I know this topic may be controversial, but another thread dealing with sexuality has made me curious if there are any here, in having left Mormonism and it's structure, including the LoC, who have ended up with any STD's and are willing to discuss it?

I have a nephew who was just recently Dx-ed with throat cancer due to HPV.

I will chime in on this if you don't mind.

I have a VERY high sex drive and I can trace the roots to mormonism. That being said, I could actually call it a sex addiction. It doesn't help that I'm single and I travel extensively for work and it's not hard to get a "sailor in every port".

Between 1999 when I woke up and left TSCC until 2015 sex was accompanied by a considerable amount of anxiety regarding the STD issue. After I'd have some adult play time I would fret over it for DAYS and since sex was pretty often, i'd find myself in constant worry. In 2015 I got a case of the shingles due to stress, but that freaked me out on a REALLY high level for 5 days because I have 2 friends that shingles were their first HIV sign. The fretting got the better of me and I pulled into a Kroger parking lot in Georgia and took the Oroquick HIV test. That was a 20 minute fret session if I ever had one, but it came up negative, so I called the Lifelong AIDS Alliance in Seattle and was given a referral for a doctor that would help me with PrEP. I started the PrEP regimen which is a once a day pill that prevents the virus from entering the cells.......long story short, there's a once a day pill that can prevent HIV.

I most certainly will NOT put the number here, but I know the exact number of sex partners I've played with since 2015 and have come up with exactly ZERO STI or STD's (gotta admit, we all are a little flummoxed by this, considering) but STDs are NOT the end of the world and nothing wrong in having conversations about them, so kudos to you for asking.

Thanks for chiming in, Levi, and sharing.

I left the church in the mid-70s and had a lot of unprotected sex, or as it was called back then, sex. Then we learned about AIDS, but thought it was just among IV drug users and gay men, so I continued on as before. But then there was word AIDS had spread into the rest of the population, so I went to a clinic to be tested. They reported back I was free of AIDS and all other STDs. So, again, I continued on as before. Then I got engaged and we both went to be tested again. Still no STDs. But I got a vasectomy. It took me a long time after the divorce to get back into sex. By then condoms were pretty much standard procedure, but there were a few times we went without. I'm still disease-free.

bumping for the week crowd :)

My Doctor had six cases of STDs last month.

He's much better now.

Ba-da BING!

You can still get a STD while being an active member in a "celestial" marriage if your so called eternal spouse is out sleeping around.

Marriage, church activity or even ones own adherence to fidelity is no guarantee.

I was a virgin TBM when I got married, and never had sex with anyone but my TBM husband, for 15 years. A few weeks after we filed for divorce, I got sick with an STD. Turns out, that my TBM ex-husband had been cheating on me since the first year we were married, and I never had a clue. My husband had been sick, too, but lied about his illness. I asked around, did the research, and got at least some of the facts about his one-night stands. I have no desire to get married again, or to have anything more than a casual friendship with a man.

If any of you women suspect your husband of cheating, please use protection. If you don't want your spouse to know you suspect him or her, make up any excuse you want, but do protect yourself.

I rather enjoyed my 20's and early 30's, sexually, after leaving the cult at 21.

I was usually smart and safe about it, though there were a few times that "the moment" got the better of me, and I carried on "unprotected."

Never got any STDs though. Probably a combination of being careful and dumb luck.

Thanks for all of you who have chosen to comment thus far.
After my nephew's dx, I've been looking at information.

Throat cancer among young men (30's) has been on the rise due to HPV, so red flags of caution have gone up in my mind.

I'm putting in a plug for the Gardasil vaccine. It's very effective against HPV which also causes genital warts in men and women. I'm sure cancer is worse, but that one is usually enough to scare people into getting the three shot series.

yeah my former TBM spouse (a woman) had a very high sex drive. In fact, our 20-year marriage ended because she was having an affair and I caught her red handed with her lover. After the divorce, she dumped her lover and began dating on POF. One after another after another. She must have gone through 25 guys over a 2-year period post divorce. I know she was having sex w/ each one because my teen daughters would tell me that these guys would spend the night in the "family" home, and they would hear her carry on or they would catch their mom in the family van in the drive way or whatever. The Bishop thought she had a sexual addiction, but who knows. Probably not. Anyway, she acquired an STD...I believe Gonorrhea (reported to me by my daughter) AND she also got pregnant by another. The latter she received an abortion. She was really scared on having this baby because it would have been bi-racial, and she knew that it would be the end of her church membership. The church gave her free pass on everything because she is pretty, and the bishop was very easy going. She knows how to manipulate men, but I digress from the topic at hand.