What is the proper age for having first time sex? How many times you have to go out with someone before you have sex? There isn’t a valid rule for everyone. The moment when you feel ready is different from person to person, and depending on the growth stages. Everyone is free to choose when and with whom to have sex, it is important not only to accept because friends have already done it or because the partner is pressuring.
If you think you feel ready for your first time reminds some tips that will be both useful to avoid problems and to live this important moment of your growth with serenity and without excessive worries.
Some tips on safer sex:
- Use condom, always
Use it from beginning to end of any kind of sexual contact. This will allow you to avoid having to deal with an unwanted pregnancy and/or with viruses, bacteria and fungi responsible for some of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (for ex. Herpes and Candida but also HIV).
- Talk to your partner
The responsibility for contraception and sexual health protection in general is both. It is recommended to deal with these topics and share your choices before having sex.
- It’s not about trust
Most of sexually transmitted infections are asymptomatic, which means that they are not visible to the eye and do not give signs, except through specific medical tests. Your partner could thus have contracted an infection and don’t know it. In addition, more partners you have and more likely you may make contact with agents responsible for infections.
- Do not mix alcohol and sex
Same rule applies to drugs, even the soft ones. When you are under the influence of alcohol or other substances that alter your senses, it is much harder to maintain control and you may have behaviors for which the next day you might regret or shame.
- If you had unprotected sex get tested
You can do the test in complete anonymity and without challenging in a very large number of specialist centers and hospitals throughout the country. In these centers you can do, besides the visit, even blood tests and laboratory analysis. Tests are not invasive nor painful, they consist of a blood test and a genital swab.
WHO – Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR)
http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/en/