Sexual Safety Series- Entry #2

What's Mucosal Health Got To Do With It?

In my first post in this series I shared some safer sex tips to help prevent HIV transmission. In this post I will talk about how transmission happens, so that you can understand why certain things are more or less risky. One of the things that I didn't put in the 1st post, but should have, are the four body fluids HIV is found in, which are blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. For male, male sex, the main body fluid risk factors are blood and semen (cum).

Mucosal health refers to how healthy your mucous membranes are. You can think of the mucous membranes as the "pink parts" of your body, so that would be, the inside of your mouth, the lining of the anus, a man's urethra (the hole in the head of your penis) and a woman's vagina. All of these are likely points of entry for HIV via sex if the pink parts are compromised. So since having healthy mucosal membranes or "pink parts" help keep you HIV negative, it's imperative you make sure they're in tact prior to having sex.

HIV transmission occurs when there is damage to the pink parts. That damage triggers the body's immune system to send White Blood Cells to the area of inflammation or infection to fight off any foreign invaders (e.g.: bacteria, HIV, etc). These White Blood Cells are the very thing that HIV attaches itself to, which is how HIV infection occurs. So in other words, anything that causes inflammation or damage to your pink parts, will trigger White Blood Cells to help heal that inflammation. If the cells get to the site of inflammation and HIV is present, HIV infection occurs. If there is no HIV in the area where the White Blood Cells go, then HIV infection won't occur. So unprotected sex won't automatically put you at risk for HIV, but if there is HIV present in the body fluid the White Blood Cells come into contact with, then the likelihood of HIV transmission is very high.

What damages mucous membranes?
Mucous membranes can be damaged by many different things, but I'll talk about some of the most common ways.

In the mouth

1. Brushing teeth to the point where there's blood or you can feel some discomfort as a result of damaging the tissue.
2. Eating exrtemely spicy foods that cause some irritation to the tongue or inside of the mouth.
3. Recently having dental work done which almost always will cause some irritation to the gums. You might want to wait a day or two before engaging in unprotected oral sex until you feel that your gums are back in good shape.
4. Using mouthwash with a high alcohol or acidic content. That burning you feel when you use Listerine (or any other strong mouthwash) is the very thing that breaks down your mucous membranes and could put you at risk for HIV.
5. Any other activity that causes damage to the lining of the cheek (such as biting on it), gums (such as gingevitis) or tongue (such as biting it or a recent tongue piercing), among other things.

In the anus/vagina

1. Douching, because whatever chemical you use to clean out the anus can cause damage to the lining. That chemical could also dry the lining making it susceptible to tearing more easily during sex or it could cause inflammation, which will bring White Blood Cells to the area, which would lead to increased susceptibility for HIV infection.
2. Make sure you don't have an undiagnosed Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), because having an STD directly breaks down the mucosal lining and puts you at increased risk for HIV. This is why it's important to not only test for HIV, but also STD's. I have been told by nurses that 2/3 of all STD's don't show any observable symptoms, so testing for them may be the only way you know you have one.
3. Rough sex could damage the lining of the anus as well. If you have rough sex or notice, blood coming from your anus after sex, then you may want to wait at minimum a day to a few days before engaging in any unprotected anal sex with a casual sex partner or someone who you're unsure of their HIV status. Protected sex of course is safer, but there is always the slight risk of the condom busting during orgasm.
4. Having hemorrhoids obviously causes damage to the anal lining and often times blood will be present if there is an active hemorrhoid. It may sound like common sense, but I'll say it anyway, if you have hemorrhoids, don't have insertive anal sex!

The Urethra

1. The primary risk here will be with STD's that get inside the urethra. An ideal situation for HIV transmission would be, having an STD that effects your urethra, and sticking your non-condomed dick inside someone who has a hemorrhoid, or blood present for whatever reason. Again that is why STD testing is important as well as using a condom. You can't see what's going on inside someones ass, so don't take that risk if you don't know for sure their HIV/STD status or your status for that matter.
2. As I stated in my previous post, for men who are uncut, it's important to make sure that you keep your foreskin clean, because if contaminated bacteria gets trapped in there, and if that bacteria gets into your urethra, you can contract HIV or an STD.

These are some of the common ways the pink parts can become compromised, which you should avoid so that you can stay healthy. For example in my previous post, one of the HIV risk reduction behaviors I listed was to avoid letting someone cum in your mouth. This is because cum is one of the four body fluids that HIV is found in. If there is any kind of damage to the pink parts in your mouth then there's a strong likelihood that White Blood Cells are present. If there's HIV in the cum, then that makes the ideal environment for HIV infection to occur.

The main point of this post was to share the importance of mucosal health. If you keep your pink parts healthy then you can greatly decrease your risk of HIV transmission. If anyone has additional questions you can email me or leave a comment and I'll answer it the best I can on here. If I don't know the answer, then I'll find out or direct you to a resource that can help.

I'm not suggesting in this post that if you do these behaviors you will be completely safe from HIV. These are merely things you can do to help decrease your risk. The only ways to truly prevent yourself from contracting HIV is to be sexually abstinant or to have a sexual partner where you are both sexually monogamous with each other and are both HIV-negative.