Hi there Nicole, I'm glad to hear from you again. I'm always pleased to learn news of medical advancements, be they in the field of STIs or any other. I sense we might share a similar outlook. I don't have any other questions or concerns to be honest, in fact I didn't expect any reply when I said I ...

Hi Carly, Thanks for that. It’s honestly enlightening for me to have these kinds of discussions and I trust it’s equally so for other users of this site. I am grateful for all your time. Apologies to Nicole for my clumsy turn of phrase. I had it in my head that adulthood only begins (legally at leas...

Hi there Nicole, Nice to hear from you again. You sound very mature for a 20-year-old (I hope that doesn’t come across as condescending as it’s meant as a compliment). Thanks for your kind words. I feel stupid because I’ve saddled myself with trepidation over a risk I didn’t even see and would much ...

Hi Michaela, That’s right, I didn’t know this person. It was my first experience so I had no frame of reference and I didn’t think anyone would entertain the trouble of having me over for something less stimulating than they could do themselves. Hygiene was kind of irrelevant to me going in since I ...

Hi Sam 😊, Yes, prior to this incident I was excited to be exploring my sexuality, or at least I was when I thought hand-genital contact was safe. I was overcome with trepidation during the experience because I sensed that something was amiss, but I overruled that instinct in favour of advice from pe...

Hi there Sam, The no-to-low risk sexual activities you’ve linked to are appreciated, thanks. For me, with respect to the ones which are no-risk (talking, petting over clothes, using sex toys), I would rather just masturbate, but at any rate even these activities would probably be reclassified as ris...

Hi there Carly, I don't find your questions strange. Correct, this has been souring for me. Apart from that I was naïve enough to believe this was a no-risk activity, I suppose I also believed (and hoped?) there were things you could do with others without risk. I recognize that sexual compatibility...

Hi there Nicole, I certainly appreciate your kind advice. I’ve read the sources you’ve shared and found them helpful. Might I propose one correction? In the first link, it says: 'The strains of HPV that are sexually transmitted only cause infection in mucus membranes – like in the mouth and throat, ...

Hello Mo, Thanks for weighing in. Yes, I think that’s what aggrieves me most about this situation. If it had been most other STIs I could just go to a clinic, get a test, deal with the result and put it down to experience. There are a couple of companies offering male DNA tests in England but the te...

Hello Carly, Many thanks for your thoughtful reply. My apologies, I noticed I posted the wrong link in my prior post but wasn’t sure how to correct it afterwards. Here’s the actual link to the study I mentioned: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6404546/ I feel lousy about my experience b...

Hello there, Thank you for your attention and for providing this resource. I was hoping you could help to improve my understanding regarding a series of mistakes I made in my only sexual interaction. I’m a gay male who recently had my first sexual experience with another man and am worried I went ab...