What happens if you don't protect yourself when you are having sex?

If you do not protect yourself by using a proper condom with water-based lubricant during sexual intercourse, you risk becoming infected with many diseases including HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhea and many more. Sexually-transmitted diseases can have a wide range of effects including development of cancers, infertility, insanity (yeah, in the case of neurosyphilis) and death.

Heterosexuals also risk accidentally falling pregnant if they do not use condoms during sexual intercourse.

If you do not use a condom to protect yourself during other sexual activities such as oral sex, you can transmit infections to and from your mouth. This means you can get gonorrhea in your throat, herpes around your mouth and so forth.

For more information on how to protect yourself during sex, please read:

• Condom Basics: A User's Manual

• Safe, Sound & Sexy: A Safer Sex How-To
• The Infection Section
• STI Risk Assessment: The Cliff's Notes
• What's the Risk? Easy Pregnancy Risk Assessments