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I looked back at my own comments from when we first got involved with our friends who were already in the LS. My wife’s best friend remarried a man who was a swinger when they met and introduced our friend to his lifestyle. My wife knew her friend well before we met, friends with her first husband, lived through her divorce and remarriage. The friend confided to my wife her new sexual life in turn I learned through my wife. We had been invited to join them by way of the wives speaking. I never considered or thought of swinging in real life up to that time. My wife started to discuss the possibility with me, I thought it was a bad idea to even think of doing this with friends. More talk convinced me to go with my wife’s wants. My memory is telling me that I wasn’t fully in agreement. I had internal questions of why was she so interested, I even wondered if she had already joined our friends. The only thing that made that first time for me palatable was having sex with our long time girlfriend. I didn’t enjoy hearing my wife enjoy, I did enjoy what I was feeling with our friend. Long term we continued our friendship and expanded our circle of LS friends. Jealousy is no longer a factor, we have continued to play as a couple and have on occasion played individually as a third.

I found this very interesting article by an author named Mark Manson, 'Your Honest-To-God Guide to STDs.' It’s at https://markmanson.net/std-guide It’s a good read, and I found it to be reasonable. (I don’t promise it’s accurate to the nth degree, though.) He talks about the various STDs, their effects on you if you get it, and a few statistics. Then he gives his RAW score, an *average* of how many different partners you would need to have *unprotected* penis in vagina sex with to catch that disease. Here it is: CHLAMYDIA - 36 partners GONORRHEA - 179 partners SYPHILIS - 1,841 partners HPV - 4 partners GENITAL HERPES - 13 partners HIV - 1,250 partners Now, I’m not advocating unprotected sex here. In fact, my advice is to wear a condom each and every time. For example, the risk of catching gonorrhea is low - but you could beat the odds and catch it the first time! The RAW score is just an average. Let the debate begin. Play nice, kiddies.

I'm doing the typing (Mr. Gold) but this is actually a joint answer: Shortly after we started dating, we also started sharing our previous sexual experiences with each other. Both of us had been married for a long time (20 years) before our relationships went sour. Towards the end of hers, her husband brought up the idea of swinging (with friends) in an attempt to 'save' their marriage. It didn't work (surprise), but when she told me the story, she quickly added that she wasn't opposed to swinging and wouldn't mind trying it again. Now I really liked the idea, except for one little thing... 1. What was the first clue that the gentleman was at least ambivalent, if not reluctant? I told her that I have always been a VERY JEALOUS person and, if we were to proceed, we needed to set rules and limits and stand by them. It was around this time that we found this board and started reading and reading. It took months of reading and talking before we decided on what our rules were going to be, but also kept the rules open for modification as things went forward. It then took more time to find another couple that we 'clicked' with and that was at about the same place as we were with the limits and such. 2. What were his underlying concerns? JEALOUSY 3. Assuming that he continued on with his lady with exploration of swinging, what was said/done to mitigate his concerns to the point that he was willing to put a toe into the LS and see what it felt like for him? That I had a woman that was interested in trying swinging, even though she had tried it before and it failed...that she felt safe and loved enough to expose what her fantasies were. That we had our rules and kept checking in with each other to make sure that we were both okay with what was happening. That we would discuss what went on and alter our rules as time went on and we both felt comfortable enough with changing them (yes, we started out with the 'no kissing' rule...that one lasted until the second meeting, but it was important to both of us at the time). I found that jealousy had no place where trust and communication was paramount...it just couldn't exist in that environment. 4. What were the short term and long term outcomes for him and for their relationship? We've been together for 13 years and 'dated' another couple for 10 years until they recently moved further away (we still see each other, but only a few times a year now). With covid bringing everything to a stop and it taking so long to get the world started again, we want to start looking for another couple, or couples, but its been slow and not as many people have been signing up or resuming swinging...and covid (and politics) has really polarized the world removing the grey and leaving only black and white at the extremes. We keep looking, and hope that lightening will strike again, but until then all we can do it look and hope. Hope that answers the questions...

My geek colors are showing through. I've studied Discrete Mathematics and it applies to some degree to the work I do. You caught me out. Well done Oops on my part And thank you for the high praise I try to help here as best I can. And glutony is one of the seven deadly sins.

There are over 100 viruses associated with HPV. Aside from cervical cancer untreated HPV in the mucus membranes of the nose, throat, & rectum may eventually evolve into cancer. Its not certain, but there is a possibility. Also anal intercourse is not necessary for the HPV viruses to create rectal warts/infection. Finally note that any warts on the body are HPV related viruses. Best to have a dermatologist remove them at the earliest opportunity. This includes 'flat warts' which can be similar to non HPV Keretosis on the skin. A simple 'freeze can remove many warts. Assorted chemical treatments work well too. Cauterization seems to be out of fashion for most warts, tho my dermatologist says she still does it in certain cases. Since skin cancers can be very invasive & deadly a annual visit to the dermatologist for inspection should be standard, and wart removal part of the visit.

All of this post is valid except the notion that only women suffer consequences of HPV infection. In a conversation yesterday with a friend who is a physician and former health official, he noted that HPV vies with smoking as the greatest causes of oral cancer. That deadly disease of course affects both men and women.

Wife and I started in the swinging lifestyle in early 70's and from the very start we decided that condoms were not required. Of course this was way before AIDS and she was on the pill but we both thought the condom would take away the pleasure. From the very first every guy she fucked came in her pussy. At first she would douche after fucking another guy but one night I got to her before she did the douche and though she protested once I got my tongue in her cunt she was so turned on by the FACT THAT I WAS LICKING HER LOVER'S CUM FROM HER PUSSY THAT SHE HAD AN INTENSE ORGASM. I grabbed her butt and pulled her pussy to my face and loved the feel and taste. Then I slipped my own cock into her slick cunt and it felt so great. She said "you are going to mix your cum with his, aren't you?" You can bet I did, that time and every other time when she fucked another guy - and there were many other guys over the years, but her pussy never wore out and all the fellows loved her hairy cunt.

Reading Chicup's post "Reading between the profile lines..." about V-safe being code of bareback play got me thinking. If a couple/single admits to playing bareback as an option do you avoid them due to STI concerns even if you only play safe? If they allude to it, as described in Chicup's post, do avoid them for the same concerns? Do you bail on a couple that states they play safe in their profile, but when you meet, all of a sudden it is optional? What if it becomes optional after getting to know you better? We have seen a few couple profiles that say they only play bareback, usually due to latex concerns, but I don't usually buy that, since there are condemns that are latex free. We have seen 2-3 more that just state that is how they prefer to play. And we have meet a good many that state they only play safe in their profile, but bring up that bareback is an option once we meet. The vast majority we have met do not use any protection during oral. So where do YOU draw the line?

When I started this thread I thought of my own experiences. I had lovers that told me that I was the most passionate lover they had ever had and I feel that is because I have enjoying the physical and mental feel sex brings to me, so that is why I research ways to make me a better lover and willing to try anything! I never enjoyed video games, alcohol, drugs, golf because it never fulfilled me like sex. I have had lovers that you can tell that they only swinging for there partner's sake. Before swinging I had lovers that didn't enjoy sex, but the ones that did enjoy it tried swinging with me. I love it when a lover tells me how passionate I am, because I try to be !

We have sex nearly every day, only missing a day if one of us isn’t feeling well…..we have been like this for at least the last 7-8 years of our marriage….oddly enough we started out having sex less often than we do now. We have been together for 21 yrs and know each other well sexually so there isn’t much we would ask the other to do. Virtually every time we start out making love and end up screwing each other’s brains out. I still think we are mild compared to many others on this board.

We come from a different background than you, but started the same way. My wife appreciated it, took advantage of it, and it made us both happier. She got more and varied sex, I got everything I wanted and needed from her. Same for us.

Oddly enough jealousy was part of the reason we started. First a bit of background. I was raised old school Catholic. Part of that was an "examination of conscience " on a regular basis. This is essentially an attempt of an honest self appraisal of how I am living as opposed to my "best self" that the Creator wishes me to be. This is followed by sincere effort to overcome any flaw. My life had been hindered by what I recognized as jealousy.( Under the heading of fear of loss) The first step in discarding a sin or flaw is to renounce it. The corrective effort on my part became very clear as I had no reason to fear loss. We started out with my extending to my bride a unilateral and perpetual green light. It has worked out rather well.

This is so true. We'll also add that "rare and wonderful" involves strength and partnership and being enhanced by the relationship rather than being defined by being in the relationship.

I feel the same way about cumming on a woman's face. I've never found that interesting, and think it's learned from porn too. I also never had an urge to pull out and cum on her body. Other than with my first girlfriend back in the day, if we're going bare that means I can cum in her pussy. That's my favorite way to cum. When it comes to swinging, to me one of the most exciting things has been to meet up with a new couple that prefers it bareback from the very first play date. I remember my early days feeling almost surreal to be invited to their house, then to their bed in the master bedroom, and then to enter her bare. It can't be beat.

Some guys don't recognize a rare woman when they have one. I count myself lucky that the men who proposed marriage to my now wife wanted monogamy and she didn't, otherwise we likely wouldn't have found each other. She did assume that was how it would be when we got serious and headed towards marriage, and we were monogamous for a couple of years, except for her lesbian encounters, which don't count. Sensing what I did, I sprung it on her that she should get back into her comfortable rhythm of having more than one male sex partner at a time. She took me up on it, starting with two old boyfriend, separately. As things went on she decided she wanted me to play as well, and do FFM threesomes, so we moved to couples swaps.

I am not really sure if this is the situation you are really looking for but the first time that I swung was in the early 80's while all participants were in our early twenties. It was me, my wife at the time, her maid of honor and her boyfriend. All 4 of us was at his apartment and the maid of honor announced that she wanted to watch me and my wife fuck. We had no problem with it, but we wanted them to fuck also. He did, and my wife also as we also swapped which he did, but you could tell that he wasn't happy about it and just went along. It wasn't 2 weeks later that they had split up, which she said he was a "prude ". Now the maid of honor went thru a lot of men and she was very sexual and that is why me and my ex wife continued to have sex with just her. The reason was because no other man she was with was not cool with swinging, or at least with us. The maid of honor was a very beautiful, short, brunette with big tits with a huge sexual appetite which I feel left her boyfriends insecure about sharing her. As far as our threesome, my ex wife was bi,and the maid of honor simply wanted me, and had sex with my ex wife to get to me. When me and my ex divorced, the maid of honor approached me to swing with her, which we did for a few years before she decided to give it up. But I think her boyfriends wanted monogamy, she didn't!

At a party once four women got together to quadruple-team helpless me. It was clearly just a performative stunt. Two of them sucked my nipples, which did absolutely nothing for me. (I asked them to stop.) While I was reclined on a bed the other two took turns sucking my cock, which did a lot for me. 😉😂 Eventually I reached orgasm, ejaculating in the mouth of the woman who was then taking her turn. When my spurting stopped she raised up her head and french-kissed the other woman who had also been sucking me. It was a long kiss. I was totally spent physically and mentally; they’d left me pretty much in post-orgasmic la-la land. But if their object in sharing my semen was also performative I enjoyed the show.

^^^ This. I've had the good fortune to have sex with my wife many times after one of her (long term; only they get to go bareback) boyfriends has just cum inside of her. I absolutely leave penetrating her feeling her so sloppy with another man's cum and completely open, receptive, and very warm. It's quite intense! I've never been able to do that after two (or more) men have cum in her, but I'd love to try.

I love it when hubby goes balls deep and pushes as hard as he can and I feel his cock pump deep in my vagina. When I ride him, I love feeling his cock pump like that deep in me. Then I lift up and sit on his face and mouth so he can swallow everything I push out and then lick me clean of his cum mess.

Rubbing noses is the most intimate act.

I hope not, I am not the king of the locker room

Sorry that part wasn't meant to be directed at you. I was speaking in general to people who say that "size doesn't matter." I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but size does matter. You can have a huge dick and be terrible at sex - I know because I've seen it. The best sex my GF has ever had was definitely not with the biggest dick she ever had. There is a lot more to it than just size. But that doesn't mean that size doesn't matter.

My second wife (I’ve had three in total) was a clinical psychologist and a certified sex therapist. I recall early in our relationship she said (I’m paraphrasing here more than 40 years later) “Women tell men that size doesn’t matter, but the truth is that to most women it does.“ (She could be painfully frank, but judged my penis to be modestly larger in length and in girth than average but not huge. At this point in my life, after a couple of decades in the lifestyle, I’ve literally seen a couple hundred erect penises and what I’ve seen suggests she was being her candid self and not simply flattering a new boyfriend she didn’t wish to discourage.) I know there are some Size Queen in the lifestyle, but I believe for even for most women, lifestyle & vanilla, who care about the size of their partner‘s direct penis, it’s only one factor among a number on which they subjectively judge the quality of a sexual partner. Nice to have, but far from essential. I should also note that for many surprising number of women a penis can be too long and/or too wide. The wife in a couple I’ve played with on a number of occasions told me, while we were watching a well endowed fellow fuck one of the other women at the party, that he had approached her over the years on a number of occasions and she had always declined, on the basis of his erect penis being too large for her to have an enjoyable fuck with him.

We have found we are both the right fit for each other. If he were any larger, there would not get to be any anal fun! She is only 5'1" so there is just not a lot of room to keep going in. As far as thick, well she has to be in the mood. We have played with some sheaths once in a while for fun, and she does love two guys in there at once. At the end of the night, we go home together.

I agree with those who have posted about HPV. The unfortunate thing is it really only impacts women. Men infect women but they themselves never really know because of a lack of a test for them. Time for that to change. Lol HPV is highly sexually transmittable and 90% of us, men and women will get it. But only women will get cervical cancer. It is a terribly scary thing to go through as a woman to be told you have an abnormal pap and go through the weeks of wondering and testing to find out. Condoms don’t prevent it but lessens the risk. Oral, genital touching and penetration all can give you HPV. My sister just went through the nightmare and knows I am in the lifestyle she was quick to let me know. So my advice... always use a condom, limit play with only those you really like and trust, teach your men they transmit HPV and are a big part of the problem and ladies the biggest of all, get annual Pap smears. It is a known fact that the more sexually partners you have the more likely you are to get and pass on HPV. And this virus can lay dormant in a woman’s cervix for decades and then decide to rear its ugly head. So please be aware. That is my 2 cents worth.

Vaccines will HELP prevent HPV, but it's not a surefire way not to contract it. There is testing to see if vaccines will help those who have already contracted it, but there's no cure for HPV, and nothing stops wart growth yet. If there is an article out there to prove me wrong, I'd love to see it.

This is an interesting document, Mr. adamgunn, so I'm happy you brought it to my attention. I have one comment. The odds for people who engage in swing activity are almost certainly not the same as for people of the general population. I do firmly believe that swing people are much more likely to alert their sex partners when they learn that they have "caught something". This has the effect of limiting transmission to others.

My wife only makes bareback love. She likes the feeling of skin on skin, natural. When we first started to play with friends she asked if in was OK with her making love bareback. My fri ends wife felt the same way. It was bareback from the start. The sensation of cumming inside a lover is unequaled. My wife only wants one lover and he knows what she likes. Her inside filled with warm cum. His wife feels the same. We had a threesome with condoms, it wasnot fun. As soon as couple number three left, we went for it bareback with our frienfp d's, it was fantastic.

I have to admit I like the thrill of going bareback into a strange pussy. I've been lucky so far and would probably have a different story if I had received a gift

My wife loves cum - in her pussy, in her mouth (always swallows) or in her ass. Since having some minor prostate surgery I have retrograde ejaculations (it goes the other way) - in other words I have dry orgasms. There's only one way she's can get come now - from another man.

I'm not sure either of you are entirely right. While swingers admit to multiple partners, MANY married people have affairs or other sexual encounters without admitting to it, so the statistics on that are very unreliable. AND even those statistics we do have indicate that the majority of both married men and women have had extra marital sex at some time or other whether once or more often. An one would reasonably expect them to be less careful about safe sex practices than experienced swingers.

I truely love unprotected sex for so many reasons... But let me explain before you label me as stupid. There are probably 7 men I have unprotected sex with. They are close to us and there is a next level of trust going on. I don't let everyone pump away down there. It's all psychological. I feel more connected to my partner when our juices really flow. This may just be in my head but i think a man feels better unwrapped... On the more external part anyway. I can feel his heat, the head, the skin pulling on his shaft, etc. To me it feels right, the way it's supposed to be. The taboos make it even better. When a man that isn't my husband cums in me I feel empowered, like I truely took all he had to offer. His orgasm feels better on my end, the way a man really leans into a woman when he ejaculates is driven. Ive never heard a man say a woman feels better with a rubber. Pussy may feel pleasant with a rubber but it can beat the real deal of truly feeling a woman. And for men it's instinct, survival of the species. Cumming in a woman is hard wired, when a man can accomplish that it makes his orgasm gratifying at a cave man level, even if he knows the real outcome. I'm sure I could rattle off more reasons why unprotected sex is better but I'll stop here. Unprotected sex isn't something that should be taken lightly. But when it can happen it should be enjoyed by both.

I find sex less pleasurable with them, I can feel a difference. They interrupt things and get in the way. Men generally perform worse. I like men cumming inside me.

I played bareback 90% of the time the first few years I was in swinging but now very selective who I bareback. I would take it on a case by case basis.

This must be a joke. You never noticed a difference in the general quality of the sex?

I would run screaming from the room.

I don't think this is a rights issue. You can do whatever you want to do however, decency, courtesy and simple humanity dictates that you not expose your partners to your affliction. Finding compatible partners is really hard, finding them with the added complication of hsv2 is nearly impossible. That being said, I have seen a very few profiles on swinger sites where the couple or single indicates that they are infected as well.

I have no problems with wearing a condom, but I prefer bareback (vaginal) sex for the warmth, moisture, and intimacy. These subtle nuances are lost when I'm wearing a condom; sex becomes as insipid as food without flavor. Take a soft breeze, for instance. It feels better against my skin after I've felt a woman's warmth and wetness. I lose that when when I wear a condom.

We are a new member here. Was lurking, but we want to join in the fun! Rex has researched this topic in great detail. When someone worries about disease what do they worry over? #1) HSV & HPV are two common concerns. The most common forms of these are cold sores and warts. These are also transmitted thru oral contact and NOBODY uses condoms for that particular contact. Therefore the use of condoms for these infections is mute. #2) The most common STD are bacterial. Gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia... a) see number 1 b) in our age group (40-50 y/o) these are present in less than 4/100,000 in the population (CDC says so) and even then as reasonable adults we get those treated. Therefore those 3-4 random people per 100,000 only have those for a week or two in a given year. A recent publication put the USA murder rate at 9/100,000. So you are 2-3x more likely to be murdered than get a sex disease from another adult in my age group. 3) the most hideous are HIV & HEP C. When we play we do not participate in any of the risk factors for those particular diseases. Poop and blood are the vectors for those. Yukky! So overall, we simply don't worry. We visit the physician when we are ill, get it treated and move on. Don't you? Additionally, we have never caught any STD of any form.

Selectivity is the key. Random partners and mechanical sex has never been for us. We share intimacy with our playmates and are more than reasonably certain that they are disease free. Condoms reduce the level of intimacy for us and are a firm rule on those few occasions that we attend and play at on premises clubs. All of life is a risk, most hobbies, even knitting, entail some risk so we strive to eliminate the risk of STD through our selection process. So far its worked..

Our new friends, with whom we clicked instantly and have visited 3 times in the past two weeks hit us with a bit of a surprise last night. They proposed we all get tested and play bare. Which is not to say it is a bad idea. Mrs.DontStop and I have talked for a while (but not in a while) about having a safe couple to play bare. I guess when we found how tough it really is to have that strong chemistry we shelved the idea. Our new friends are a lot of fun, and after the last time we got wrapped up in a couple similarly it didn't quite work out. Our intentions and hopes turned out to be above theirs. We remain friends, thankfully, but the play aspect seems to have gone away. It's quite an enticing proposition, though we didn't talk a whole lot about it since they wanted us to bounce it around between ourselves. The kicker here is that he is a doctor... a general practitioner. And we're thinking "Ok, if you're gonna trust a couple to go bare with, a doctor and his wife are probably not a bad choice." Anyone have that one couple that you're okay with doing this? Or maybe think we're just being naive??

All sex acts are pretty much the same for me, including vaginal, oral or kissing. The most intimate thing for me would be eye contact. Not that I don't look my partners in the eye; it's prolonged eye contact that is a trigger for me. When you do that, you're looking past all their defenses, right AT them, and it feels intrusive. It asks for deeper connection, and it becomes awkward because...well, I don't really want to say that I just don't have anything to give to them. It's more that it's not the romantic love they might imagine.

Much like M1F2KTJ above, we only play bareback and say so ahead of time. Amy can not get pregnant (congenital) and I have a vasectomy. She loves a bare cock cumming in any hole and relishes having semen in her body. In a little twist from other stories here, we/she has been put off when a guy starts to use a condom despite our clear communication and prior agreement to the contrary. We call it quits at that point for the lie and wasting our time and money (room, gas). We have attended house parties in which no one used or mentioned condoms :-)

We have been on the receiving end of a couple of abrupt bail-outs recently from couples who said they would not play with anyone who had ever played bareback. I made it clear in both cases that we will be happy to use condoms if anybody wants, and also said that we often insist on condom use. But because I admitted that we had gone bareback before (with couples that we knew and trusted), we were unceremoniously dumped at the curb (figuratively speaking). Of course anybody is free to have any rules they like, but this particular formulation of "playing safe" strikes me as being not very well thought out. After all, these people were not insisting on the use of condoms or dental dams for oral- so they were apparently OK with some potential exposure to disease. And we were ready to use condoms with them. For a new-to-us couple, we would insist anyway! It was hard not to take some slight offense. After all, we wash regularly, eat our vegetables, and are kind to the elderly! I had no idea that having ever gone without the raincoat would forever mark us as unclean.

I know....naughty girl! Once in awhile, especially if he's married I'll go bareback. Love the feeling of the CUM in me...with multiple guys too!!!

True! Jess loves it when I go down on her after she has been filled up with hot jizz. I love it too... She always has a mind blowing orgasm from it! Lance

You and my husband are on the same page. One of his favorite things (mine too!) is for him to go down on me after another guy has cum inside of me!

Welcome to the board markholly. Don't sweat it. It's the same as a woman worrying that her husband will leave her once he's had a taste of a perkier, firmer... younger... piece of ass. After it's happened, you realize that it's nowhere near as horrible as you've built it up in your mind to be. She's not just a piece of ass, but a real live person who, if you've been adequately picky, is respectful of your relationship with your husband. Ok, so maybe she's got an absolutely perfect body - and maybe he's got a really huge cock - but you realize that your husband (or in your case, your wife) is harboring no feelings of longing other than to get you home and screw your brains out because he's just so excited over the whole experience. It's just fantasy. If she realizes that she really enjoyed the experience and wants to try it again, why not? Or you can surprise her with a monster sized dildo for her birthday or something; Mr. intuition did that. It only comes out to play very infrequently however as "sometimes big CAN be too big " holds true. We haven't tried a MFM yet, but it's in the works. I know he'd love to watch me "try to make the best of a big one." lol The bottom line is that I have NO complaints whatsoever about Mr. intuition's 'package' and about his ability to satisfy me. I agree with Mr. intuition's feelings about other people being more attractive than our own spouses: in order to hold our sexual attention, the other person NEEDS to be very attractive. We don't share love or deep intimacy with them, so they need to have something else that catches the eye and gets the pulse racing. And part of the fun is in experiencing differences between our own partner and someone else. It only accentuates the value of what we have together. My advice? Relax and enjoy the fantasy that your wife's willing to share with you.

We really look at the middle responses as about equal -- couple months, couple weeks -- same, same. It's about comfort levels with the partner and it's my decision. I generally use the same rationalle I would if I were a single girl dating again -- if I'd go bareback if I were single, I'll trust him now. I can't really describe the method I use to decide -- I'm not sure if it's a look or a feeling or what. Most simply put, some guys get to go bareback and some don't -- and I decide. A sure way to make sure you don't go bareback is to insist that you never wear a condom or make some other lame excuse. Virgins almost always get to go bareback facelick

Based on our observations, we'd say bareback swingers are very common. Although the majority of swingers on this board seem very conscientious about condom use, we haven’t seen too many people using condoms at the events we’ve attended. It’s possible that this lack of condom use is unique to those particular events, while elsewhere condoms are the rule rather than the exception. However, we do have some theories as to why some swingers prefer to go bareback. Most of the swingers we know are over 40. Unlike younger, more fertile couples, most of the people we know have finished breeding and have sterilized themselves. This removes an incentive to use condoms to prevent pregnancy. Furthermore, couples over 40 became sexually active before HIV reared its ugly head in the 1980’s, so they were never indoctrinated with “safe sex” messages as they were growing up. Regarding HIV, although it is understood that anyone can acquire the virus, from a statistical standpoint it is still a virus that largely strikes gay men, IV drug users and low-income, inner-city minorities. Generally, swingers don’t fit into any of those categories, so the swinging community has been virtually untouched by this disease. Unlike the gay community, HIV has never pushed the swinging community into widespread condom use. While is it possible for certain cases of STDs to be asymptomatic, symptoms usually manifest themselves among at least one partner (usually the male) within a given committed couple. Given that swingers generally belong to a well-to-do demographic which is more likely to have access to quality health care, it would seem that an infected couple would get any STDs taken care of before they pass it on to any other couples. However, that last scenario would seem to be uncommon. After all, if committed couple A is clean and they go bareback with each other (as most committed couples do), and committed couple B is also clean and goes bareback with each other, what’s to keep them from going bareback if they get together and swap? It would seem that for an infection to occur among the circle of committed couples, the infection would have to come from an outside source. This might be an argument to avoid going bareback with singles even if you go bareback with other couples. In spite of these points, it is understood that nothing short of abstinence or absolute monogamy will reduce the odds of avoiding disease to zero. It is up to every swinging couple to assess the risk involved in everything they do in the lifestyle. Some couples don’t swap at all because they feel the risk is too high. Some couples feel comfortable going bareback with other couples because they feel the pleasure of doing so outweighs the risk. It’s like riding a motorcycle. Some people will never get on one. Others will ride, but always wear a helmet. But for others, feeling the wind rip through your hair is part of the whole experience.