Originally posted by Jennifer
It appears that the majority of the people on this board are relatively young and for the most part, I imagine are also sexually active. Therefore, that raises the question of protection against pregnancy as well as communicable diseases.
What would be your course of action should the unforseen pregnancy arise? Or perhaps the contraction of an STD? As a Sociology major, I was just curious as to the opinions of the board.
While I am not a youngster, my wife and I have frequent sex, by that I mean at least daily sometimes more than once a day as well. (I am 52 and she is 50) In the last 5 years I was diagnosed as having Hepatitus C, which is spread by blood to blood contact, and while not a sexually transmitted disease it has caused us to use condoms
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This was discovered when I was donating blood. They had only developed the test for it in the last few years. I had to supply a list of all the times and where I had donated blood.
I am not really sure of how I was infected, but there are several options as to how it may have happened. I may have contracted it by a one time sharing of a needle 30 or so years ago, another way may have been when I was administering first aid and pinching off an arterial bleed (this was on several occasions) and another possibility is sex with an infected woman while she was in her period. The tail end of the 60's and all of the 70's were some heavily active times for me, the "Free Love" era, and sex for the sake of sex was a common occurence, as well as group activities, in some of the places that I lived in. My wife knows of my past activities, so it's not a big secret.
At the present time by outward appearance I seem healthy, but because of the time that I have had the disease I also have cirrhosis of the liver (not always contracted by excessive alcohol use). I am awaiting the time that I may be eligible for a liver transplant, but I have to be sicker than what I am outwardly.