Risky Sex !

[billyde]

Bear with me while I add a little context. As a gay teenager in the 80's, I grew up with the horror of the AIDS epidemic. Safe sex was and remains a big thing for me, but somewhere in the hedonistic 90's things changed and it seems (to an oldie like me at least) that for one reason or another, younger generations do not have this morbid fear of HIV. It's something you can live with given modern drugs. It got me thinking though. I have a friend with a knackered liver (apologies for the scientific terminology) and to my horror, his dating profile mentions bare backing. We've discussed it (lots of doom mongering on my part), but he's very much of the opinion that if he catches anything, there will be drugs to fix it. Knowing how cautious my GP and hepatologist are to prescribe me drugs for my PTSD, I wondered if his compromised liver function might mean that , should he catch something, he might not be able to take some of the drugs targeting STIs. Like I said earlier, the gay stuff is just context. Sexual health is important to anyone that is sexually active. Any thoughts ?

[Rshc]

I think any infection, regardless of where or the cause is hugely problematic to someone with liver disease. A simple infection that most healthy people can fight off without any issue could be the cause of a liver decompensating

[Aotea2012]

I think he’s badly deluded if he thinks he can rely on drugs. Even for people with healthy livers there’s the risk of hepatitis B, which is a stealthy liver damaging disease. The liver is a crucial part of the immune system and so it stands to reason that damage to it will have consequences. A little infection can be life threatening. Also many drugs are not so easily tolerated or are not processed properly, so cannot be prescribed. Try to talk some sense into him because he’s running a high risk.

[Roy1955 in reply to Aotea2012]

The lads an idiot!If the diseases don't kill him the cures just might finish him off.

Treatments come at a cost to our health and ALL medication has side effects.

[Cat-B]

Hi you are right, if his liver is knackered, the liver can’t cope with a lot of medicines, I was there hep B was the big scary monster then AIDS took the title. I have a chronic back injury and I can’t have any painkillers because of my liver failure. He is putting himself in danger.