Practicing safer sex is the best way to prevent getting chancroid. Use a condom every time you have anal or vaginal sex, even if you’re on birth control. Using dental dams for oral sex and rimming and latex gloves for fisting will reduce your risk of getting chancroids on your mouth and hands. These steps are especially important if you don’t know your partner’s sexual health status.
Get Tested
You and your partners can learn their sexual health status with a simple STI test. Regular testing is a great way of preventing chancroids as it can tell you whether you have the STI before you show symptoms. You and your partners can then take steps to prevent the infection’s spread.
Care With Sex Toys
The bacteria that causes chancroid can be transferred to sex toys. Never sharing sex toys is a good strategy for preventing chancroid. Washing any shared sex toys in soapy water, a light bleach solution, or a commercial sex toy cleaner before covering them in condoms is another option.
Recovering From Chancroid
If your sexual partners have the STI, also called chancroid, you shouldn’t have sex until they’ve finished their course of meds as you can get chancroid simply by touching the infection. After treatment, you should all get tested to check and make sure the infection is out of your system. Once you get the all clear, you can enjoy sex again without the risk of reinfection.