Health, hygiene, BDSM and preventing infections.

[Desdemona]

I've seen a variety of comments over time about cleanliness, cleaning toys, preventing infection, etc. I looked in the library and didn't see a thread there on this topic so, Master and I thought maybe it was time to have a place to talk about it.

What do you and your partner(s)/playmate(s) do to prevent infections or the spread of sexually transmitted diseases?

How do you clean your toys? (Yeah, I'm making an assumption, I know).

Do you use condoms for penetration? If so, is it only for anal, is it only for penetration by a cock, or do you place condoms on your toys prior to insertion?

If you use toys for penetration, are they only used for one person or are they shared (after cleaning) with others?

If you engage in blood play, how do you prepare the skin and treat it afterwards?

Do you keep first aid supplies with your toys? (After all, accidents do happen.)

Do you have questions about this that I haven't raised? If so, feel free to ask here.

I'm interested in any and all comments on this topic.

 

[D's mariposa]

Wow.. All these questions..

We're both clean, (get tested once a year) so we're ok with each other. When we do play with others, latex barriers are a must.

Penetration toys are washed with anti bacterial soap and water and an anti bacterial rinse. "Public" toys, spanking benches and such are sprayed with a 4 to 1 bleach solution and wiped with paper towels.

We don't do blood play as in cutting, but we do do needle play. The area to be needled is cleaned with an alcahol swab or wipe; and D uses sterile wrapped hypo needls from the med supply store. He uses latex gloves and needles are discarded in a sharps container. If we're doing needles away from the club, the used needles are stored in a hard sided sterile container. Then it is taking to the local dungeon so it can be discarded in the sharps container there; since we don't have one here at the house. Back to the needled body part.. It is cleaned with a alcahol swab or wipe later (D enjoys the yelping and squirming) and if there is a bit of blood he hits it with neosporin cream. Not ointment because ointment seals off the wound from the air, which may allow some forms of anaerobic bacteria to form. (this is not proven, but a holdover from those biology classes ever so long ago.)

First aid wise, we have bendadryl, an albuteraol inhalor (for me), band aids, ice packs, burn creams, just your basic first aid kit. I have both a first aid card and a cpr card.. Which reminds me, I expire in July.. I need to call the red cross.

 

[Desdemona]

D's mariposa, thank you so much for your post. It was informative and complete. Maintaining CPR certification (or getting it in the first place) is an extremely wise thing to do.

Your bleach solution for public surfaces is quite good. Bleach kills almost anything that could potentially harm us.