Scarleteen

I know sexual health is an important topic to cover with your partner before becoming sexually active. Is vaccination status also an important topic to discuss? I am all up to date on my vaccinations but is that something I should expect my partner to want to discuss? Also if my partner isn’t up to date on their vaccinations is that something I should worry about?

That's a really great question, and I don't know if anyone has actually asked us that before!

Ultimately, people who aren't vaccinated are at greater risk of picking up the illnesses vaccines protect us from. That puts them at the most risk, but it can put other people they're close to at greater risk, as well.

I'd suggest you go ahead and ask about it if you don't have a good sense of that already, and when it comes to sexual risks, specifically, what you'd likely want to ask about are about Hepatitis and HPV vaccines, but you also may want to ask about things like flu shots, because, of course, the flu is something you get from someone else, and on top of being a drag to get, it can actually pose more serious risks than people often realize.