Hepatitis C

Infection

Hepatitis C is transmitted through blood. Even tiny amounts are enough to cause infection, which is why the risk is particularly high during fisting, sex with large dildos and prolonged, rough sex. So make sure you use condoms, don’t pass sex toys from one bottom to another, and when fisting, make sure you use fresh gloves and your own lubricant!

Drugs do not just reduce your sensitivity to pain. Taking them also poses a risk if, for example, several people share the same banknote or tube when snorting speed or cocaine. Tiny, invisible traces of blood may be present on these items. Unlike HIV, the hepatitis C virus can survive for days even in the tiniest amounts of dried blood.

Disease Progression

Hepatitis C is a viral inflammation of the liver that often becomes chronic and can later lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Symptoms such as flu-like symptoms, jaundice or even liver failure may develop between three weeks and six months after infection. However, the infection may initially be asymptomatic.

Treatment

There is no vaccine. Even after a hepatitis C infection has cleared up on its own or been successfully treated, you can still become infected again, so you are not immune. Depending on the strain of the virus, treatment lasts between half a year and a full year. The side effects are often very severe. However, despite new medicines which, in some cases, complement existing treatment, there is no guarantee that the treatment will be successful and that the virus can be eliminated from the body.

Tips:

• At sex parties, make sure that the top changes his condom or washes his penis when moving from one bottom to the next.
• When fisting, as well as changing gloves, bear in mind that even small amounts of blood can be transferred from one bottom to another via shared lubricant.
• If you snort speed, cocaine or other drugs, use your own snorting tube – ideally, don’t use banknotes. After all, the change you received from the bar in the club might have been put to other uses in the restroom just ten minutes earlier.
• At Mann-O-Meter, you can find information on doctors who are experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis.