Sexual Health: What to Know

The least discussed part of this and the one worth being plainest about. None of what follows is medical advice; it is the practical position, and where to go for the actual advice.

Protection is the default

Every booking, without discussion. Escorts supply them and most bring their own preferred brand; bring some anyway if you have a size or type you get on with.

Asking to go without is the request that ends bookings, and it is worth understanding why it lands the way it does. It is not squeamishness. It is somebody being asked to take a risk repeatedly, by a stranger, on the strength of a claim they have no way of checking. Asking is not negotiating; it is the end of the evening.

What protection does and does not cover

Condoms substantially reduce transmission of most infections but not all of them equally. Anything spread by skin contact rather than fluid, herpes and HPV among them, is only partly covered, because the barrier does not cover everything that touches.

Oral carries lower risk than penetrative sex but not zero, which is the honest answer people rarely give. Several listings on this site relate to unprotected oral specifically. Whether that risk is acceptable is a decision for you to make with real information, and the sources below are better placed to give it than we are.

Test regularly

If you see escorts with any regularity, an annual test is the floor and every three to six months is more sensible. It is free, quick and unremarkable.

• Sexual health clinics across the NHS, walk in or booked, free and confidential
• Postal test kits from many local NHS services, free in most areas
• Your GP, though a clinic is usually faster and more used to the conversation

Nobody at a clinic will ask you anything they do not need to know, and nobody there will be surprised by anything you tell them.

PrEP and vaccination

PrEP is available free on the NHS through sexual health clinics for people at higher risk of HIV, and it is worth asking about rather than assuming you would not qualify. Hepatitis B vaccination is also available free through the same clinics, and HPV vaccination is offered to some adults.

These are conversations to have with a clinician rather than with an agency.

If something is wrong, do not book

Symptoms, a recent exposure, waiting on a result. Cancel, get seen, book another time. There is no charge for cancelling with reasonable notice and nobody will ask you why.

The same holds in reverse: an escort who is unwell will cancel, and that is the system working rather than failing.

Where to get real information

• NHS sexual health services, for testing, PrEP and vaccination
• Terrence Higgins Trust, for HIV and sexual health advice
• Brook, for general sexual health information

Any of the three will give you better detail than a page like this should attempt.

Our etiquette guide covers the conventions around a booking, and the glossary explains the listings that relate to this directly, so you can read a profile knowing what it is telling you.