they have casual sex simply because they need it and they want it, so they’re prepared to pretty much do anything to get what they want. Others will even feel offended that you don’t trust them. None of this matters. The only thing that matters is your health and safety.
So, demanding safe sex is your responsibility, especially if you consider yourself to be an active casual adventurer. Looking out for our own sexual health should be your responsibility and a number one priority.
On the other hand, you’re also looking out for your partners as well, so they should do the same to honor your efforts. Never give in to your desires on the count of your health.
8. Control Your Commitment and Infatuation
Your health isn’t only compromised by STIs. There’s the mental aspect here as well. If you can’t control your commitment and become too infatuated with your new partner, it might negatively reflect on you mentally and make you feel disappointed and depressed. This might even result in erectile dysfunction, decreased sexual drive, and low libido.
Therefore, keeping yourself under control is a great part of having healthy casual sex. Infatuation is a neurochemical process that happens involuntarily most of the time. People just get too excited over their new partners, simply because they are new. The thing is, the more you have sex with them, the more you get infatuated and your commitment grows.
You can end up feeling hurt and betrayed if you let it go to your head. If maintaining a causal relationship is your main goal, then fight that infatuation. Do everything within your power to resist the need to see your partners because that’s what casual means.
If you get in too deep, finding a new partner will do the trick but be careful not to replace one infatuation with another. Keeping a rotation of other casual lovers greatly helps to keep things casual.
9. Never Be Too Hard on Yourself or Your Partners
While casual sex doesn’t require emotional attachment, being respectful of your partners will make you feel better about what you do. In fact, if you’re not hard on yourself or your partner, that will help make a much more memorable, fulfilling, and pleasurable experience each time.
Be genuinely respectful, attentive, caring, and passionate and just be aware that things won’t always go as planned. That doesn’t mean that you should automatically blame yourself or your partner for a bad hookup.
A fool-proof way of making casual sex enriching, safe, pleasurable, and fun doesn’t exist unfortunately but, if you take all these measures into consideration, you’ll definitely be one step closer to turning each casual experience into a night to remember.
