Be Careful When Choosing a Sexual Partner

7.08.2010 | By: J. P.

What are the characteristic to which you have to pay attention in choosing a sexual partner if you want to stay healthy?

Carelessness in selecting sexual partners is even more dangerous than one’s own risky sexual behavior. (Photoxpress)

“It’s all about the risk of a sexual partner and sometimes we forget that.”

University of Florida and University of Pittsburgh researchers have discovered that the character and behavior of a potential sexual partner can help you predict a risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Dr. Stephanie A. S. Staras, a UF assistant professor of Epidemiology and Health Policy Research in the UF College of Medicine, said: “The theory is simple: You need to have sex with someone who has an STD to get an STD. Based on the prevalence of STDs in the United States, it seems like the public may not fully understand the risk. If you are choosing high-risk partners, you are much more likely to have an STD, even when we account for your condom-use patterns.” The likelihood that a person has a sexually transmitted disease largely depends on the person’s characteristics and behaviour.

What are the typical risk characteristics of a sexual partner?

The study involved sexual activities, characteristics of a sexual partner and STD diagnoses of 412 subjects between the ages of 15 and 24. UF researchers categorised the subjects in risk groups according to five characteristics of their previous sexual partners: whether their partners had a problem with alcohol, marijuana or other illegal drugs, whether a couple had an age difference of more than five years, whether their partners had been in jail, whether their partners had sexual relations with other people in the past year and whether their partners were treated for a sexually transmitted disease in the past year. The researchers examined negative partner characteristics and compared them with the sexual behaviour of the subjects participating in the study, whereby the main focus was on the use of birth control and the number of sexual partners.

Characteristics of sexual partners are the most important

Among the subjects categorized as high-risk according to the characteristics of their previous sexual partners, half were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease. Among those categorized as high-risk according to their own risky sexual behavior, the proportion was a little less than 40 per cent. The characteristics of your sexual partner are therefore more important than your own awareness and practice of safe sex. Subjects whose partners had all five risk characteristics were three times as likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease than those whose partners had only two risk characteristics. The characteristics that best predict a risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease are whether the partner already had a sexually transmitted disease and, interestingly, whether a couple had an age difference of more than five years.

Findings are also useful for insurance companies

The findings of the study are also useful for health insurance companies because they will be able to categorize the insured persons in the appropriate risk groups. Health insurance companies in the USA normally only ask the insured persons about their sexual behavior, but pay too little attention to the sexual behavior and characteristics of their partners. They should therefore add a few simple questions to their questionnaires in order to gather more important information on the actual risk of the insured person to contract sexually transmitted diseases. Education on the importance of partner selection should complement the current efforts in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, which are mainly focused on the use of condoms and monogamy.

Don’t jump to conclusions

Other researchers, including Dr. Richard A. Crosby at University of Kentucky, stress that we have to be aware of the fact that the risk factors mentioned in the study are generalizations and not reliable indicators showing that someone really has a sexually transmitted disease. A narrow view on the findings of the study could arouse a lot of unfounded prejudices and increase the number of the infected among people who would rely on their prediction and selection of low-risk partners and thus ignore the classical methods of preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.