CNN–The downside of 'friends with benefits'

When Jennifer Nicholas sees television shows or movies where characters “hook up” or have sex with “friends with benefits,” she cringes, because that’s how she got herpes.

“Getting an STD wasn’t even something that crossed my mind,” said Nicholas, 39, who learned that she had herpes at age 22. “One day I’m at the doctor’s office and it was, ‘Surprise! You’ve got herpes.’ ”

Experts in sexually transmitted diseases say they’ve become increasingly concerned about the trend toward having what they call “sexual involvement in nonromantic contexts” — the technical term for hookups or “friends with benefits” — because they’re especially likely to spread sexually transmitted diseases.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, Health & Medicine, Sexuality, Teens / Youth, Young Adults

3 comments on “CNN–The downside of 'friends with benefits'

  1. Larry Morse says:

    I’m so surprised. Another epiphany shedding a luminous brilliance on yet another topic which, years ago, was a no-brainer. The Baby Boomers and the children are in such luck: Reinventing the social/behavioral wheel is so profitable when the past’s accumulated knowledge has been cancelled because it was a shackle on living right and being in step. Larry

  2. Archer_of_the_Forest says:

    Some benefits aren’t necessarily good.

  3. libraryjim says:

    Neither, apparently, are some friends.