Lesbian Sex & STDs?

It is less, but it's not zero, and it also depends on the sex acts, as well as other factors like having a cut or sore on some part of your body. Whether anyone has attempted to work out numbers for these things, I don't know. I doubt it, because there's just too many factors and you obviously can't experiment directly.

Then there's the fact that lesbians as a population both are less promiscuous and have fewer STD--but if we're talking about a lesbian who likes to have sex with married women, then we may not be talking about a lesbian who isn't promiscuous and who draws her sex partners from people who are less likely than average to have an STD.

However, there are certainly men out there who might have the perception that a lesbian fling would be "safer" than a heterosexual fling, and not just because of the STD issue and not just because of pregnancy, the other obvious danger avoided in a lesbian affair.

http://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/women.htm

You'll never guess what I Googled; lesbian stds.

You don't mean to imply that people should actually do their own research, do you?

Hey, it's really hard....

http://tinyurl.com/ydjts8g

The misconception probably comes from the myth that oral sex is safer than penetration. It's not.

That disease you were going to get in the nether regions?
Yeah, now it's in your mouth.

I'm not sure anyone really knows 100% for sure, but I think the theory is that you cannot get HIV from oral sex unless there's a cut or sore involved. It could be a cut on either partner--HIV from fluids either enters the cut, or blood from the cut enters the partner. The other theory is that HIV can get into cells in the mouth without there being a visible cut. Menstrual blood is also a risk because it contains blood. You can prove that someone got HIV from someone that they at least claim they only had oral sex with, but it's pretty hard to establish that they didn't have a cut, or bleeding gums, or badly chapped lips, or even a sore throat with some inflamed spots.

But I'd like to reemphasize that if the real question is whether a character in a book might believe that lesbian sex is inherently safer, then, yes, many actual people do believe that lesbian sex is inherently safer, and while lesbian sex probably is safer, there are plenty of people who believe it's safer than it actually is.

ChristineR said:

I'm not sure anyone really knows

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http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/resources/factsheets/wsw.htm

As she said:

CDC said:

To date, there are no confirmed cases of female-to-female sexual transmission of HIV in the United States database (K. McDavid, CDC, oral communication, March 2005). However, case reports of female-to-female transmission of HIV and the well-documented risk of female-to-male transmission [1] indicate that vaginal secretions and menstrual blood are potentially infectious and that mucous membrane (for example, oral, vaginal) exposure to these secretions has the potential to lead to HIV infection.

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Note: HIV is not the only option; there are a lot of other STDs

jfreedan said:

The misconception probably comes from the myth that oral sex is safer than penetration. It's not.

That disease you were going to get in the nether regions?
Yeah, now it's in your mouth.

Click to expand...

Yup ... I have seen Neisseria gonorrhea in throat cultures, and syphilis lesions of the mouth.

Herpes will spread through oral sex, AIDS less so.

And sharing sex toys can spread lots of things.

ChristineR said:

I'm not sure anyone really knows 100% for sure, but I think the theory is that you cannot get HIV from oral sex unless there's a cut or sore involved.

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That theory is wrong. The human skin is not iron plating; it is a flexible membrane. The skin's protection against viruses and diseases actually comes from cells that a disease like HIV is designed to invade and conquer; in layman's terms, the whole reason HIV is scary is because it takes over your immune system. Although it is harder to get infected just through skin contact with blood (compared to intercourse where the virus has easy access to blood vessels, especially if there is any anal / vaginal tearing), coming into contact with fresh HIV positive blood is kind of like playing Russian roulette.

That's the reason health providers like doctors and nurses wear latex gloves whenever they might come into contact with blood.

Of course, the inside of your mouth has no protection except for the billions of microscopic organisms that some diseases thrive on........

Also bear in mind just because an incident hasn't been reported or verified doesn't mean it isn't possible. Most of the time people don't know how they got a disease.