There's A Scary Reason You Need To Use A Condom With A One-Night Stand, Science Says
If the fact that condoms are the only form of birth control that keep you from getting pregnant AND keep you from contracting an STD at the same time wasn't enough to make you want to use a condom every time you had sex, allow me to bring some new info to you. I mean, I get it. Yes, we all want to practice safe sex every single time, but even the most cautious of us have wondered, "Do I need to use a condom?" at one point or another.
Seriously, you spend all of this time being extra cautious, but then, real life happens, the person you're having sex with hates the way condoms feel, and it makes you wonder if it really makes a difference this one time. So sometimes, in the heat of the moment, a lot of us just axe the whole condom thing.
Well, a new study by YouGov explains why you shouldn't get too comfortable, no matter whom you're having sex with.
Odds are, your sex partner was once some other person's one-night stand.
Not only have 35 percent of Americans had a one-night stand at some point in their life, but an alarming 25 percent of men admitted to having had unprotected sex with their one-night stands, while 14 percent of women said the same.
Why does that matter to you? Well, even if the person you're having sex with says you're the only one they're hooking up with right now, there's a pretty big chance this wasn't the case for them when they had that one-night stand in the past. So having unprotected sex with this person will obviously increase your chance of contracting an STD, unless you've both been tested recently and know for a fact you're both STD-free.
So if you insist on having unprotected sex, do your thing! But do yourself a favor and AT LEAST make sure you and the other person BOTH get tested first.
How often are people foregoing safe sex, and what's the most common reason for doing it?
While 31 percent of US adults always practice safe sex, 14 percent of respondents admitted that they actually never practice safe sex. An even larger 34 percent of Americans don't use protection during oral sex.
So why are people skipping the condoms? As you might have guessed, 16 percent of US adults didn't use condoms because their partner didn't like the feeling.
What about birth control?
Almost three quarters of U.S. women (74 percent) are not currently on any form of birth control, and this stat includes over half (52 percent) of millennials. And by "birth control," the researchers for this study essentially meant all forms of pregnancy prevention other than condoms, such as the pill, an IUD, etc.
It seems lots of these women could be relying solely on the pull out method for pregnancy prevention, as 33 percent of U.S. adults admit to having used this method, even though this method is incredibly risky in terms of preventing pregnancy.
Please, please, please just do your best to get tested and USE CONDOMS UNTIL YOUR PARTNER HAS ALSO BEEN TESTED. They'll save you a lot of trouble down the line. Seriously.
