Send us Fan MailLifestyle Education | STI Scare: Understanding Oral Gonorrhea and Herpes with Dr. Stoehr | Episode 149Welcome to another enlightening episode of The Swing Nation Podcast, the top-rated lifestyle podcast about non-monogamy and swinging! In this episode, your hosts Dan and Lacy sit down with Dr. Stoehr to discuss a recent STI scare they experienced when a play partner tested positive for oral gonorrhea. They also share their surprising encounter with the alarming lack of knowledge from their local urgent care doctor on the subject.Join us as we delve into the crucial facts and data about oral gonorrhea, clearing up common misconceptions and providing essential information for everyone in the lifestyle. Dr. Stoehr sheds light on the broader landscape of STIs, focusing particularly on herpes. Prepare to have your preconceptions challenged as Dr. Stoehr reveals some shocking truths about herpes that are often misunderstood.This episode is packed with vital information and practical advice to help you stay informed and safe in your lifestyle journey. Tune in for a candid conversation that emphasizes the importance of education and awareness in sexual health.Don t miss out—hit play now and arm yourself with the knowledge you need to navigate the complexities of STI prevention and care!Learn More with Dr. Stoehr: https://www.swingingsafe.com/- The Swing Nation - Main Website Quick Navigation Website: -- (Find all our social media links more!) Follow us on Facebook! The Podcast Website- Swinger Society - Our Website to meet, connect events Swinger Society Discord Our Facebook Group- Swinger Websites -Kasadie 90 day free trialUsername: TheSwingNation SDC 14 day free trial Username: TheSwingNation** Use code 36313 for 14 days free! ** SLSUsername: NorthernGuynSouthernGirl- Merch More -Order Your Merch Here!- Lacy’s Fun Links - VIP OnlyFans PREMIUM OnlyFans-- THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS --Wisp : Making sexual healthcare inclusive, cost-effective, and accessible—for everyoneUse Code SWING at checkout for 15% off your oder! Shameless Care: ED Medication and at home STD testingUse Code TSN at checkout for $30 off your order!Promescent® Make Love Longer, It’s Time for Great SexUse Code SwingNatSupport the show- Thank you for the support! -
Transcript
This podcast is intended for adult audiences. Over the age of 18, it contains adult language and situations. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to us, and not of any employer, organization, committee, or other group or individuals. This podcast is not intended to be taken as professional advice. Welcome to the Swing Nation podcast, a podcast by swingers for swingers, where we look to educate others and push back on the negative stigmas and misconceptions associated with our lifestyle.
Come with us and share our pineapple journey as we travel the globe, interview the experts, learn and grow together join the nation so lacy people are asking how do they get to go to a party or an event with us they check out swingersociety.net you create a profile you sign up for an event and you, and you come hang out with us. Super easy. That's right. If you want to party with us and the other faces and names that you know from social media and TikTok, head on over to swingersociety.net. Can't wait to see you there. Sexual health care can be so much more than STI testing.
WISP offers services like emergency contraception, help in delaying your period, UTI treatments, and so much more. They even have a product called the OMG Cream that helps provide more fulfilling orgasms for women. WISP provides same-day prescriptions and can give you discreet treatment in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Check out the link in our show notes or go to HelloWISiz.com and use code SWING for 15% off. Most people have unprotected oral sex, right? Be honest. Now think about your last STD test. Did your doctor tickle your throat with something that looked like a giant Q-tip?
Probably not. Yet that's the only way to check for oral gonorrhea or chlamydia, which are often asymptomatic. You need a better doctor. You need shamelesscare.com. Use coupon code TSN at checkout. Hey there, pineapple people, and welcome to the Swing Nation podcast. We are are your hosts northern guy and southern girl and we got another episode with our special guest one of our favorite guests dr store oh welcome back dr store thank you so much i'm happy to be here yay all right so today we kind of have some hot button was that what you would a hot button? I guess.
So we had a recent thing happen to us and to the fact where actually I had to use my doctor store speed dial. I had to phone a friend. I had to reach in my Rolodex, which to be fair, it is nice now having that. It is.
Thank you for helping us, by the way way i've never had a doctor in my my a medical doctor who's experts in the in this kind of thing to speed dial when these when these things happen all right so let's talk through kind of what happened lacy okay and then we'll kind of get dr store's take on it so you want to tell the story yeah so we um were std tested at the end of april so i think it was like around the 20th i have to look on um the end of april we played with a couple um those came back clear clean oh yeah yeah or not clean clear we didn't like.
Yeah, the test came back negative, no issues. We played with a couple. Of course, we used protection, no issues. And probably like a week and a half, two weeks later, we hear from the couple that, well, actually, the husband called you. He texted me, but yeah. Yeah, oh, he texted you and said that he had tested positive for oral gonorrhea. His wife had not. And he was obviously concerned, so he wanted to let us know, which we kind of went into like panic mode because we left within the week to go to Hedo.
So we wanted to make sure, one, that we were safe and that we were doing everything we should do. and two like we were leaving to go to Hedo. So we wanted to make sure one, that, you know, we were safe and that we were doing everything we should do. And two, like we were leaving to go to Hedo. So like that would greatly affect our trip had we had a positive. So that was kind of what happened for us. So let's talk through that portion first.
And this is part of the reason I had to phone a friend and ask the doctor store because I was genuinely confused because he had tested positive for oral gonorrhea, but negative, um, for genital gonorrhea. And his wife had tested not negative for oral and genital gonorrhea.
We obviously went and got tested again and we all tested negative for oral and genital gonorrhea so in my head i'm like how is this i know he's been having sex with his wife i know he's been giving oral sex to her like we thought for at first maybe this is a false positive but he went got retested and it came back positive again so we were like what is going on here this makes no sense and so that's why i called dr stork because let's be some of the things that were being thrown around is well was he fucking somebody else or is what did he play with somebody like yeah i think we're kind of joking about it but i think some people were you know like maybe his wife might have been genuinely concerned that now it might have been something that had happened yeah uh and so i just kind of needed clarification on that and that's when i reached out to you um and so what what, Dr.
Soar? Okay. So my take on the fact that everybody had been having sex together and only one person had gonorrhea. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's kind of, so there's a misconception that if you have sex with somebody with an STI that you automatically will catch it. That is not the case. In fact, someone can be carrying around gonorrhea for years and never pass it on to anybody if they get lucky. So just because you're exposed doesn't mean you a hundred percent are going to have the sexually transmitted infection. It doesn't guarantee it.
It's like the actual transmission rate varies depending on kind of what strain of gonorrhea you've got and like if you're having symptoms, that sort of thing, how virulent you are. But for the most part, I mean, it's not uncommon to be like, oh, well, one person had oral gonorrhea and then nobody else caught it. The other thing is it's a little less virulent in the mouth than it is on the genitals. So if you catch it in the mouth, you're less likely to give it to somebody's genitals than you are to catch it from somebody's genitals. Does that make sense? Right.
So you're saying if somebody has oral gonorrhea, they likely got that from performing oral sex on somebody's genitals. Yes. That's how they got it. But it less likely them then for them to spread it from their mouth to somebody else's genitals that's a that's a harder transmission or not it's a harder transmission it still can happen absolutely it's just less common okay does that make sense uh and then i guess yes that makes sense to me and then the other kind of when we were talking through this, we're like, did he kiss somebody that had oral gonorrhea?
Is that, is there oral to oral transmission? Is that even a thing? I don't know that there's much data on that. I was actually just looking up because I couldn't remember if there was any oral to oral. It's, it's actually very rare to pass from oral to Earl. And I can't even find any current like literature data numbers. So it's more commonly sped from penises to vaginas. That's one thing to know. It's about 50% rate. So if you've got gonorrhea as a man, you're 50% chance of passing it to a female from your penis.
If the woman has gonorrhea, she's only got about a 20% chance of passing it to a female from your penis if the woman has gonorrhea she's only got about a 20 chance of passing it to the male per sex act so like i said and that's without protection even without protection yes no condoms included yeah so right so with protection it's it's almost it's very unlikely very unlikely yeah unless your condom breaks or something happens it falls off what have you the chances for transmission are exquisitely low with a condom on but even without a condom breaks or something happens, it falls off, what have you, the chances for transmission are exquisitely low with a condom on.
But even without a condom on, you still, you know, there's a four to five chance that you won't catch it as a penis owner. And there's, you know, a 50-50 shot, you won't catch it as a vagina owner, which is kind of cool. And it's even less virulent orally. I was actually looking to see if I could find a number for how virulent it was orally, and I can't even find a number. It's uncommon enough that I can't find a number for it, which says something. So we know it can happen, which is really uncommon. When this happened, I was doing the same thing you're doing.
I was Googling and trying to find a bunch of research. And one of the articles or whatever I read said that they didn't even think the oral-to-oral thing. So if you have oral gonorrhea, I think, or chlamydia, it seems like they lump them together for some reason in a lot of these tests and stuff. I'm not sure. I don't understand why, but there must be a reason for that. But they were saying they didn't even think it was possible until like a few years ago or something. They realized it's theoretically possible, but highly unlikely or something, which I think is the article I read said. Yeah.
Like that I can't find a number for it so it's it's unlikely but it's probably theoretically possible because any mucous membrane to any mucous membrane but gonorrhea is usually further back in the mouth and not in the front of the mouth and if you're kissing unless you're like really deep tonguing your chances of getting to where it's virulent is unlikely I mean potentially but unlikely right which makes sense if a male has it orally why it's difficult for the male I don't know.
virulent is unlikely i mean potentially but unlikely right which makes sense if a male has it orally why it's difficult for the male because there's not a dick going in his mouth like it's harder if it's in the back of your throat like you're saying there might be a dick in his mouth well maybe but i'm just saying this this male is straight the one yeah yeah it's a male that we're referring to right now it's right to any so right yes so it makes sense on why he could perform oral sex on women and not have spread it. Yeah. Less likely to spread it for sure. Yeah.
So the chances of passing gonorrhea orally to a vagina owner are low, but always possible.
But kissing, like just kissing, kissing, as far as I can tell, theoretically possible, but I don't even have have a data number which means it's got to be obnoxiously low right okay and then the other um so as we're running through the scenarios so if we're swingers and and all of us are having um sex with condoms the most likely scenario from what i understand is he must have gone down on somebody that had had it at some point yep very likely that's most likely where he got it from which it goes to you know like and this is the thing like we all say we get tested right and you know all our friends and everybody we play with they're like oh we get tested regularly but again that's why it's so important to do that because it just takes one time yeah where you're you know having unprotected sex and you're not getting one person that's in a group, not getting, um, tested that can lead to that, that kind of thing.
And thank goodness that they were doing regular testing and they caught it fairly quickly. Um, and so they were able to go get treated. Um, all right. So now I want to switch to that second part, right? So, okay, we get get this friend reaches out to us and says, hey, we tested positive for oral gonorrhea. So we're like, oh, shit, we're leaving the Frujito in a little over a week. We need to go get tested and then so that we have time to get treated so that, you know, if we, God forbid, do have it, we can still go on this trip and have fun. So we go to a, not an ER, but a.
Like a hospital care that's the word urgent care so we go to the urgent care and this is like the next day super embarrassing right so this is the situation where we have to now we go in together and we both want to get std tested and it was funny because i'm sure they don't see married couples going together to get std no and they were like do y'all want to be in the same room it was kind of i think they were trying to figure that the nurse at the front is like do you guys want to go back together and we're like yeah yeah we're fine we'll go we'll go to the same exam room like we're easy i think they were afraid that like one of us had been cheating or like you know i mean like because i'm assuming that's the scenario that they're thinking in their head is oh my gosh they're waiting for a fight to break out in the back right one of them must have but we were happy we were i mean we were not happy but i mean we were normal i mean like if we knew if it was gonorrhea like we could get it treated it was not the end of the world so we weren't like mad or upset we were just like okay this is something we're adults we need to take care of that was kind of the situation right so we go back there and the nurse sends us into the bathroom to do to pee in a cup um and i, did they take our blood?
No, they didn't, and actually, I'm the one, I was like, wait, we need a mouth swap to you, and then you were like, what? I was like, did they swap your mouth? Because we specifically asked them to test us for oral and genital gonorrhea, and so they basically just sent us to go pee in a cup, and then they come come back and then we're like, Hey, are you going to do the oral test? And the, and this is, we're talking to the doctor at this point in time. And she goes, Oh, we just test that through the, through the urine.
And I kind of looked at her sideway and listen, I'm not a doctor, but I have Dr. Store on speed dial and we've had this conversation. And to my understanding, that's impossible. Yeah. Is that correct? Yeah. You can't test for oral gonorrhea unless you do a mouth swab yeah right and we have a shameless care like plug that's like do you have unprotected oral sex yes you do did you get you know and part of the commercial is like did somebody swab your mouth oh they didn't oh well then you're not being tested for and so i'm like well if you don't saw my for this thing. It was like a whole thing.
So we almost get in like a little, not argument, but we kind of go back and forth with this doctor. And then she ends up telling us we don't have the test kit to do the oral test for gonorrhea. And to which Dr. Storr says. Yeah, I thought that was really funny. It's like, yes, you do. It's the same when you put in the vagina. Same swab, just put it in the mouth. Which is, like, good to know because we didn't know that. And if we would have known, we would have pushed back because we ended up having to go and – To a separate place. Yeah, a separate place.
So, like, we ended up having to make two trips instead of one. And to be honest with you, Dr.
Shore, I was Googling, like, while we were in there waiting for them to come back, you know, to finish all all our stuff and I was having a really hard time even finding anywhere locally that would mouth swap like when I looked when I was Googling like STD test local because I knew we needed to do it that day because if if we came up positive I knew we needed to be treated you know within the next day or two so we had time and I was Googling and I was, I was so frustrated because everywhere that offered STD, nowhere was there a mouth swab.
I mean, we ended up going to the health department and getting one there, but, and that was a whole ordeal, but it was very hard to find. And so this is, was really, we, we hear you and we hear Shameless Care talk about the mouth swabs and how a lot of places don't do them. And I guess we kind of took that for granted because the tests that we do at home all have mouth swabs. We never really thought about it, but it was like firsthand. It was difficult to find. Yeah.
And then the second part of that is because before we left the clinic, we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get mouth swabs or not. So we said, hey, can you go ahead and just give us the antibiotics so you can treat us in case we don't – if we can't get tested orally, at least then we know we're treated and we'll be safe going into HEDO. And we kind of had to have a little back and forth. She didn't want to do that at first either. She didn't want to give us the antibiotics. She didn't want to give us the antibiotics until she had a test. And maybe that's hospital policy.
I don't know exactly why the reason was. But they ended up, they did give us the antibiotics. And then when the nurse came in, she's like, oh, I give myself this shot all the time. She's like, if I get the sniffles or I start feeling sick, she's like, this shot is the best. It clears up everything. And she's like, I get it all the time.
And I'm like, well, then why do we have to fight so hard to get the antibiotics well neither one of those is acceptable to be honest overuse of antibiotics is not good because then it causes antibiotic resistance but on the other side if you've had a known exposure to gonorrhea it is 100 appropriate to get shot up with rocephin 100 yeah like she left the room and then ended up coming back i don't know she had to call a supervisor i don't know what she did but she ended up coming back like okay we'll give you the antibiotics which to be honest with you the shot was it hurt it was not a fun shot to take but it wasn't that bad and so like if you're ever in this situation you have to get the shot it's a it's a big shot in your booty but it's not that bad.
It reminds me of like penicillin. Like in the Army, they used to give you penicillin shots before you did anything. And I'm actually allergic to penicillin, so I can't get it. But I've seen all the – they basically like line all the guys up and like just give them – it looked like a very similar thing. I don't know. I don't know if it is similar. Yeah, yeah. Penicillin and Rose 7 feel about the same. Yeah, it's an intramuscular shot in the hind end, and it zings. I'm not going to lie. It zings. It does. Yeah. but the I guess the I'll see you next time.
it's an intramuscular shot in the, in the hind end. And it, it's, it zings, not gonna lie. It does. Yeah. Uh, and, but the, I guess the upside to that, and this is, you know, something worth talking about is everybody's so afraid of these STDs and it would make it like, if you catch one, you're going to die and you're a terrible person.
Um, Lacey gets gets utis all the time you know i mean like we get infections it's normal human beings get those and when you're sexually active the fact that you might get a gonorrhea or chlamydia infection at some point in your life i don't think you get a shot and then it's what you got to wait 48 hours or something i don't know what i think it's up to a week two weeks. Thank God we came back negative. Yeah. We didn't have two weeks. I think, and that's the other thing. I think the doctor said, oh, you're good in like 24 hours. They did say that. They did. They said like 24 hours.
But anyway. Doctor, you can't see Dr. Storer, but she's like shaking her head. It was a really eye-opening experience for us. Thank God we were negative. And our friend has, you know, our friend obviously did the right thing by reaching out to us. And they've reached out to all their sexual partners. So if you're listening to this, our friends are listening. If you haven't been reached out, you're good. But it was, like, a really big eye-opener for us.
Like, that 24 to 48 hours where we were waiting on results and everything we were just i don't know it it wasn't it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be it wasn't as bad but then the flip side of that is i was surprised about how little everybody seemed to know and how to respond to it i guess yeah it's unfortunately odds are if you're a swinger go ahead i'm sorry i was was about to say, it's unfortunately not that uncommon to have to push back to try and get the right testing when doctors are not well-educated on this. I'm trying.
I'm trying to educate my colleagues, but there's only so much you can do. And there's definitely a lack of education around non-traditional sexual lifestyles. And I'm working really hard on that. I actually volunteered to speak for free this year at the, uh, major convention for OBGYNs and they declined just in case you wanted to know. So yeah, no shit. I was actually, I was like, I will give a lecture for free on non-traditional sexual lifestyles. And they're like, you know, we're good. Really? Seriously?
Ah, well, and I think Dan and I are probably like, we know more than your average swinger because we have you. We have this podcast. We openly talk about this. So, like, your normal swinger or non-monogamous person goes into a doctor's office. They probably just would have been like, okay, you're just going to check my urine. Okay, and don't give me a shot. That's fine. And then the urine test comes back negative, and then they think they're good. They think they're good. And now maybe they have oral gonorrhea, and they're still running around with it.
And they genuinely tried to do the right thing.
So I just hope that people that are listening to the podcast that hear our experience will hopefully store this in their memory so that way if they're ever in the situation that this comes up that they um they they know to ask for more and to push back a little bit yeah i think it really hit home for us that whole you have to be you know if you're sexually active and having unprotected oral sex really if you're just sexually active you should be getting right routine sti screenings which should include a mouth swab and if you're if you you're not getting that, then you're not being tested properly because that's a real, probably one of the bigger risks if you're using condoms and having, when you have sex, I would assume oral STIs is probably one of the larger risks because you're wearing a condom.
So you're protecting yourself from a lot of the genital stuff. Yeah. I mean, fortunately, oral gonorrhea and chlamydia still aren't super common, but they, they do happen. And you're more likely to catch that because you very rarely would use condoms with oral than you are to catch it generally if you're using condoms for sure. But I would say always, it is okay to advocate for yourself. If you go into an office and say, Hey, I want STD testing and I want an oral swab. And they say, we don't do those. You say, sure you do. It's the same thing as the vaginal swab.
And they'll be able to look at you kind of funny and be like, no, I've got a friend who's a doctor. They told me that. They'll be like, oh, well, okay, I guess we can swab you there. I mean, honestly, like a lot of them will be like, oh, I didn't realize you could do that. It's exactly the same swab. So if you can advocate for yourself and if for some reason they're pushing back on you, just let them know you're going to go somewhere else for your care and they'll, they'll take it seriously.
I know it sounds kind of mean, but you need to advocate for yourself if you're in a situation like that, for sure. And you guys did. I mean, you went to another ER to get it done. Yeah. And the crazy thing, the other thing, Dr.
Storr is like, okay, next time this happens, you call me and I'm going to explain to the doctor what she needs to do that's an option just like those of you who have my cell phone number just play him this podcast this little this little part yeah just play this clip yeah so that that was that was a lot um to go through you know i definitely feel for friends that tested um positive because he you know he went through a roller coaster of emotions and he was very apologetic and he's like i'm so sorry and you know i didn't i'm sorry i did this to you and i feel dirty and i think to see that firsthand because yeah and listen this is the other part we've been doing this for seven eight years now this is the first time that we've ever had a scare like this where we know somebody that and to be fair other it's probably happened to other people and they just haven't told us i would i would guess that this has happened it's not the first time and people just haven't told us but it's the first time somebody came to us and said hey i tested you guys need to go get tested and to see all that firsthand i think was good for us and you know i think we were a little hesitant to talk about this but i think it's important these are conversations that nobody necessarily wants to have but this stuff is happening if you're sexually active with multiple partners these are the type of risks that you're taking and it's okay and it's manageable and there's you know there's plenty of resources out there to to do it safely um but you kind of have to be able to be get uncomfortable and talk to your friends um about that kind of stuff and it definitely kind of makes me rethink who you engage with right like thank god this was somebody that we trust and his friends and is close to us and so they were willing to reach out and kind of have that hard conversation if you're having sex with kind of more random people they might not be willing to do that but i guess as long as you're getting tested you're you're projected either way yeah i mean you're definitely doing the best that you can.
I, I think, um, you can kind of equalize the desire to avoid talking about STDs to the desire to avoid talking about non-traditional sexual lifestyles. Like we feel like as a group, you know, like we should be advocating for ourselves that it's okay to be in a non-traditional sexual lifestyle and it doesn't make you crazy and it doesn't make you, you know, a freak and what have you. But then we even don't want to talk amongst ourselves about something that's, you know, a thing, you know, we know the risks that we're taking.
It's one of the reasons we're all supposed to be getting tested and should be getting tested regularly, but it's okay to be like, Hey dude, look, I've got gonorrhea. I don't know where I caught it from, but I'm telling all my friends, make sure everybody gets tested because all of these are, you know, it's like the common cold. During COVID, oh my gosh, how many swingers caught COVID from a partner that they were hanging out with? Yeah, COVID was something. It's still happening. I just came home. I just came from Hedo with like something. I have no idea what it was.
We tested for COVID twice, but I was running a fever. But that's kind of like the risk you take when you go to these events.
You come home with stre the flu make out with 50 people yeah it's just part of it so why is it acceptable to come home with strep throat but it's not acceptable to come home with gonorrhea or chlamydia like why gonorrhea and chlamydia are easier to treat than strep yeah yeah right well and that's the crazy thing you know because we got the shot it was like well that wasn't even really a big deal you know i mean like that's what dan said we had it it would have been like okay like the worst part would have been having to wait two weeks to swap with somebody you know what i mean that's what dan said when we left the doctor he's like if that's all i have to do to have like this awesome life and have like you know multiple partners the worst i have to do is get a shot you know once a year you know twice a year a year.
I'm still doing what I want to do, which in seven years, this is the first time we've ever. And we didn't even test positive. We just did it out of precaution. So it wasn't, yeah, it's not that bad. It's not that bad.
I guess that's the kind of takeaway from all this for us is that it that it's not that bad and also you definitely have to advocate yeah advocate for yourself and most of the stds are easily treated they're manageable not a big deal most of the time even the like big scary stuff like hiv and herpes it's all manageable yeah all right well on that note we're going to take a little break and hear from the partners and sponsors of the Swing Nation podcast, one of which is Shameless Care, where you can get your at-home STD testing.
But then on the backside of the break, I actually want to talk, you said that word, herpes. And that is another thing that I think the community, you know, we've had this, first of all, if you are curious about STIs, go back and listen to the first podcast we did with doctor store about it. We kind of went through the whole laundry list of STIs and explain them and what the risks were and how do you get tested and all that stuff. So definitely go back and listen to that to kind of get the full spectrum.
Um, this episode, we're kind of just talking about our experience that we had with this oral gonorrhea thing. But then I also want to talk about herpes because I think this is the other thing that people are super confused on that I think we maybe could use a little more in-depth conversation and try to. We're going to see how we do clarify some things for people on that subject. So after the break, we're going to get to that. Okay. All right. we'll be right back, guys. We here at the Swing Nation podcast are proud to partner with Promescent. Listen, guys, we've all been there.
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Click the link in the show notes below to get yours today anxiety can cause ed like the kind you get while watching your partner with someone else you're having the time of your life yet are having stage fright most men in the lifestyle use prescription ed medication for this reason shameless care should be your provider shameless is less expensive than other companies and has a 50 state network of physicians who are lifestyle I hope you enjoyed this video.
for this reason shameless care should be your provider shameless is less expensive than other companies and has a 50 state network of physicians who are lifestyle friendly use coupon code tsn for 30 off shamelesscare.com hey swing nation listeners it's dan here and i want to know why you haven't checked out cassidy.com yet cassidy is a lifestyle website where you can connect with other swingers, see lifestyle events near you, and chat with attendees, as well as post travel plans to meet up with pineapple people across the country.
We want you to try Cassidy completely risk-free by using the 90-day Elite Membership Trial link in our show notes, or by going to theswingnation.info and clicking on the Cassidy banner under Favorite Apps and Products. All right, guys, welcome back. Welcome back. We're sitting down here with Dr. Storr. We're having the uncomfortable conversations about STIs and STDs so that you don't have to. Yeah. Or I guess to encourage you to. Yeah, I guess that's true. Not to say that you don't have to. You need to have these conversations. You should be having these conversations.
Okay, so now let's talk about So, let's get started. so that you don't have to, or I guess to encourage you to, not to say that you don't have to. You need to have these conversations. You should be having these conversations. Okay. So now let's talk about the other thing, herpes, right? This is an area that people are super confused about. We get in like in-depth conversations with a couple of our friends like once a quarter about herpes. I mean, don't you feel like it? No, I agree. We do. And it's like, we always go back to like the same research and we talk about it.
But I'll see you next time.
like once a quarter about herpes i mean don't you feel like it i agree we do and it's like we always go back to like the same research and we talk about it but at the end of the day i just think it's like it's not super clear it's not super clear even to me it's not super clear so i'm kind of glad we have dr store here to have that conversation but it is also funny part of us being like social media influencers and having the podcast is now like all our friends that don't want to have the conversation, like they come to us and like, so why does this thing with herpes work?
And we're like trying to answer it. And I'm like, I don't really know. If it makes you feel any better, doctors get just as confused about HSV as everybody else does. And I even know gynecologists that are like, herpes is just confusing, dude. I mean, there's some things in our world that are really confusing. Hepatitis C is confusing and herpes. Those are the two things that like every time we have to go back and look, or hepatitis B, not C, hepatitis B is confusing. Like there's all these antigens and antibodies and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't tell if they're active or not.
Herpes is the same way. It is confusing. It's complicated. And honestly, if I didn't keep up on the literature regularly, I would get behind on it too. It is, it's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to explain some of my understanding and then I'm going to ask some of the questions. And if I misspeak, I just want you to correct me because that probably is going to happen. Okay. Yeah. No, totally fine. So HSV-1 is oral herpes. And that's when you get the mouth sores. Cold sores on the outside. Cold sores around your lips, on the outside of your mouth. Yes. That's right.
So HSV-1 is typically oral and it's typically around the outside of your lips. Yes. But it can be anywhere. Okay. And then from what I've seen and read, they estimate the population of the world between 50 and 80% of the people are walking around and have HSV-1 right now. Yeah, absolutely. So most of the studies that I've looked at recently are in the United States and it's somewhere between 70 and 80% of the population in the United States is positive for HSV-1, the oral version. And many people do not know that they're positive. That's what I was about to say.
So like, if you've never even had a cold sore in your life, you could still be HSV-1 positive. Absolutely. Yes. Because that's what I've always thought. Like if I've never had a cold sore, you don't have it. That's kind of my thought process. No, it is very possible to have never had a cold sore that you know about and still have HSV-1, 100%. Do you know, and maybe I'm putting on you on the spot, but of the people that have HSV-1, what percentage of them actually have symptoms? Do you know that number?
I actually don't know the number off the top of my head that have had symptoms at some point in their life. I would guess it's probably around 50% just based on the other statistics I know. So maybe 50-50. But don't quote me on that one. So if you have HS, if you have HSV-1 and you have multiple sexual partners, is that something that you should disclose to them? Okay. So that, that's a good question. Um, if 80% of the population has HSV-1 and about 50% of that 80% don't know that they have HSV-1, should we all be telling each other or not? Yeah, good question.
HSV-1 is less virulent than HSV-2. So HSV-1 is less likely to be spread, especially when you are asymptomatic. Now, what I tell my patients is if you have HSV-1 and you are unaware of your partner's status, i.e.
your partner is your marriage partner and you don't know if they have HSV-1 or not, or you're in multiple sexual partnerships and you don't know what your sexual partner's status is, I recommend taking daily medication to prevent from having both cold sore outbreaks when you wouldn't be able to have sex and shouldn't be kissing your children, your pets, or anybody else, and then also to prevent from spreading that asymptomatically. So theoretically, you can still spread HSV-1 when you don't have symptoms. Okay. So we'll dig a little deeper into that.
But before that, I just want to explain HSV-2 so that people kind of know what the two are. So HSV-2 is genital herpes, which is similar to HSV1, but you are getting these cold sores around your genitals, on your genitals? Like where does that manifest? I don't think it's not cold sores. Or the bumps, right? Whatever. What do you call them? Yeah, we call them lesions. They're usually ulcerations. But honestly, HSV2 can look like almost anything. And a lot of patients don't even have visual symptoms. They just have sensations that are unpleasant.
So HSV-2 is typically genital, although it can be anywhere. So you can get it on your mouth. You can get it in your nose. You can get it in the back of your throat. You can get it on your back. I have a patient that I just saw today actually who has HSV on her lower back. So you can pretty much get it anywhere on your body, but it's most commonly on the genitals. And HSV-2 is much more virulent. It is more likely to catch. Okay. So that's HSV-2. Yes. All right. So now what I want to talk about is being tested for those. Yes.
So in our experience, it is very, very hard to be tested for either HSV-1 or HSV-2. Most of the at-home kits that you get don't have it. And then if you go to your doctor and ask about it, they're going to ask you if you have symptoms. And if you say no, they're basically going to tell you you don't need to be tested for it. Yes, that is very common. It's partially because of lack of education amongst physicians who treat this. I mean, even in my own office, there are providers I know that don't do HSV testing when they're requested to do STDs.
And I think it's partially because of the uncomfortable conversation of having to sit down and explain the difference between HSV-1 and HSV-2, that your chances for HSV-1 being positive are 80%. The biggest problem with this is probably that the cheapest way to test for those is together. So you can't just test for HSV1 or HSV2. They come as a package test. And so when you test for HSV together and 80% of the population is going to come back positive for HSV1, you're going to have a lot of patients calling you being, holy cow, I've got herpes.
And then you have to sit down and explain to them, no, this is cold sore herpes, not genital herpes. Your chances of being positive were four out of five. It's just a long conversation. And a lot of doctors just simply don't want to have that conversation. So they don't test for it at all. So they basically wait for somebody to come and complain of symptoms before they have a conversation about herpes. And like you said, 50% and possibly more will never even have symptoms. So they're never going to know that they even have it.
And then to even take this a step further, so me and Lacey are OnlyFans content creators. And content creators, the porn world, they're probably some of the best at testing for STDs. They're pretty up to date on it. They require they have to be tested within two weeks of most filmings. You know, a lot of porn stars make, you know, I know when we do when we've made content with people that do this full time for a living and a job and they're like kind of porn star ish.
They want tests like, you know, like, hey, I want you to know sexual partners, take a test and then we'll, we'll make content together. Now we insist we always use protection even when we do that. But, um, I've seen the talent testing tests and most of those don't have HSV one or two on their list, which was surprising to me because they're having unprotected oral and genital sex with each other. That's surprising to me too. I had no idea that they actually didn't include that on talent testing. I'm surprised. Yeah.
And I almost want to, like, I don't know if you could check that for me or we need to go back and check, but we did research on this a few times and we've actually, you know, got test results from people because they're very open about sharing it. And I've never, to my knowledge, seen HSV-1 or HSV-2 on those test results that people share with us. Obviously, that's part of the reason why we insist on using protection, even when people show us those types of test results, is because we are concerned about HSV-2 and we don't want, you know, to spread that or to catch that.
Can I throw a little wrench in your system here sure hsv1 and 2 aren't really protected for with condoms oh god yeah because it's where in contact is all that's necessary unfortunately and yeah yeah oh so if you have like the lesions i guess but you don't even need to have the lesions to spread it right no you don't yeah so with hsv2 because it's so virulent your chances of spreading it when you have Thank you.
like the lesions i guess but you don't even need to have the lesions to spread it right no you don't yep so with hsv2 because it's so virulent your chances of spreading it when you have active lesions is much higher like much higher um but if you're not having lesions you don't have any current active symptoms you can still spread it and it's skin to skin contact so um hence the reason my patient has it on her lower back that that was from skin to skin contact, not that wouldn't have been protected for with a condom. So if there's lesions, the lesions are oftentimes not inside the vagina.
They're not necessarily on the penis. They can be certainly, but a lot of times they're around the outside of the genitals on the vulva, on the scrotum, et cetera.-to-skin contact is all that is required. Yeah, so I guess the question then is, if people, nobody's being tested for this, we're all having sex with each other, even condoms don't protect against it, how do you stay safe? You just hope and pray for the best. I mean, like, hope and pray for the best. You hope that all of your partners will have been tested for it. But again, as you pointed out, it's really difficult to get tested.
And that if they have tested positive for either HSV1 or HSV2, that they are doing something to prevent giving it to you. And there's, I think, two small papers, not great data on them. So I don't like hang my hat on this, that if you don't have herpes, that taking Valtrex might reduce your chances of catching it. Um's not a lot of great data on that, but Valtrex and acyclovir have very few side effects. They're exquisitely rare to be allergic to. So I have patients that are like, look, I'm in the lifestyle. I'm having sex with a lot of people.
I know I test negative, but I would rather take Valtrex just as a precaution. And I will still prescribe it, but I just don't have a lot of data to prove that that actually works. So there's not really a great way to protect yourself, unfortunately, if you don't have herpes from catching it, if somebody else has it and doesn't know. Yeah. So I guess that's the confusing thing. And this is when our friends have asked about this. This is the part I struggle with is 80% of us have HSV-1. Most of us have never been tested for it.
We're all making out with each other and performing oral sex with each other. So if we do have it, we're likely spreading it. But basically, there's nothing you can do unless you catch it. Then you go get a Valtrex prescription and take Valtrex, right? I mean, that's basically, and from now hearing what you're saying, if condoms don't even protect you against HSVD2, you're essentially, if you're sexually active with multiple partners, you're accepting HSV1 and 2 as a risk. As a potential risk, yeah. Of being caught.
I mean, I would say as a swinger, somebody who's in a non-traditional sexual lifestyle in general, who's having partners that they don't have immediate recent testing on, it's one of the reasons with talent testing that they do testing so frequently. Although now I know they don't do STD testing for herpes. It sounds crazy to me, but one of the reasons that you would potentially ask for testing recently is to make sure that people don't have herpes.
The fact is, I mean, it's a societal thing that people feel dirty about stuff like herpes, but it's really common and it's super easy to control the symptoms of. And most of the time it doesn't cause that much trouble. You have an outbreak and you realize, oh gosh, this is potentially herpes. You get it checked. Oh yeah, I've got herpes. And then you just take medication. And the statistic most recently that I looked up was like 14 to 15% of the population is positive for HSV2. So one in five or so, it's as common as breast cancer, people. It's as common as breast cancer.
It's actually more common than breast cancer because that's one in eight. So yeah, you're right at the same risk as breast cancer, one in eight, one in nine of having herpes. So I mean, a lot of people have it. It's not that big a deal. Yes, it is something that is a gift that keeps on giving. You will have it the rest of your life. You'll always be positive for it.
But if you take Valtrex or Ecyyclovir your chances of spreading it are exquisitely low and your chances of having recurrent outbreaks are low as well yeah so i mean i guess that's that's the thing right if you're going to be sexually active and here's the other thing right and because we get this on social media oh you're a swinger and you're you're spreading herpes and blah and now we're kind of talking about it's like well actually that could be true but it's anybody that's sexually active so when you were sexually active in your 20s um you know if even some of you that are cheating on your partner anybody that's sexually active um if you're not getting regularly tested for for it and even if you are getting regularly tested there's still not a whole lot you can do to prevent yourself you're probably not getting tested for spreading it you're probably not getting tested for those things right yeah and i i will throw something out to you we do have statistics on this that it is more likely to have and or catch an std while cheating on your spouse than it is to be in the lifestyle people in the lifestyle are more conscientious about getting tested they're more conscientious about getting treated and watching for it than people who are cheating on their spouses so take that with i can say from from personal experience we are more aware and safe about stds now than i've ever been in my entire life i had never been tested prior to joining the lifestyle at all period um and then when we when i joined the lifestyle i started getting tested so i would imagine the bulk of the not monogamous to say that in quotation marks people are probably similar to that so i guess my next question so if somebody catches hsv1 or 2 like is it you get like an outbreak a month one a year like how often that even happen?
So HSV one, because it's less virulent, it's less likely to cause outbreaks as well. So most people only get cold sores under certain situations when they're sick, when your immune system is down. So like something during pregnancy, during cancer treatment, that sort of thing. It can kind of pop up randomly, but most of the time it's when you're sick, when your immune system's down, when you're not sleeping well, something like that. So under unusual stress would be a time that people tend to pop up with cold sores.
And even people who don't realize that cold sores are HSV-1, they'll tell you, oh, yeah, every time I get stressed out, a little thing pops up. That's a cold sore. Herpes lives in the nerve roots from wherever you initially. So, um, cold sores most commonly on the lip. So if your cold sore was here, then the nerve root that covers that part of your lip is where the herpes lives. And when your immune system's down, the herpes is like, Oh, time to play. The immune system's not backing me off. And then it will pop up, um, on genital herpes, same kind of idea.
Most people will only get outbreaks when they're under unusual stress. And that stress can be almost anything. I mean, you see herpes outbreaks in pregnancy fairly commonly. We see them fairly often when people are undergoing stress around school. So a lot of my high school seniors, right before graduation, when they're taking all their tests, if they've got herpes, they'll have an outbreak. Around the time of divorce, super common.
If you're having outbreaks more than two to three times per year of your herpes, and you can't really like figure out when they're happening at that point, we recommend in general, and this is not just for lifestyle people, but in general, if you're having more than two to three outbreaks per year, we recommend going on Valtrex or acyclovir for prophylaxis to prevent you from having outbreaks because they're not very fun when they happen. They're painful. So you said Valtrex helps prevent the outbreak. It does. It prevents sprenting and outbreaks.
If you start to have an outbreak, can you start taking Valtrex? Like if you start noticing it popping up? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Does Valtrex help like keep it from getting bad, I guess? Yeah. Actually, we can stop a herpes outbreak right at the doorstep. As soon as you start noticing symptoms, you start taking your Valtrex twice a day, and it'll nip that in the bud within three days. Most people within 24 hours will stop having symptoms. Okay.
If I'm hearing you correctly, there's really not much we can do other than routine testing, which you're going to struggle to get unless you probably have to pay for it out of pocket or go have a real I'll see you next time.
not much we can do other than routine testing which you're gonna struggle to get um unless you really pay for probably have to pay for it out of pocket or like go have a real hard conversation with your doctor and assist on it um other than that the only thing you can really do is if you get it get you a valtrex prescription and it's a pretty manageable disease from what you're saying yeah it's very manageable most people who take valtrex regularly will to no outbreaks. Now I, it is possible to still have outbreaks while in Valtrex, but it's really uncommon.
And the really bad ones that I've seen, um, people who have HSV2 like in, in their nasal cavity or in their sinuses, which is again, uncommon, they're more likely to have outbreaks through Valtrex because it, it just doesn't treat very well up into the sinuses. But Valtrex does a really good job of suppressing outbreaks. And most people with HSV-2 will have maybe one outbreak every three or four years on Valtrex. Okay. And now this is the other part that was, you said, not 100%, but me and Lacey actually went and got a prescription after we had the last conversation with you.
You said there is some data that shows if you take Valtrex prior to sexual activity, that can help reduce the risk of you catching the disease. Is that accurate? Yeah, there's a very little amount of data. There's two literature articles that I know of. I haven't looked really recently, not in the last like maybe six months or so, that taking Valtrex prior to sexual encounters may reduce your chances of catching HSV. There's, like I said, there's not great data on it. There weren't great numbers in the studies, but theoretically, it could help. Okay.
So if we're going to do that, because me and Lacey now have the medication. Yeah, it was actually pretty easy. We haven't done a very good job of like taking it. Well, and I will say, it was pretty easy for me to get it.
I just went to my doctor and oh i get cold stars every so often which i don't i've never had one but they very quickly gave me a prescription didn't question it didn't ask which i don't recommend like lying to your doctor but cold stars are so that's easier than saying i'm a swinger and i've heard doctor store said if i take it before i go fuck other people, that it might reduce. Yeah, it just wasn't worth getting into all of that. So it was just easier for me to say. And they were like, absolutely no problem.
I just did it when I, you know, once a year I have to go to my doctor and we have to redo my prescriptions and everything. And so that's when I did it. And it was super easy. Yeah. But we haven't done a good job of taking it.
So I guess my question, now I'm a little scared that you scared me a little bit saying I can get it with condoms or HS hsv2 not really scared hsv1 but hsv2 i don't want i don't really want either one of them but if i want to do this valetrex like how often should we should we put what's the procedure to take it okay so again the data is not really good on that neither one of those articles gave like a specific timing for or and how often you should take it you're doing prophylactic Valtrex, you take it daily and you just take one tablet a day, every day from now until doomsday and your chances for outbreak are low and your chances for spreading are low.
If you're using it prophylactically, what I usually recommend is probably start taking it a couple of days before you're going to have unprotected intercourse. I mean, even if you only take it one day in advance, at least it's better than nothing. Neither one of those literature articles were super great. So I can't say yes, for sure. Start taking it two weeks in advance and take it until two weeks after. We don't really know. But taking it prior to having sexual intercourse. Somebody needs to pay somebody to study this. Yeah. It seems like it's a real problem.
And it seems like if there's a chance that this is a solution for that, that somebody should be paying. But again, this is a whole different subject, but when it comes to sex and alternative lifestyles and stuff like that, people don't want to put money behind those studies, right? Yeah, they don't. It's kind of horrible, but there's not a lot of study on stuff that's helpful for things like alternative sexual lifestyles. It's like trying to get people to do studies on LGBTQ populations. It's really hard to get money for that. Yeah. Okay.
But if I'm hearing you, what me and Lacey should do is experiment ourselves and go on Valtrex two or three days before an event and then take it through two or three days after an event. And that could potentially help us prevent catching HSV-1 and 2. Yes. That's the best we've got. All right. All right. Now, the second question I have, kind of on this same subject, is something that's new that's come up that I'm starting to see places like Shameless Care and WISP offer is a similar thing with doxycycline, and're calling it doxy prep.
And they're saying to take doxy prior to sexual intercourse. And then I think it's a very similar regimen than what you just described with the Valtrex. Are you familiar? Yep, absolutely. So doxy prep. Okay. So it's only been studied in penis owners. That's one thing to know to begin with. It hasn't been studied in vagina owners. Um, and that also seems common with a lot of these studies that they're not studying it in men or women, they're only studying it in men. It's unfortunate. Yeah. Um, but it's, it's basically, it reduces your chances of contracting chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis.
I want to say the number is somewhere around like 50 to 60% chance reduction. So basically take a 200 milligram pill as soon as possible after unprotected sex, but no later than 72 hours, or you can take it before unprotected sex. I'm going to Google it real quick, just make sure they haven't done any studies on females that I've missed recently. So it's just one dose that you can take before or after? Is that what you're saying? Most of the studies are after unprotected intercourse, but taking it before is probably similar. So as a vagina owner. You don't want to take it before. Well, no.
To be super transparent, Shameless reached out to us about promoting it and talking about it. And my knee-jerk reaction was that antibiotic is going to cause me to have a yeast infection and if then I'm just opening up I'm trying to prevent one thing but then I'm just opening up a can of worms over here for a yeast infection because I'm one of the the women that if I take antibiotics I get. It doesn't matter. So that was my concern. And the fact that it hasn't been tested in, in women, like makes sense. I'm not finding it studied in women.
Everything I'm finding is in males and it's mostly in men who have sex with men as well. So if you want to consider that, I'm trying to find if there's any like studies at all in women. And I haven't found one yet. That doesn't mean there isn't one out there that I've missed. That was my concern. Uh-huh. Like I don't want to promote something. Oh, here we go. If that's just going to then cause you to get a yeast. Yes. Studies involved in doxycycline post-exposure or pre-exposure prophylaxis have shown mixed results in cisgender women.
So yeah, we don't know for sure that it works in vagina owners. I'm going to go out on a limb here, though, and say if you catch – and I don't know. You said syphilis was the third one, and I don't know what the treatment is for – but chlamydia and gonorrhea is you go get the shot in the ass, right? Like if you catch it.
Syphilis is the one that's probably more important because syphilis is also a gift that keeps on giving once you have it you have it now you can you can completely treat syphilis and you don't really okay so that's not really true it's not exactly a gift that keeps on giving it's something that you will always test positive for on antibodies but it is curable so and it's easy to cure as well the problem with syphilis is a lot of times people don't realize they have it until they get into secondary syphilis.
So primary syphilis, a lot of times kind of feels like the flu and people just don't realize that's what it is because you get body aches and fever and sore throat and you just kind of feel ick. And then it can go into a latent phase and then you may not have symptoms for a really long time. So it's not necessarily like something that people know that they have until they get tested for it, but you'll always have a positive test for syphilis antibodies, but it is very easy to treat. It's one dose of penicillin.
And if you're allergic to penicillin, they will desensitize you to penicillin because it's the only treatment. Oh, wow. Yep. Okay. So syphilis may, but if you're having protected self sex, you're that's, if you're using condoms, when you have intercourse, you're pretty safe from syphilis, right? Syphilis is uncommon to pass without condoms, yes. So it seems to me, in the swinger scenario, chlamydia and gonorrhea are probably your biggest risk. And if you're having protected sex, it's more of a risk orally than it really is genitally.
And so that might be something you want to take this doxy prep for because it could potentially protect you from um receiving or spreading um oral gonorrhea or chlamydia but then like lacey said well then you have the risk of now you're taking antibiotics and you could get yeast infections and things like that so for me it's almost like i'd rather take the risk of getting oral gonorrhea or chlamydia if all i have to do is if i test positive for it go get a shot and wait a week and not have sex for a week or two like it almost seems like that would be as long as you're getting tested regularly yeah gonorrhea gonorrhea and chlamydia in the throat in the mouth can be asymptomatic they can be asymptomatic in the vagina as well the biggest concern that we worry about with an undiagnosed gonorrhea or chlamydia is a vaginal infection getting up inside the uterus and then potentially causing problems with fertility.
So it's not that gonorrhea and chlamydia are like, you know, completely non dangerous, what have you. Um, they're, they're uncommon to cause complicated issues, especially if you're getting tested regularly. So if you're getting tested regularly, you're liable to catch it, um, before it becomes problematic.
And problematic and yes it's just it's just a one-time dose of medications it's not that big a deal yeah well unless he doesn't have a uterus so we don't even have to worry about that so we're good there yeah we're good there you don't have to worry about that uh the rest of us with uterine still have to consider that well and then the other thing about that doxy prep is i don't you know it's you have to pay out of pocket for it i think it's expensive. I think it was like $100 a dose or something like that. I can look and see it.
I don't think Doxy is that expensive if you have an indication for taking it. I have no idea. I can look it up on GoodRx. That's where everything is like the cheapest is on GoodRx. Let's see. GoodRx, Doxy. Yeah. Well, that's why I'm curious. This is through those like Wisp and Shameless and some of these like online.
online yeah you pay you pay you know the doctor's actually prescribing it to you and all that stuff too so you're paying without a prescription because we're not medical doctors we can't just go get doxy from the yeah it's it looks like it's kind of expensive a couple hundred bucks yeah yeah so that was my other thing it's like okay like if it's really that useful like i would do it you know i mean if if i thought there was a significant risk of what it was protecting against um i would do it but if you're asking me to pay 150 200 dollars and really i think it's per day right so if you're going to a three four five like something like a bliss cruise we're going to be there a week long you'd probably have to take it almost every day yeah i was just looking at the cheapest i can find for seven tablets is 68 bucks so oh well that's not that's not horrible but that's just that's if but but that's if you go to a doctor and get a prescription yeah if you use like a wisp yeah not if you use like a wisp or a shameless game yeah right yep so something.
Definitely do your research. Check out DoxyPrep. But that's another thing that's out there that I don't think we had had an opportunity to talk about. I'm hoping they're going to start studying it in cisgender women maybe a little bit more because some of the data looks good and some of the data is like, nah, it doesn't do anything. So, again, it's kind of like the Valtrex. We don't really know if it helps or if it doesn't help. But Doxy does cause side effects.
And if you're having to take it daily, Doxy is not super easy on the tummy heads up so if you're going to you know like a seven day cruise you don't really want to have diarrhea for seven days straight because you're taking doxy to prevent getting something you're not gonna have sex anyways nope you do not so they they gave us doxy for um malaria when i was in the military so when they sent us to these third world countries they'd give us doxy and they wanted us to take it every single day and almost nobody took it because yeah like you any i think is it milk i think if you or dairy products that it's either work i don't know i puked on it a few times and i'm like screw this stuff like i'll take the malaria like this is not fun and you know we we were deployed sometimes for a year so they're wanting to take it every day for a year um yeah now there now there's some studies that there could be issues.
Soldiers are having issues from doing that. Yeah, absolutely. Doxy is not a very fun medication to take. It can cause yeast infections, but it causes a lot of stomach upset. Some people it's nausea. A lot of people it's diarrhea. I mean, if you're going to have diarrhea and stomach upset the entire time you're at a swingers event, you wouldn't have sex anyway. So what's the point?
would be a nightmare valid points all right well i appreciate the conversation yeah i don't think these are the answers people are going to want to hear you know i mean like there's not shit you can really do against hsv1 and 2 um good luck get tested and uh if you if you uh have issues take valtrex now i i do we talked a little bit on the disclose thing thing and i don't i don't know if we really gave a full yeah we did a full answer on that i think i cut you off because we went back to hsv2 so here's i guess the other issue that i have with especially hsv1 is if 80 of the people have it most of them aren't getting tested if you're that one person that goes and gets tested and you come back with a positive result, are you now supposed to go and tell everybody that you have it?
And because if you do that, a lot of people are probably just going to not want to play with you. When half the people probably already have it already, right? So like most of them just don't know that they have it. It seems like a moral dilemma. It is kind of a moral dilemma. I mean, what I usually counsel my patients, I'm like, okay, if you've got HSV-1 and you're having sex with multiple partners, it is up to you as to whether or not you want to disclose that. If it's HSV-2, I usually encourage disclosure because that's a little bit different. It's more virulent. It's more likely to catch.
But if they've got HSV-1, I say, look, you should probably be taking daily medication to prevent spreading this to other people. Whether or not you want to disclose is completely up to you. And most of my patients, because they know that 80% of the population has it already and most people have never tested, I think a lot of them probably don't disclose. That's probably the most common thing.
They take the Valtrex just to do their due diligence and then they don't disclose because the chances of giving it to somebody else are no one has ever told me that they have a right and that's the case if 80 of people have hsv1 yeah no one has ever told me they have hsv1 and in the eight years of swinging and i know we've played with people that probably have it we've probably played with people that know they have it yeah right and so i guess the only thing that i could hope is what dr storages said so i would hope if you're out there listening and you've tested positive for hsv1 i hope what you're doing is before you go to these events you're going on a doxy or not a doxy on a valtrex regime right like you're saying take it a week before whatever before you're leading up to event because it seems like that the studies are showing that if you're on that medication the likelihood of you you spreading it, one, if you don't have any active outbreaks, it's less likely.
And then, two, if you're on Valtrex, it's extremely less likely. Extremely unlikely. And so you're at least doing your diligence to protect the community. Yeah, that's my opinion. And I think that's probably what a lot of people are doing. And I guess I think on a, you know, on a moral level, it's unfair for the people who do the right thing to get tested to then have to tell everybody else who doesn't get tested, yeah, I've got HSV-1, when those people who didn't get tested have an 80% chance of having it themselves. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with you.
And for HSV-2, I've noticed I'm in some swinger groups on Reddit and stuff, and that's like the wild wild west out there but i've noticed that they have hsb to play parties so for people that are positive so they can go and play and it's not a thing you know they don't have to like worry about having to close it it's just you know walking in that everybody does but again in the eight years that i've been a swinger i've never had anyone come to me and say i have hsv2 which odds are somebody probably would you say 20 20 percent around 14 somewhere around there okay yeah one in eight okay one in nine the odds are somebody in there has had it but no one has ever came to me and so if you have hsv2 our advice would be you go on a valtrex regime but then you also disclose to people that you have it yeah that's and if they're on a valtrex regime and and don't have an active outbreak it's probably just as little likely as hsv1 of spreading is that correct explicitly low yeah the chances are low.
If you don't have an outbreak and you're on Valtrex, even with HSV2, your chances of spreading it are quite low. Yeah. The only reason that I typically recommend to disclose with that type of situation is because if you do spread it to somebody, it's much more virulent. It's more likely to cause an outbreak. It's more likely to be uncomfortable and you would want them to know. So, but I, you know, I think disclosure is kind of a personal thing for everybody, but disclosure is something like herpes is probably the one thing that most people would disclose.
I mean, when was the last time anybody ever came up to you and said, Hey, I've, I've got a history of syphilis. Like nobody discloses that they've been treated. No big deal. A lot of people who are on Valtrex, even with a history of herpes choose not to disclose because they feel like they're doing the right thing to prevent spreading it. I mean, I get that. I understand where it's coming from. Yeah. No, I think either way is really. As long as you're being responsible and taking the medicine and doing what you're supposed to be. That's the biggest key.
Then what you hope is not happening is people know they have it not on and are not on medication and then out there having. You would hope.
And I think most people in the lifestyle are conscientious enough that they wouldn't do that hopefully yeah i agree i agree all right we touched on a lot of subjects no it was good i learned a lot to be honest with you right i think i've learned some stuff and i thought i think it's i think it's kind of reassured me that i was kind of on the right track with a lot of this stuff as well so i definitely take i appreciate you sitting down and taking the time to explain that to us um so go out there get you get you a valtrex prescription um make sure you're getting uh throat swabbed um and you know get tested that's really the best thing all of us can do all right dr store do you have anything else for the swing nation listeners uh that you'd like to share before we let you go?
If people are interested in you and how to find you, where do they go? So swingingsafe.com is the website. I keep trying to do little bits and tidbits and whatnot on there. If you're looking for just general information about STDs and whatnot, you can certainly find it there. Otherwise, oddly enough, I got locked out of Facebook. So don't look for me on there right now. So some asshole hijacked my business site on Facebook and caused all sorts of trouble and locked me out. So I can't get into my own account anymore. Oh yeah.
I've heard Facebook is difficult to get ahold of and to try to get to fix that. As far as I can tell. Yeah.
Especially if you you're completely locked out of your account because the only way to get a hold of facebook is through your account yeah yeah but other than that yeah look look for me on swinging safe.com and i occasionally post up stuff on tiktok not very often i don't really like social media am i like the i'm the weirdest person ever i don't like social media i just hate it no we don't blame you we don't blame you uh discord if you want to find her on discord go join the swinger society discord she has her own channel in there you can message you can ask to talk to her privately and dm uh she's been very very gracious and given a lot of her time um to help our community and the swingers and the discord members out there so definitely um join us on discord.
And we do, we do want to thank you for doing that. Cause I can just put this out there in general. If you're contacting me on discord, you do not need to ask permission to DM me. You can DM me as long as it's anything to do with a medical condition. If you're DMing me because you just think I'm super hot, then you ask my permission first. Right. Yeah. Don't send her unsolicited dick pics. No, don't be that guy. Don't be that guy. If you have a medical question, feel free. Yeah. If your medical question includes a dick pic, I probably won't look at it. Just heads up. Oh, geez. I can see it now.
Now, if you get to know her like me, once in a while, she'll send you a picture of her and her scrubs. Yeah. I get those on occasion. I've sent you a picture of me and my scrubs, Dan. I know. That's what I was saying was my, once you get to know her once you get to know me, you get a picture of me and my scrubs once in a while, it's been a while it's been a minute, I'll have to send you one alright I think that covers it, anything else you want to say? no, I think we're good it's always a joy joy to chat with you two. Thank you. Always a pleasure. Thank you again. All right.
I think with that, in a world full of apples. Be the pineapple. Be the pineapple, guys. Bye. Bye. If you've enjoyed our podcast and want to support us, leave a five-star review wherever you're listening if you want to see more of our content you can find links to snapchat twitter instagram only fans and more in the show notes come join the conversation with us and other swinger content creators on our swinger society discord server if you have questions or feedback email them to us at the swing nation at g at gmail.com.
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