Don’t risk your health because of a cheating partner.

So you suspect your partner is cheating on you. Or you know they are, but you just need to prove it. You spend all your time trying to find ways to catch them out, but in your efforts to find ways to catch them, you forget one important detail:

How much attention are you paying to keeping yourself safe?

When I mean safe, I’m talking about securing yourself against the
risk of infection. If your spouse is sleeping around on you, do you
have any guarantees that they are having safe sex? Are they using
protection, or is the need for protection getting forgotten in the
heat of the moment?

If you don’t have any guarantees about their fidelity to you, you
can safely assume that you can’t guarantee that you aren’t putting
yourself at risk of infection.

I hear horror stories of wives catching husbands cheating on them,
only to find out later that they have been infected with chlamydia,
herpes, HPV, HIV, or trichomoniasis. Most common diseases like
syphilis and crabs are curable, but HPV, HIV, and herpes are among
a few that have no cure. If left untreated, most infections can
have some major health effects like scarring, cervical cancer, or
in extreme cases, death.

Probably of most concern is the fact that a number of sexually
transmitted infections that can have particularly nasty side
effects may lie dormant in your system without you even noticing!
Worse still, some of these diseases can have a serious affect on
your fertility, which is a consideration if you are planning to
have children at some stage.

So what can you do to make sure that you have a clean bill of
health?

The first thing I would encourage is that you visit your doctor and
ask for a full health screen. This may involve some swabs being
taken, as well as a blood test. Icky, I know, but when you think of
all the things you could potentially be subjected to, it’s a
worthwhile exercise.

It also comes in useful simply as a way of knowing that you are in
good health. When people enter into relationships, they often let
their sexual health fall by the wayside, and neglect regular
testing, on the assumption that if you are both being faithful to
each other, there is no risk of introducing diseases into the
relationship.

What do you do if your test comes back positive?

If your test comes back positive for an infection, my first advice
to you is to stay calm. There may be a perfectly rational
explanation for it, and it’s advisable to discuss this with your
doctor. Some infections can be picked up from swimming pools,
changing rooms, or public toilet seats. There is a chance that you
could have contracted someting that way, but the best way to be
sure would be to discuss the possibility with a health professional.

And if your test comes back negative?

Consider yourself lucky! A clean bill of health also serves as a
point of comparison, in case you decide to get tested at a later
date. That way you can compare test results from different times,
and identify an approximate time frame if you do later find a
positive test result.

The message to take from all of this is that it’s dangerous to make
assumptions. When you are thinking of your health, particularly
your sexual health, it pays to know for sure rather than be caught
out by assumptions or guesswork.

What affect does this have on your partner?

If you find you do have a sexually transmitted disease, you are
going to need to talk to your spouse about it. There is a chance
they will deny everything and blame you, and you need to be
prepared for this. That’s why regular health screening would help
give some indication of who had introduced the infection into the
relationship.

As tempting as it is to not talk about it with your partner,
without testing and treatment, there is a high risk of them
reinfecting you.

Forewarned is forearmed. If you suspect your spouse is cheating on
you, don’t take risks with your health.

Check the ‘Reviews’ area from the menus to discover more on the challenges of real, or suspected, cheating.