Safe lesbian sex: what's the done thing?

[Twig]

I know that dental dams are promoted as a means of practising safe lesbian sex, but in reality, do many people actually use them? Are they as commonplace as condoms are in straight/gay male sex? Do you use them? Honest answers, please. I know people SHOULD, I'm just wondering if they actually DO.

[Auty]

In reality it was for better or worse so she and I don't use them, they get in the way of passion. We are careful about being clean and using water-based lubes stuff like that.

[GwennieB]

Honestly?

No.

If you're involved in a polyamorous, queer, sex-positive scene with lots of casual sex, like, say, certain parts of San Francisco, then yes, a lot of the lesbian and bisexual women there are going to be practicing safe sex with dams and gloves (or else practicing "fluid bonding", where they only share bodily fluids with certain people whose partners they also know are disease-free, thus everybody in said circle is having safe sex with anybody not in the circle).

But your average gal who has three or four serially monogamous girlfriends is probably not going to bother with it, given how low the rates of disease transmission are for lesbian sex. The number of "average women" using lesbian safe sex methods are pretty dismal compared to your average gay man's use of safe sex methods.

I like using gloves, partially because I find it hot. Like many people, I'm not much a fan of dental dams.

Hope that helps.

[TsunderekkoSamaaBadass]

Lesbians are actually, as a demographic, one of the groups that least practises safe-sex, the reason being that 1) there is no risk of pregnancy between two women; 2) there's isn't--or people think there isn't--the same amount of fluid-exchange between two women; 3) lesbians, in general, are more likely to have sex while in monogamous relationships and less likely to have one-night stands. Lesbians are also less likely than heterosexual women to visit a gynecologist. There was a study done a few years ago that talked about this very thing.

In my experience, not a lot of lesbians practise safe sex. I've never used a dental dam, but that's because I've only ever been with one woman in my life, and we're in a long-term monogamous relationship and were both virgins when we got together. The lesbians I have known here and there throughout my life never practised safe sex, even when having sex with multiple partners.