hypatia said:
If the world was free of STD's, I would consider a open relationship ok. Safe sex isn't always safe, it's not worth dieing for.
Safe sex and STDs are issues regardless of whether one has an open relationship or not. I think too many different issues are getting conflated here.
Consider these different scenarios:
A. Serial monogomy
Jack dates Jill and they have sex.
Jill had an STD, now Jack does too, but doesn't know it.
Jack and Jill break up and Jack starts dating Mary.
Jack and Mary have sex.
B. Serial monogamy with cheating
Jack dates Jill and they have sex.
Jill had an STD, now Jack does too, but doesn't know it.
Jack isn't satisfied with Jill, so starts seeing Mary on the side.
Neither Mary nor Jill knows about the other.
Jack and Mary have sex.
C. Open relationship
Jack dates Jill and they have sex.
Jill had an STD, now Jack does too, but doesn't know it.
Jack and Jill have an open relationship and agree it's okay for each of them to date other people.
Jack meets Mary who is also open to this idea.
Jack and Mary have sex on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Jack and Jill have sex on Wednesdays and Fridays, Jack takes off Mondays and alternates weekends.
Question, is Mary's risk of contracting an STD different in any of those three scenarios?
Okay, let's try another set of scenarios:
A. Jack is quite the "ladies' man," but can't commit to relationships.
Over the course of a six year period, Jack has dated 30 women.
Jack's "relationships" never last more than 2 months, but he can always find another woman to "pick up" whenever he breaks up with one.
Jack would never "cheat" on anyone he dates though. He always breaks up with the previous partner before starting to date a new one.
Jack only dates women who will have sex with him.
B. John is somewhat picky, but in an open relationship.
Over the course of a six year period, John has been dating Jane and Mary exclusively, both of them know about the other and are okay with it. Mary hasn't dated anyone else, but Jane has dated two other men during the course of the 6 year relationship, with John's full knowledge.
John, Jane and Mary are all very careful that any new partners introduced into the relationship are tested for STDs before any of the three has sex with them. Because of their open relationship status, if any of their other partners meet someone else, they also require STD testing of the new partner, or dump the partner.
Who is more likely to get an STD, Jack or John?
There are a lot of things that influence your STD risk, and multiple sexual partners is certainly one of them, but one shouldn't assume that an open relationship would involve more partners than serial monogamy. There's also not much difference in terms of risk if you have all your partners at the same time vs one after another.