3 ms·
You’re comparing a monogamous relationship where there is a 10%-25% chance that one of you will have at least 1 extra partner, to a situation where at least on
by sarchertech 3y ago
You’re comparing a monogamous relationship where there is a 10%-25% chance that one of you will have at least 1 extra partner, to a situation where at least one of you is regularly seeking out new partners. All else being equal the risk of contracting an STD is going to go way up.
And there are other STDs to worry about than just HIV. Numerous drug resistant bacterial infections are on the rise.
If the increased risk doesn’t bother you, that’s cool, but you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoI’m not pretending the risk doesn’t exist. The data demonstrates the risk is low when safe sex is practiced. Practice safe sex and get tested often if you have multiple partners regularly.
- sarchertech 3y agoI’m not talking about pretending the risk doesn’t exist. I’m talking about pretending the increase in risk doesn’t exist with > poly only changes the honesty and logistics
- toomuchtodo 3y agoOf all the monogamous people I know who have cheated on their partner, they are not practicing safe sex based on my inquires (but all have lucked out so far not getting pregnant or STD). I extrapolate out accordingly based on public STD health reporting and infidelity rates across the broader population. The data shows monogamy is aspirational, from a sexual perspective. Poly folks are more intentional about safe sex, at least in my experience. Of course, having no sex or being in a strictly monogamous relationship where you’re 100% positive no one is being unfaithful is the lowest risk activity. But with 40% of pregnancies unintended annually in the US, infidelity rates, STD stats reporting from state public health systems, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I am a scholar basing my thesis on the data. (hard to take the monkey out of the human, we are simply fancy mammals)
- sarchertech 3y ago> Of all the monogamous people I know who have cheated on their partner, they are not practicing safe sex based on my inquires > I extrapolate out accordingly > I am a scholar basing my thesis on the data. Those statements are entirely contradictory. Your methodology is not even remotely in the vicinity of scholarly. >The data shows monogamy is aspirational If 75-90% of monogamous relationships are successfully monogamous, I’d hardly call that aspirational. > But with 40% of pregnancies unintended annually Without know how many of those are monogamous couples, that statistic is useless. If you want to get pretty close to the actual risk difference, take a look at the difference in STD rates between single and married people. Even adjusting for age, race, and income, single people are astronomically more likely to contract STDs than married people.
- klyrs 3y ago> where at least one of you is regularly seeking out new partners This isn't always the case. My sample is a bit biased as I rarely interact with cishet folks outside of work, but in my circle, quite a few nonmonogamous folks are quite stable with the 1-3 partners they have for years or decades at a time. As others point out, scheduling is a real limiter and unless you're just doing one-night-stands, it's easy to get "polysaturated" where, yeah, that boy looks cute but I don't have time for him. But what I can do, that I couldn't in a monogamous relationship, is come home and gush about the cute boy I flirted with.
- whaleofatw2022 3y agoPoly is for some just a scheduling fetish.