another tip I've heard: don't brush your teeth right before you do the dirty. Mouthwash is a go, but toothbrushing can lead to open wounds. By all means brush your teeth after "eating" though ;)

actually what ive heard is if hiv is on a needle for example, it can last many hours on that needle exposed to open air or even days, i cant remeber how long exactly, but its not exactly as fragile as you might think. but again, theres always mixed reviews on this subject.

I agree with your advice. But I can't resist being rankled by the business about health information sources being simplistic and things being more complicated "that we've been led to believe." I started out working in the AIDS field back in 84 and was involved in creating and publicizing safer sex info in my area of the world. We certainly used the spectrum of risk concept but immediately got shot at for being too detailed and confusing or too repressively sex-negative or too irresponsibly sex-positive. We were told to keep it simple and focus on the biggies: anal and oral sex. Then that was considered condescending and incomplete.

One thing I learned in my years in community work is that there's no pleasing people.

and what about Hepatitis

Some intestinal parasites, pathogenic amoebas for example, can be very difficult to eradicate and can even invade the liver or cause anemia through perforations in the intestinal wall. Both overstating and understating risks serves no one well. What is uncontroversial, however, is that you will have to live with the consequences of your behavior that may extend far beyond the transient pleasure of the original sex act. The only way to rim unprotected without fear is to ignore the risk and its possible consequences or otherwise ignore your own, honest feelings that advise caution. I suppose it is understandable that a sex worker would have an economic motive in ignoring or minimizing risks. To counsel the same ignorance for others, however, is simply irresponsible.

Totally irresponsible to advise rimming--as comments above have noted, the risk of hepatitis B/C, potentially fatal diseases, and bugs like shigella (a friend recently nearly died, after a rimming-meth party, from the effects of this "easily treatable" disease--diarrhea and dehydration can be deadly). Is the brief sexual pleasure worth that risk? Mr. Read, if you're taking the responsibility of counseling people, use a little common sense.

Kirk, Kirk, Kirk

I see you've reverted to dispensing bad advice, huh. I'm appalled at your statement :"But as far as I’m concerned, when it’s an easily treatable STD, it’s a risk that’s worth taking in order to have better sex"

You have got to be kidding!!!!!!!!!!! You really should be put out to pasture with advice like this. My gawddddddddd man!!!!!!

As someone who contracted Hepatitus B from thios very source, I would say please be careful.

Thanks to the people who've referenced Hepatitis A/B.
In rereading this, I can't believe I forgot to include the paragraph in the final version about hepatitis A and B vaccinations, which are critical for anyone who is sexually active. I had hepatitis A 10 years ago and it was awful.
In trying to shorten this piece for the internet, which favors shorter things, this part got inadvertantly left out. I apologize.

rimming is gross

Kirk,
You STILL did not address Hep C..........why?
Do I need to worry about getting it from rimming? Thanks for your reply.....

Rimming is not Gross !!! If the man with the hot butt has cleaned it with soap and water (like in a bath or shower) --- rimming is a very wonderful experience for the person being rimmed. For those of us who choose to show our affection by kissing butt -- It's wonderful. I've been rimming for years and I've used saran wrap only once and that was because my sex partner had some anal sores and wanted to protect me.

Kirk -- Keep up the great writing. --- Bill

If a negative bottom had a bare back sex with a postive guy, and if that guy cums in bottoms ass, is that bottom getting infected? what are the probabilities. I love bare back sex, love raw sex, but so afraid of HIV, any advise from anyone

Zero risk with a positive man? People ask "are you positive or negative" forgetting that there are more categories like

a) positive - regularly tested, taking medication resulting in undetectable viral count
b) positive - taking drugs and joining bareback bug sharing parties
c) negative - regularly tested doing safe sex always
d) negative - never tested, saying "I am clean HIV - UB2" in the profile and insisting on raw sex
e) like (d) but unknowingly infected for years and spreading the virus because it's cool and masculine to have unprotected sex with other "clean" men.

Should you not better ask somebody in the bar:
(-) When was the last time you tested negative
(+) Are you taking your HIV medication regularly and how low is your viral load?

This comment http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8069710.stm brings it to the point...

"Positive people on anti-HIV drugs who adhere to their regimes are probably the safest group within society. The level of HIV in their bodies is so low that transmission is indeed almost impossible. As their status is known and monitored they prevent no risk - whereas all other groups still do."

The real controversy starts if you would write (like Cecile comments):
"the message is that those who are treated can very well go out and have unprotected sex"

Read full news.bbc article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8068074.stm

Regarding rimming - it makes a difference if someone is turned on (or off) weather it's clean, ripe or dirty.

via http://www.fitoldermen.com

fom

So then fitoldermen,

A positive guy who has undetectable viral count, is he HIV negative?

To Justin - No, a positive guy with an undetectable viral load is still HIV-positive. An undetectable viral load means the HIV meds are doing their job and the positive man is considerably less likely to transmit HIV. The meds don't "cure" HIV because they don't eliminate the virus from your body entirely. And if you stop taking the meds, the virus typically comes back strong over time.

This article is pretty good but fails to report that you can now take a combo vaccine for Hepatitis A & B now. I'd advise any sexually active guy to get the vaccine, especially if rimming is one of the activities you enjoy.

Also, I wouldn't dismiss the impact that a case of parasites can have on a person. They can be hard to treat and get rid of. And if you already have a compromised immune system from HIV, a case of parasites is a bitch on the body.

I taught safer sex classes for well over a decade in Atlanta, GA, and I've been poz for 16 years, so that's how I know.

I consider that anyone who is sexually active and claims to be HIV negative may NOT be, and may not know his actual status. Instead, I appreciate as truthful an answer like "I am sexually active. I was tested 3 months ago and the test was negative. But I've had sex several times since, so .... who knows! I don't want to risk you getting HIV, so let's play safe, ok?" I'm HIV positive. I was infected by a healthy looking man who claimed he was negative and a 100% top and so it was OK to go BB. Right. My bad. Who knows if he knew.

I got giardia very, very badly from rimming my boyfriend. It also did not show up in the tests the first time so it came back despite a treatment with antibiotics. I was thus sick for three months, had to not finish my semester at school, and I lost 20 lbs.

This columnists is full of bad advice and old seventies style thinking in general.

What kind of advice is this? Is Kirk rimming with the mantle of “I am not a doctor, but I spent a number of years as an HIV/STD test counselor”? Christ, with credentials like that who needs experts?

The challenge today for gay men is to encourage and promote safe sex practices within the hardest-hit of communities, our own community. One does that NOT by touting the virtues of eating a sweltering and fermenting butthole, but rather, by taking a more sensible and safe tone in avoiding behaviors that increase one’s overall risk of exposure to disease. What if, for example, there is a micro-tear in the anal epithelium, and some ass-juice makes its way into the mouth of an unsuspecting ass-licker with advanced dental/gum disease? Although the risk of HIV transmission is low, that doesn’t mean the behavior itself is totally free of risk. Does a hot, hairy man-hole obviate the risk?

Now that HIV/AIDS is similar to other, more mainstream conditions like diabetes or hypertension, we have to continually remind ourselves there is no cure for HIV infection. Though we have antiretroviral therapy (ART) to keep virus at bay and improve quality of life for people who can, at least, afford the drugs, the HIV virus continues to deftly mutate and change its appearance, rendering soon all the currently best HIV medicines ineffective and clinically useless. What then? Does that puckering, ever-twitching bung-hole still look good for the eating?

How do we responsibly come to terms with the pandemic if we continue to promote sexual behaviors that do not mitigate our collective risk? Kirk should have taken a cue from his fellow blogger, Cyrus, who penned the ironic “The End of Gay Apathy” a week earlier. Worrying how gay blogger Perez Hilton’s tirade against “free speech” bimbo Carrie Prejean adversely affects mainstream America’s view of gay people pales in significance to Kirk’s bottom-feeding advice. Why tongue-lash Hilton when you have Kirk advocating a sexual practice that increases, rather than decreases, a gay man’s risk of negative outcomes? After more than 25 years of disease, death and destruction at the hands of a tiny, fragile retrovirus that continues to kill millions, I think gay men deserve better advice.

End of gay apathy, huh? Hardly.

--Rik (Rikbutt, Daddy Hunt Member, 6/3/09 = WED)

"Whether you’re shopping for a flat screen TV or learning about syphilis, I think it’s always good to gather information from multiple sources, then use your own judgment to determine what makes sense to you." Am reminded of the EPA under Bush Jr -- we'll just cut all that sciency stuff about global warming cuz, in our own judgment, it just doesn't make sense to us.

Kirk, do you truly mean to say that in one's quest for info about syphilis, one needs more than medical science? That all those fanciful tales about spirochetes could indeed be simple fanciful tales? I pray to the Almighty this is merely a poor choice of words, for if indeed such a sentence reflects your actual thought processes, we are doomed. And if you're getting paid to write this, your employer oughta be spanked.

Deke

Sounds like hungry Jack happily rims guys that state they are negative and has some awareness of the risks involved. He is asking about HIV transmition and rimming. Kirk's few paragraph response and recommendation to look for more information is well stated. I was in poz/neg relationship for 6 years and remained negative even with high risk behavior.

Rimming Without Fear

Using Saran Wrap for rimming is safe. Is not water soluble, non porous. I use it all the time. Just make sure you cover most of the butt and with your fingers push it in the crack, not inside the hole. Use some KY so it stays in place. Have fun!!

Positive people on anti-HIV drugs who adhere to their regimes are probably the safest group within society . The level of HIV in their bodies is so low that transmission is indeed almost impossible. As their status is known and monitored they prevent no risk - whereas all other groups still do.

So Hungry:
Use a dental dam.

You can get HIV from rimming and being rimmed but you are more likely to get intestinal parasites and Hepatitis A, B, and C from it.

Actually people who are POZ even if they are on Anti-Viral drugs and take them regularly can give negative people HIV and they can pass along and get other strains of HIV.

HIV reinfection or cross/co-infection is NOT a myth despite the fact that most men who are Poz think that it is or that it never/rarely happens when this is not true at all.

This is my first trip with my girlfriend outside the US. We've been trying to do this for a year but our jobs have been conflicting, so the stakes are high as we rarely get 10 days off. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best time us.

Would you believe the size of these? Asian girls — and I know Asian girls I can tell ya — do not have tits this size without help. Anyway the sort of blown-up-like-a-balloon shape is a give away — these are not jigglers, more like basket balls to the feel I bet ya

Trinity, an extremely nasty redhead aged 19, told herself that having it off with a virile, handsome, well-hung black could be fun… The only thing she hadn’t thought of is that the brute would treat her anus totally disrespectfully, considering its tightness ! Once she gives him a mind-blowing blowjob, he shafts her with

New Jersey-born Giuseppe Rossi scored twice in the http://www.serrano.net second half and Daniele De Rossi had a goal, leading Italy over the United States 3-1 Monday night in its opener at the FIFA Confederations Cup.

Thanks in advance.
Authorities said a 22-year-old man told investigators that he led them on a high-speed chase through two north Florida counties for fun. According to the Levy County Sheriff's Office, Philip Pennypacker is facing charges of high-speed fleeing and eluding and three counts of aggravated assault on law enforcement officers with a deadly weapon.