The only surefire way to avoid getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) is to abstain from sexual touching below the waist, such as rubbing bodies without clothes, vaginal sex, oral sex, and anal sex. Your next best bet is to practice safer sex and get tested regularly, and ask your partners to do the same.

STDs cannot spontaneously come about. There is risk only when one person already has been infected. Here's the kicker though - it can be difficult to know if you or your partner is already infected, so it is better to be safe.

While different STDs are spread in different ways, most are spread through skin-to-skin genital contact and exchanging fluids from the mouth or genitals. This means that touching above the waist with clothes on is pretty safe. But just about every other kind of close sexual contact with an infected partner carries some risk (sometimes very low, sometimes very high) of getting an STD.

So, if you decide to be sexual with a partner, here's some things you can do to reduce your chances of getting an STD.

• Practice safer sex with each partner each time. Click here for a great brochure that can teach you how to be a safer sex expert!
  
  
• Get tested regularly, and ask your partners to do the same.
  
  
• Know your partner well before having sex. Ask your partner if they've ever had an STD and if it was treated. Ask them when they last got tested and if they are willing to get tested again. Ask them if they practiced safer sex with (any? all?) past partners and if that included oral sex.
  
  
• Learn about STDs, how they are transmitted, and which acitvities are low-risk and which are high-risk so that you can make informed decisions about how to protect your sexual health. For example, kissing and massage are low-risk. Unprotected vaginal or anal sex is high-risk.
  
  
• Be smart when choosing your sexual partners. The more sexual partners you have, the greater your chances of getting an STD.
  
  
• Even if you're both declared infection-free, you should still use latex barriers like condoms--every single time you have vaginal or anal sex. Partners sometimes cheat, even if you totally trust them.

You should also use condoms if you have oral sex. Flavored condoms are made specifically for oral sex and are available in most drugstores. Females should use a Sheer Glyde Dam to cover their vulva. A condom cut open and placed over the woman's genitals is also an effective barrier, and some people use Saran Wrap for oral sex on a woman.

For more information on STDs, click here or check out these Sex, Etc. stories from other teens.

Got a burning question about STDs? Call the American Social Health Association's national hotline at 1-800-227-8922.