Consensus on Recommendations for Safe Sexual Activity During the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic
Overview
Affiliations
Sexual activity offers numerous advantages for physical and mental health but maintains inherent risks in a pandemic situation, such as the current one caused by SARS-CoV-2. A group of experts from the Spanish Association of Sexuality and Mental Health (AESexSAME) has reached a consensus on recommendations to maintain lower-risk sexual activity, depending on one's clinical and partner situations, based on the current knowledge of SARS-CoV-2. Different situations are included in the recommendations: a sexual partner passing quarantine without any symptoms, a sexual partner that has not passed quarantine, a sexual partner with some suspicious symptoms of COVID-19, a positive sexual partner with COVID-19, a pregnant sexual partner, a health professional partner in contact with COVID-19 patients, and people without a sexual partner. The main recommendations include returning to engaging in safe sex after quarantine is over (28 days based on the duration one can carry SARS-CoV-2, or 33 days for those who are >60 years old) and all parties are asymptomatic. In all other cases (for those under quarantine, those with some clinical symptoms, health professionals in contact with COVID-19 patients, and during pregnancy), abstaining from coital/oral/anal sex, substituting it with masturbatory or virtual sexual activity to provide maximum protection from the contagion, and increasing the benefits inherent to sexual activity are recommended. For persons without a partner, not initiating sexual activity with a sporadic partner is strongly recommended.
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