Sex Is Fun AIDS Show

I don't write about STIs much on this blog. That's a conscious decision. I figure that ninety percent of all frank discussion of sexuality is about the terrible diseases you can catch by having sex and I want to offer a different perspective... or, when I'm lazy, link to people who will give you a different perspective.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that there's so much information out there about some the dangers of sex and I think we should all do our best to educate ourselves and learn about those dangers. All I'm saying is that there's tons of sites that fill that niche (links to some good ones are in the right-hand column) so I can focus on good, clean, geeky fun.

But in the interest of educating yourself, I recommend that everyone go listen to last week's episode of the Sex Is Fun Podcast.

The thing about AIDS information is that it is always changing as researchers discover more things, and it can be difficult to keep track of what information is current and what information is out of date. Gay Rick, one of the hosts of Sex Is Fun, works as an HIV educator. He's up on the latest info and he shares his knowledge at length in this podcast.

Here's two things I didn't know that I learned from listening:

1. People are most likely to pass on HIV before they test positive for the infection. People are most infectious two to three weeks after exposure, when the virus has multiplied in their system but before they've started to produce antibodies. HIV tests detect antibodies, so they only become effective two to three months after first exposure.

2. There's a drug that you can take one to three days exposure that greatly cuts down your chances of being infected by HIV. Because of its side-effects and expense ($800 to $2,000 for the entire one month course) emergency rooms will usually only perscribe it if you've had unprotected sex with a person you know is infected.

If you didn't know about this (or, hell, even if you did) imagine all the other fascinating and potentially life altering things you could learn by listening. Check it out.

ALSO WORTH CHECKING OUT IN PODCASTS LAST WEEK: Mistress Matisse guest-starred on last week's Savage Lovecast. Matisse and Dan Savage are a fascinating combination and this time they float a fascinating theory about why geeks/nerds gravitate towards BDSM. If you're interested, you can listen here.