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Thinking about swinging? See your doctor.

If you're serious about swinging, or just care about your overall sexual health. The first thing I would suggest is going to your OBGYN (female) or general practitioner (male) and get screened for all the STI/STDs you can think of. If your insurance sucks (like mine) try a free of low-cost clinic (if you're in college your on campus health center will be able to either do the testing for you, or tell you where you can get it done). Planned Parenthood usually offers low cost testing. Most major city and suburb areas have clinics locally. Your doctor (or a good google search) will be able to tell you where you can find a good one. If you're going to a free clinic, be prepared to wait a bit to get seen so give yourself some time. If you have a steady partner, go together, you'll have each other there, and you'll both be able to get your results.

I would recommend EVERYTHING, just as a baseline; AIDS/HIV, hepatitis, herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, HPV, bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, UTIs (while not all of these are STD/STIs it is important to know about them) etc.

While going in and getting tested may be scary, it is your responsibility as a player in this arena to protect yourself and your partners. The pros of testing vastly outweigh the cons.

If you are someone who is active In the life style, or are seeing multiple partners for any other reason, get tested at least 1x a year. Girls, when you go in for your yearly you can get it done. Personally, I feel a lot more comfortable being tested multiple times a year. My number is 3.

While I've never been asked to show my test results (and you really shouldn't have to) its good for your own piece of mind to know about your status, and be able to be honest with your partners. If you don't trust someone on their STD status, then you shouldn't be meeting with them, let alone getting naked with them.


Welcome to 2011. :)
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