Tips for those who want to enjoy sex during the coronavirus pandemic

The single most important action we can all take, in fighting coronavirus, is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives. But if you decide to have sex then here are some useful tips to keeping yourself and others safe:

The virus is spread from person to person. The government has advised us that social distancing means keeping two metres apart from anyone outside your home.

Someone who does not have symptoms of high fever, a cough or shortness of breath may still have the virus and be capable of spreading it further.

The coronavirus can be spread through saliva, so kissing would be high risk for being infected or passing it on.

There is still a lot for us to learn about Covid-19 and sexual risk. We know that it has been found to be present in faeces of people infected with the virus. This means sexual practices like rimming or mouth to anal sex may increase your risk of getting or transmitting the virus.

Coronavirus has not yet been found to exist in semen or vaginal fluids but very few studies have been carried out to look at this.

If you decide that you would like to have sex, then the safest person you can have sex with during this time is yourself! Now is the time to get to know your own body and work out what you enjoy. The key advice would be to make sure you wash your hands and any toys you use for at least 20 seconds using warm soapy water.

The next safest option would be to have sex with your regular partner or partners that live within your household. We know that the more people you have close contact with, the more likely you will be to come in contact with Covid-19, so keeping your sexual partners reduced during this time will limit your own exposure. Please do be careful – this is perhaps not the best time for attending any sex parties or group sex activity.

If you enjoy meeting sexual partners online through “Hook-up” or dating apps, this would perhaps not be the best time to be arranging any face-to-face (or genital-to-genital!) dates. If you work in the sex industry, then we would advise no direct physical sexual contact with clients or colleagues. Video dates, pay per view websites or sexting may be something that you might enjoy and carry no risk of Covid-19, but please be careful with your own privacy and do not share any sexually explicit content without considering how this might be used. For further information on the coronavirus and ways to keep yourself safe, then please visit the NHS website here.