STI Myths Busted The Naked Truth About STI Testing & Safer Sex

Ed [00:00:00]:
We blow the doors off sti st. And it’s live. We blow the doors off sti. Testing myths and answer all of your burning questions about STIs and the swinging lifestyle. Stick around. Find out how we handle safer sex at events, on dates, and in orgies. Well, Phoebe?

Phoebe [00:00:28]:
Yes, my love?

Ed [00:00:30]:
We’ve had a number of people ask us about this specific topic. I think it was a couple episodes ago, someone said, hey, have you guys ever done an episode on STIs? And of course, we have do them all the time, so to speak. We’ve done several in the past, and we will link to those in this episode doing the. The whole linky thing. We got a comment, though, on one of our YouTube videos that was pretty specific, and I’m going to read the questions, but we’re not going to answer them till the very end. So you’re going to want to stick around because these are some interesting questions. Here’s the first one. How do you handle safe sex in an orgy?

Phoebe [00:01:11]:
Very good question.

Ed [00:01:12]:
Are you constantly swapping out condoms per person? Do you keep one on and hop from person to person? Do you have penetrative sex or do you have only with your partner? Do you take Truvada and just deal with all the other STIs if they pop up? See what I mean? Like, there’s some.

Phoebe [00:01:30]:
Those are good questions.

Ed [00:01:31]:
There’s some good questions in there. Very rapid fire.

Phoebe [00:01:36]:
Some of my lifestyle friends, I just can see their faces with some of these questions and, like, keeping the condom on and hopping from person to person. One of my good friends, I could just see her going.

Ed [00:01:51]:
Yes. They may actually be watching right now.

Phoebe [00:01:54]:
No way.

Ed [00:01:57]:
So let’s get into it. Let’s talk about myth number one.

Phoebe [00:02:02]:
All right. Getting tested means you’re safe right now. It is a false sense of security because your test can either either give you a false positive or a false negative. And what did you get tested for?

Ed [00:02:20]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:02:20]:
Because not what. Not everybody gets tested for the same things.

Ed [00:02:24]:
Yes. No, not. No. 2 tests are exactly the same, so to speak.

Phoebe [00:02:29]:
Right. Mail order ones are going to be different than what your, you know, doctor orders. And you. We are going to talk about the HIV test, which is not in the standard panel. That’s coming up a little bit later. So let’s. Let’s talk about this false sense of security that a lot of people fall into. We fell into that false insecurity before we started to really dive into that based on our risk level and how that started to change over time.

Ed [00:03:04]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:03:06]:
So did you want to talk about the. The lifestyle vacation chat that we were in where people were posting?

Ed [00:03:15]:
Yeah, I’ll talk to that. Speak to that a little bit. And I’ll also say that my first experience with getting tested was actually when you and I met.

Phoebe [00:03:25]:
Oh, yeah.

Ed [00:03:26]:
And I’d had a long term marriage for like 14 years, been totally monogamous. And you had been in several long term relationships, but you were also kind of.

Phoebe [00:03:41]:
I was having sex like three times a week with different people.

Ed [00:03:45]:
Phoebe was hoeing it, so I was hoeing it.

Phoebe [00:03:49]:
So you were concerned. And so I tested. And I remember we waited. There was a waiting period that we had gone through because you were raising children at the time, and your risk assessment was different at the time because you needed to care for them, you needed to be around.

Ed [00:04:08]:
Yeah. And I think, too, it was a good kind of, like, clean slate for both of us, starting a new relationship and, you know, knowing what was on the table, so to speak, what was on the, you know, maybe the petri dish and going from there. So when we were going to Hito, the chat channel was blowing up about everybody going and getting tested before the event. And it. We kind of scratched our head a lot reading some of the messages because they were falling into this myth of this false sense of security. Well, we’ve all been tested. Or we’ll all have our tests and our cards and our little, you know, test result sheet, and we’ll bring those to HITO to prove that we are safe to play with.

Phoebe [00:05:03]:
Right. Did we see anybody whip out their test?

Ed [00:05:08]:
Not a damn person. Not a single person that whole week.

Phoebe [00:05:12]:
No.

Ed [00:05:13]:
Ever flashed their badge, so to speak.

Phoebe [00:05:15]:
Not at the pool, not at the dinner table.

Ed [00:05:18]:
I don’t even think anybody.

Phoebe [00:05:19]:
Not on the dance floor. Not even in your private room.

Ed [00:05:22]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:05:23]:
Like, I get that it’s not going to be at the pool, on the dance floor during dinner. Right.

Ed [00:05:27]:
You laminate them and you tuck them into your suit and you just pull them out.

Phoebe [00:05:30]:
But even in the room, when we had people back to the room posted on the door, no one like it. I get it. It kills the mood, you know, like. Like, oh, sorry, you can’t enter. I know, I know. We’re all hot and heavy right now. But the final question, Final question.

Ed [00:05:49]:
Show me your test.

Phoebe [00:05:51]:
Right? Like, nobody does that. Nobody does that.

Ed [00:05:55]:
Show me your papers.

Phoebe [00:05:58]:
Your papers are out of compliance.

Ed [00:06:03]:
All right, let me get into myth number two. Getting a full panel test covers everything. I mean, it’s in the name, right? It says Full panel test. Well, not necessarily. This is a little bit of, kind of a misleading term when they say a full panel test. It can be anywhere between eight and 10 tests. If. And they vary what they’re testing. So we’ll get into that.

Phoebe [00:06:35]:
Right. It depends on your insurance, your provider, where you live, what entity you’re getting your test from, all of that.

Ed [00:06:42]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:06:42]:
A lot of people. Well, go ahead with what, what this, the standard tests, and then I’ll talk about hiv.

Ed [00:06:52]:
So the standard test, if you, if you walk into a Planned Parenthood, or at least this is typical, if you typically go in and ask for a full panel test, this is what you will get. You will get HIV 1 and 2 antibody tests, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, Hep A, Hep B and hep C. Hepatitis for those of you who are not hip to the hep. And that doesn’t cover a lot of things. It covers the big ones. It covers the ones that are sometimes treatable with an antibiotic. Some of these aren’t treatable with anything. So what does it leave out? Well, the most common one.

Phoebe [00:07:40]:
Well, actually, I don’t think they. The. The hiv, they. Oh, sorry. HEP C, H, S. Oh, gosh, I’m getting my head. Yeah. I’m getting my acronyms all messed up.

Ed [00:07:58]:
Yeah.

Phoebe [00:07:59]:
So the hsv, the HSV test is not one that’s common in the panel.

Ed [00:08:08]:
Correct.

Phoebe [00:08:09]:
And there’s reasons for that.

Ed [00:08:11]:
Right. So for those who do not know what HSV is, that is herpes simplex V virus. And there’s two versions of this. There’s HSV one, which is cold source that, like, some have guessed that there’s like 90% of the population actually has HSV1. It’s very, very common and it lies dormant in most people.

Phoebe [00:08:38]:
Right.

Ed [00:08:38]:
HSV2, very close cousins is genital herpes.

Phoebe [00:08:45]:
Right. But I did just read recently and it got very technical and I’m not going to bore you with the details because it did make my brain crunch a little bit. There is a little bit of a crossover. So you can have HSV2 orally, I believe. An HSV1 down below or one or the other or something. Yes, it’s the. Neat. Neat.

Ed [00:09:06]:
Yeah, yeah. So we’ve even seen stories about. And this is not related to swinging, but birds getting herpes on their eyes.

Phoebe [00:09:15]:
Yeah.

Ed [00:09:16]:
So it can spread around a little bit.

Phoebe [00:09:18]:
Yes, But. Oh, yeah, my cat had that.

Ed [00:09:21]:
Your cat had herpes in the eyes? Yeah. So the, the trick with HSV is one, most people have it, so they don’t bother testing for it because it’s, it’s, you’ve probably got it. The other part of it is there’s a lot of false positives with it so they can unduly alert you for having it when you may or may not have it.

Phoebe [00:09:46]:
Right.

Ed [00:09:46]:
So it’s not very common to get in tests. Oh. If you want to get tested for hsv, you have to ask for it specifically or find a test panel that has it.

Phoebe [00:09:56]:
And it’s a really unique test. It’s not the, the DNA test is actually preferred. It’s going to be more or pretty close to being accurate, but you have to have an active breakout also, once.

Ed [00:10:15]:
Again, if you’re asymptomatic, you wouldn’t know to even test for it.

Phoebe [00:10:20]:
Yeah. Now the blood test can identify antibodies, but it signifies a prior infection. So there’s this whole latency period and you don’t know where you are with the infection and la, la, la, la, la. So it’s. God, it’s pluses and minuses. So it’s not that accurate.

Ed [00:10:43]:
Yeah.

Phoebe [00:10:45]:
The blood test, or I believe it’s the blood test tests for two different. I believe these are the antibodies. Okay. Forgive me once more because it was a lot of details and I was crunching at the last minute here, but we will put these notes in, in down, down below later. There’s an I IGM and there’s an igg. So the, these, this, the IGM produces very quickly after an infection. So this is the antibody that, that starts to kick off.

Ed [00:11:22]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:11:22]:
The IGG takes a while, like 12 to 16 weeks. So which one are you testing for? Are you testing for both? What if you miss one?

Ed [00:11:31]:
Yep.

Phoebe [00:11:32]:
There’s your time period, latency thing.

Ed [00:11:34]:
Yep.

Phoebe [00:11:35]:
And you, you have to have that specific test in order to identify it. The HSV1 and the HSV2. You can’t just have one ident. Like they do different things. The most common test is a immunoassay and there’s also a Western blot test. It’s best but not always available. And then the IgG can have false negatives and false positives. So like it gets very complicated. It’s, it’s, it’s not, it’s just not a common test because it’s challenging to test people for it.

Ed [00:12:16]:
Very complicated to test before it gets.

Phoebe [00:12:18]:
Because so many people have it and there’s all these latency periods and active periods and dormant periods. It’s just, it’s a hot mess is what it is.

Ed [00:12:31]:
Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely a hot mess. So they just don’t, they just don’t bother. So there are some panels of tests that do include hsv. So you’re paying for something that may or may not help you because if you’re outside of this latency window, it may not show up for properly.

Phoebe [00:12:49]:
Right.

Ed [00:12:50]:
And if it’s a mail in test, you’re probably not getting a blood test, although I guess they could prick your finger. Prick your finger and, and do it that way. So the other two tests that are not typically given, but you can start to get them especially there’s some online testing groups that do it, and that is throat swabbing. So not only do you have to worry about getting STIs in your genitals and whole body, but you can also get them and contract them and pass them on through your throat.

Phoebe [00:13:26]:
Not HSVs.

Ed [00:13:27]:
Correct. This is gonorrhea and chlamydia. So there are tests now that do throat swabs for those two specific STIs.

Phoebe [00:13:36]:
It’s rare, but it can happen.

Ed [00:13:40]:
And one of the things that we have seen is typically swingers do not use condoms for blowjobs.

Phoebe [00:13:49]:
No.

Ed [00:13:50]:
So if you had chlamydia or you were going down on someone who had chlamydia, which is a very common sti, it’s quite possible that you could get throat chlamydia and then you would have it and you’d pass it on to other people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So there you go.

Phoebe [00:14:06]:
Yay. Hey. Myth number three, if you test negative, you’re safe. Same as positive. Because, well, positive, you would, it’s gonna freak you out, but you may not actually be positive.

Ed [00:14:23]:
Right, Right.

Phoebe [00:14:25]:
And this, the, the negative. If you’re testing negative and you think you’re safe, it really comes down to these latency windows.

Ed [00:14:35]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:14:36]:
Brings us back to that Hedo conversation in the chat where some people were, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re sharing their fun times, right? And so they went to an orgy party, a house party, the weekend before they’re gonna leave for Hedo, right. They, they get done Saturday, they go on Monday to go get their test. And we’re like, got our test results back on Wednesday. Yay, I’m clean. I’m like, you haven’t even waited for the window period yet. Nothing’s even the antibodies and haven’t even had a chance to like, right. Activate yet. So there’s no way that you were, quote, clean. So let me Read some of these latency periods. All right, chlamydia, seven to 21 days, gonorrhea one to 14 days. Okay, so the gonorrhea may have shown up.

Ed [00:15:32]:
Could be, unless you’re the 14 day one.

Phoebe [00:15:35]:
Right. Genital herpes, 2 to 21 days, HIV, 2 to 4 weeks, trichomoniasis, 5 to 28 days. Now you’re going into a medium latency period. That was the short stuff, right?

Ed [00:15:50]:
That’s the, that’s the quick, quick results.

Phoebe [00:15:54]:
The medium latency period is hepatitis B, eight to 22 weeks, hepatitis C, two to 26 weeks, syphilis. Some strains can be three weeks, but for others it could take years, years, years for them to appear. Long latency STIs. HPV could take 11 month to 10 years.

Ed [00:16:22]:
So, yeah, and this really hits the heart of what we talk about when we talk about this false sense of security with STI testing and that because of these latency windows, you’re all convinced that you’re good because your test came back negative. But they haven’t shown up yet. They couldn’t be tested for because they’re not going to show up in a test for like six months. So you’re at heto, you have the infection. You’re running around doing everything because you’re convinced that you’re all good and you’re not. You could have something and you could be passing it around, which is why we prefer to play with condoms. Because better safe than sorry.

Phoebe [00:17:17]:
Yeah, it, it takes care of a lot of the STIs, right. And depending on how you play, if you’re washing up in between, it also depends on how you wash up and what you’re using to wash up and whether you’re doing oral or not, whether you’re playing with multiple partners or not in one setting. So those all factor into your risks.

Ed [00:17:44]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:17:45]:
I did just read on the HPV that that latency period playing into that 10 year window, they’re starting to do some studies on women who are perimenopausal. And interesting that hormone change kind of kicking off re reactivating or activating the hpv, that’s been dormant for years.

Ed [00:18:11]:
Wow.

Phoebe [00:18:12]:
So remember how I thought I had gotten it from some early swinging partners? Who knows if that’s really true? I could have gotten it when I was a teenager because they didn’t have that, the vaccine or when you were.

Ed [00:18:27]:
Dating frequently when I was hoeing around.

Phoebe [00:18:34]:
And it was just dormant until my body started going through hormonal changes and then it Just said activate.

Ed [00:18:44]:
Wonder sti. Activate. Yeah. That’s horrifying.

Phoebe [00:18:50]:
Well, the good thing is your body can resolve that, and you know, it.

Ed [00:18:53]:
It is dormant, but it hpv. You can. You can shed it after a period of time. I don’t recommend testing that out, but we have talked to medical professionals, and, yes, you. You do shed it eventually. So what this boils down to, myth number three really boils down to, is you are only as safe as your last partner. And if you had a partner yesterday or at the orgy at noon, you. You. Your clock starts over.

Phoebe [00:19:28]:
Yep.

Ed [00:19:28]:
So now you got to wait six more months to figure out if that actually resulted in any kind of lingering gifts.

Phoebe [00:19:37]:
Lingering gifts. So, really what you want to do is test if you think that if you have some concerns or you’re just being, you know, abundantly cautious. Test, wait three months. It’s a nice, safe number because it targets most of the latency STIs. Yeah. Most of them are, well, 22 weeks. So then retest again.

Ed [00:20:11]:
Yes, exactly. So periodic testing. It’s a good policy to just kind of see where you are. You go in for an annual checkup.

Phoebe [00:20:21]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Ed [00:20:22]:
How everything’s working. You should get a periodic checkup to see how your sexual health is going to.

Phoebe [00:20:28]:
I would say the STI testing is really for yourself.

Ed [00:20:32]:
Yes.

Phoebe [00:20:32]:
It’s not for.

Ed [00:20:33]:
And your primary partner.

Phoebe [00:20:34]:
And your primary partner.

Ed [00:20:35]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Phoebe [00:20:36]:
Because like we said early on, nobody checks. Nobody even really asks.

Ed [00:20:43]:
Yeah.

Phoebe [00:20:44]:
Getting tested all the time makes you safer. We kind of covered that a little bit. Basically, having sex with one person exposes you to an xsti. Multiple partners, multiple risks. And it’s really up to you on your risk level and comfort.

Ed [00:21:01]:
Yes. And, Kenneth, Ken, I see your comment. Absolutely. That’s exactly what we’re talking about here, which is, you know, it’s an inherently risky behavior. You’re having sex with multiple partners, and there are a number of sexual behaviors that kind of increase your risk, which is one of the reasons why we prefer to play with condoms, because it does lower our risk. It doesn’t eliminate the risk, but it reduces it.

Phoebe [00:21:28]:
I even read today that pubic hair somehow lowers your risk. It’s actually in here. I know if I can find it quickly, I’ll. I’ll read it to you guys at the end. But it was interesting.

Ed [00:21:43]:
That’s a new twist on it.

Phoebe [00:21:45]:
Pubic hair is coming back. If you haven’t had it lasered off like me, I’m screwed sometimes. It’s all gone.

Ed [00:21:55]:
Now. We’re on Myth five.

Phoebe [00:21:56]:
Now we’re five. Yeah.

Ed [00:21:58]:
Myth five. If someone shows me their test results, they’re safe. And the answer to this is not necessarily and not for the reasons that we talked about before. These are some new reasons. Let me get into these.

Phoebe [00:22:09]:
Okay.

Ed [00:22:11]:
Truth. So you. You are going into that situation assuming that this person is being honest and truthful and that those were actual legitimate test results. So few years back, when there were hundreds of thousands of people dying all the time, people were getting fake Covid tests in order to accomplish whatever thing they were trying to do. I don’t get it, but there are companies or places online that will give you sti panel test results, printouts that look like you are clear.

Phoebe [00:22:52]:
Yeah. Yes.

Ed [00:22:54]:
That’s fucking evil.

Phoebe [00:22:56]:
Yes. Yes. So if they’re checking at the door and you don’t want to spend the money. Not that. Yeah. Anyway, for all the reasons earlier.

Ed [00:23:07]:
So many reasons.

Phoebe [00:23:08]:
You could get a fake one and get yourself in. I know.

Ed [00:23:11]:
Yeah. The other thing is you. You’re having a conversation with someone. They could claim that they were tested. The question, of course, comes down to when was it that they got tested? Did they hit that kind of window? And this is. This is the real kicker, and this is the one that we’ve experienced personally, and that is infidelity.

Phoebe [00:23:32]:
Oh, yeah.

Ed [00:23:34]:
So we’d had a couple that we were pursuing, and they were pursuing us, and it was fun, and we were having a good time. And years later, years later, we find out that he had actually been cheating on her. And they didn’t disclose that. They. They both knew.

Phoebe [00:23:56]:
They both knew. Yeah. And. And even sold us on the fact that they were very selective.

Ed [00:24:01]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:24:01]:
And picky about who they slept with.

Ed [00:24:04]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:24:05]:
And we’re like, oh, okay. Well, they must be, you know, pretty safe. Their risk levels pretty low.

Ed [00:24:11]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:24:13]:
Totally lied.

Ed [00:24:14]:
Totally lied. They had. Had just had kind of hidden that. That little choice nugget that he had been stepping out of the relationship and who. Who knows how many people he’d slept with? Who knows if they were being tested? Who. We didn’t know any of that. And of course, after the fact, we go, wow. Totally clueless.

Phoebe [00:24:37]:
Yeah. That pissed me off.

Ed [00:24:38]:
Had no way to know. Right?

Phoebe [00:24:40]:
Yeah.

Ed [00:24:40]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:24:41]:
Yeah. It was just rude. And then the window period. But we’ve already.

Ed [00:24:48]:
We’ve beaten that window period to death. We said five, but we’ve got a bonus myth for you. And this is one that came up when. If you just do a quick search about myths about sexually transmitted diseases or sexually transmitted infections, this one comes up all the time. And it is. If you don’t have symptoms, you should be okay. And that is a big fat negatory. There are so many STIs that do not display symptoms. We talked early about HSV. If there’s a latent period where they don’t even. You can’t even test for it for six months. You don’t know. And as you were talking about, HPV lies dormant for, like, 10 years. So there’s no out. Outward symptoms of a lot of these right now.

Phoebe [00:25:43]:
Some. Some of the STIs will have this shedding cycle, which makes them more contagious at that period of time. So, you know, you can kiss someone with hsv and, you know, probably not get herpes if they don’t have an active outbreak.

Ed [00:26:04]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:26:05]:
So there are these things, but, you know, here you are trying to keep track of this massive list in your head. Or chlamydia, seven to 12 days. No, you’re. You’re drinking, you’re having a good time, you’re trying to socialize, and you just want to get your freak on. You’re not really thinking about all that.

Ed [00:26:24]:
That’s.

Phoebe [00:26:25]:
Or if you are, it’s ruining the moment. And so this is why people don’t really do the. Yeah, the disclosure.

Ed [00:26:33]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right. This is the point where everybody’s been waiting. You’ve been hanging on for this.

Phoebe [00:26:41]:
Is this orgy time?

Ed [00:26:42]:
It is officially orgy time. So we get to answer all those questions about that that are orgy time. We like orgies. If you haven’t. Haven’t told.

Phoebe [00:26:57]:
Can people see me dancing? Probably not. I’m probably not even on the camera.

Ed [00:27:01]:
Yeah, if you talk and dance at the same time.

Phoebe [00:27:04]:
Talking, talking, talking. Dancing, dancing, dancing.

Ed [00:27:07]:
All right, I’ll put you on. There you go.

Phoebe [00:27:08]:
What, I have to do it a third time now?

Ed [00:27:10]:
No, no, I put you on. You’re good. You danced.

Phoebe [00:27:12]:
Okay, good.

Ed [00:27:12]:
Beside you. All right, all right. So how do you handle safe sex in an orgy? This is kind of the overarching question. Are you constantly swapping out condoms per person? Absolutely.

Phoebe [00:27:25]:
Yes.

Ed [00:27:26]:
Every time you move to a new partner, you take the old condom off, you put a new one on, and preferably you wash up in between. So you wash your hands, you wash your genitals, you wash your face. You wash your face. Yeah, because you probably did some, you know, basic things with the. And then.

Phoebe [00:27:43]:
And the.

Ed [00:27:46]:
You gotta scrub, scrub the whiskers. Scrub, scrub, scrub now. Okay, so if pubic hair cuts down on.

Phoebe [00:27:52]:
Oh, does Facial hair.

Ed [00:27:54]:
Should I grow. Should I grow a big handlebar mustache so that I can, you know, give mustache?

Phoebe [00:28:01]:
Let’s see if I can find that. You keep talking.

Ed [00:28:03]:
All right, See, Phoebe’s. Phoebe’s doing live research while we go.

Phoebe [00:28:07]:
Uhhuh.

Ed [00:28:08]:
Do you keep one on and hop from person to person? I have to answer this. Absolutely not. That’s basically the. The same thing as, in a sense, passing whatever the first person has to the second to the third to the fourth. You are safer because you’re wearing the condom, but all of your partners are basically swapping fluid. So. No, don’t, don’t. Don’t do that. That’s not good. And do you not have penetrative sex with other people or. And just with your partner? That is one way to do it in an orgy situation where everybody soft swap except for you and your partner. There’s so many different ways to have orgies and to do kind of group sex or even partnered sexual swapping. So, yeah, you could do it that way.

Phoebe [00:29:00]:
Oh, okay. So before we finish the. The. The. All of those. I have it. The pubic hair removal may be associated with an increased risk of acquiring genital HSV infections. The data isn’t great, but the hypothesis is that the pubic hair removal leads to micro trauma of the skin. So. So if you’re plucking or shaving right.

Ed [00:29:24]:
Before that aspect of it.

Phoebe [00:29:27]:
Yes. It can actually increase the risk of acquiring the infection if exposed.

Ed [00:29:33]:
Yeah. So this really has to do more with grooming and hygiene before an event, which is a good topic to kind of bring up. And then I have two things that I want to add to this, so I have to remember those. So if you’re flossing your teeth, you are also cutting your gums, and you are exposing yourself to many. Any orally transmitted infections. And potentially if you’re going down on someone, you are. Have bleeding gum, so to speak, and you could be transmitting something to someone. So yeah, anytime you cut yourself and you. You bleed a little bit from shaving or scraping or flossing, you are increasing your chance of an infection or passing an infection. So just. Just be aware that that can happen. So mouthwash helps a little bit with that because you kind of kill things, but I don’t think that that’s even foolproof, depending on your. Your gum health.

Phoebe [00:30:27]:
But then it kills your dentist all your microbiota in your vulva area too, which I don’t like. So people.

Ed [00:30:35]:
Oh, mouthwash. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Phoebe [00:30:38]:
So people with mouthwash cannot go down on me.

Ed [00:30:40]:
Right.

Phoebe [00:30:41]:
I’d rather have the additional bacteria.

Ed [00:30:45]:
Yeah, there is that.

Phoebe [00:30:47]:
Without another partner.

Ed [00:30:49]:
So I did want to bring up a D point one for this question which was do you have penetrative sex with just your partner? So in the past when we’ve been in orgy situations, a lot of times I will not use a condom with you, but I will wash up. So I’m using condoms with all my other partners, but when I get back with you, I don’t need a condom.

Phoebe [00:31:11]:
Right.

Ed [00:31:12]:
We’re, we’re already, we’ve passed everything that we have back and forth already. So there you go, the last one here and this is one that’s come up a lot more frequently and it has to do with Truvada. And do you take Truvada and just deal with all the other STIs as they pop up? So people who do not know it is an Truvada is a two part prophylactic system. One, it helps fight the infection, it’s an antiviral in your body. But two, it works as kind of like a prophylactic to prevent infection. So it kind of does two things for, for the price of one. We’ve read kind of mixed results with that and you absolutely want to talk to your doctor about this and everything in this topic because we’re not medical professionals, we’re podcasters and orgy participants and that does not make us medical professionals. So with these kind of preventative drugs that you can take, they, they do have there, they do tend to be very effective. So the efficacy is very high on them. But there’s some concern about long term use and what it can do to your body because you are constantly flooding your system with these drugs. I’m not a big fan of taking things on a pretty regular basis. Like even ibuprofen, they tell you don’t take it regularly because it starts to mess with all kinds of stuff in your system. So introducing something like this may not be the best idea as your only line of defense. It may not be the thing that you want to take like 24, 7, 365.

Phoebe [00:33:00]:
Well, and I think it acts like an antibiotic, honestly, to a certain degree, from what I understand, and maybe I’m wrong and if I’m wrong, someone please put that in the comments. But that just destroys all your microbiome in your intestinal tract. And now you’ve just killed off everything. Now you gotta rebuild all that. So, and no probiotics are better than prebiotics are better Than probiotics. Probiotics do not seed the bacteria in your intestines. Absolutely do not. So if you’ve taken that and you go, oh, I’ll just have some yogurt the next day, that’s not gonna do shit. So, yeah, maybe if you go to a cruise once a year or heo, or desire once a year, you don’t want to worry about any of that and you just want to just take that medicine and just go at it. Go at it.

Ed [00:34:03]:
Yeah.

Phoebe [00:34:04]:
Then, you know, might not be a bad plan. But on a regular basis. I don’t know. I, I, I personally wouldn’t.

Ed [00:34:12]:
Yeah, yeah. But I do know people who will use a, a viral suppressant for HSV too, to prevent outbreaks. And I know that that’s pretty common for people who are HSV positive. So, you know, to prevent herpes kind of shedding.

Phoebe [00:34:29]:
Right.

Ed [00:34:30]:
But yeah, and Ken’s commenting in here too, about condoms prep for HIV, which is usually 100% effective. Doxycycline, PEP and back for bacterial STIs. But like doxycycline as an example is an antibiotic.

Phoebe [00:34:44]:
Oh, yeah, that’s maybe the one I’m thinking of.

Ed [00:34:47]:
Yeah. And, and that works, does work for bacteria, but taking antibiotics is really bad for your gut health.

Phoebe [00:34:55]:
Oh, horrible.

Ed [00:34:56]:
Especially on a regular basis. Yeah. So this is absolutely something you should talk to your doctor, your medical professional, be honest with them, tell them that you are in a risky lifestyle and you like to engage in orgies and group sex and that you’re going to be hitting Jamaica and the, the pool parties and all the rambunctious things that go on.

Phoebe [00:35:19]:
Yeah, yeah. They’re also, it’s, it’s a, it’s a good, it could be a good solution for people that like to play bareback to reduce some of the, you know, impact of the sti, if they’re right on that. But most, most people you’re not going to find, you kind of have to find your tribe that does that. It’s usually a select group that tends to do that together. It’s not going to be your, it’s.

Ed [00:35:52]:
Not a random hookup.

Phoebe [00:35:53]:
No. And it’s not, you’re not going to find it really at Desire or, you know, or any on a cruise. I mean, you might, but you really have to select, you have to interview those people.

Ed [00:36:02]:
Yeah, yeah. So, and, you know, and if that’s your play style, you’ve probably got your own set of protocols for it. Something like a prep or pep might actually be a good Precautionary thing. Maybe you’re introducing a new partner into the group. Yeah, you know, hey, maybe everybody takes prep and pep for a little while and kind of sorts things out.

Phoebe [00:36:25]:
Yep. Come on a vacation with us, you guys. We’re going on a virgin cruise. Two of them. One is in Alaska, I think that’s around July.

Ed [00:36:35]:
Yeah.

Phoebe [00:36:36]:
And then we’re going to Mexico because I don’t have to fly to Florida. Hello. I just leave from LA. I take a $60 plane trip down for an. It’s probably an hour from the ground to the like if air time is like 40 minutes.

Ed [00:36:55]:
Yeah, it’s ridiculous.

Phoebe [00:36:56]:
That’s such a no brainer for me. I’m like, yes, sign me up, I’ll go to Mexico. So we’re going to do that. And it’s a five day cruise. It’s not a three day one. Which even makes it better, right?

Ed [00:37:06]:
A couple extra days.

Phoebe [00:37:07]:
Yes.

Ed [00:37:08]:
A couple extra days, yes. Yeah. So check out our website, swingervacation.net if you’re interested in these trips that we’re going to be on. But we have other ones too. So if you can’t make it in April or July, we’ve got lots of other trips that are scheduled. It’s a great company that we’re going through with that. Spicy vacations. And if you book it through our website, you support our channel as well. It’s, it doesn’t add anything to the cost. They kind of give us a piece of it out of their pocket. So we appreciate it, we appreciate the support. And if you go in April or July, you can hang out with us and have a conversation and we can talk about SDIs and oh my God, I’ll bring my dental dam. We can, we can, you know, poke ice cubes with it or something. I don’t know. If you want to send us a question when we’re not on the live sessions, you can email us using our website. We have a form there. You can sign up for our newsletter so you can get all of our updates as we send them out. Latest episodes, new vacation plans, fun stuff that’s going on in our lives. Absolutely. Check out our Patreon where we’ve got bonus content and behind the scenes stuff. So we talk about things that we don’t talk about here. So last week we did a Patreon episode where we talked about our legal battle that were going on. Yeah, it’s, it’s a bit of a sore subject for us. Sore. Right, right in the, the pocketbook because it’s expensive to have lawyers. Yeah. And it’s a pain because of. Well, you have to check out Patreon to hear all the details about it. We may do an episode about it, but I got to get that figured out first. And last but not least, if you like this show, tell a friend and bring them along. Tell them all about Swinger University and they’ll get something out of it too, hopefully. Yeah. So there you go. I think that’s our show for today and we appreciate you guys signing in. Thirteen whole people.

Phoebe [00:39:23]:
Woohoo. That’s awesome. Thanks, everyone.

Ed [00:39:26]:
We appreciate it.

Phoebe [00:39:27]:
And it’ll pick up a little more as we, you know, keep having these on a regular basis.

Ed [00:39:34]:
Yeah, yeah, and we started to advertise them. We wanted to, we wanted to get our, our sea legs first.

Phoebe [00:39:39]:
Yeah.

Ed [00:39:39]:
And, and try it a few times and make mistakes in the privacy of our, you know, small one or twosy people. But we’re figuring it out. So yeah, we’re gonna open it up to more people and we’ll, we’ll have more stuff go out.

Phoebe [00:39:54]:
Okay, thank you, everyone.

Ed [00:39:56]:
All right, well, till next time, sa.