Touching ?

What is Touching?

Touching involves one partner putting their hands or other body parts on their sexual partner's vagina, penis, or anus (with or without clothes on). Touching can also include the use of sex toys.

What do we know about touching?

There's little to no risk for getting or transmitting HIV from touching. Any risk you may have is lowered if an HIV-positive partner's body fluids don't touch the mucous membranes or damaged tissue of someone who's HIV-negative. Mucous membranes can be found inside the rectum, the vagina, the opening of the penis, and the mouth. Damaged tissue could include a cut, sore, or open wound.

There's a chance of getting or transmitting other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) through touching because some (like human papillomavirus or HPV, genital herpes, and syphilis) can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact.

You could also get or transmit other kinds of infections, like hepatitis A and hepatitis B virus; Giardia; and bacteria such as Shigella, Salmonella, Campylobacter, or E. coli if you touch someone's anus because you may get feces on your hands or fingers.

What you can do

Choosing activities with little to no risk like touching instead of higher-risk activities like anal or vaginal sex can lower your chances of getting or transmitting HIV. To further reduce this risk, make sure you and your partner don't have open cuts, wounds, or sores on the hands or fingers. To prevent transmission of STDs that can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, you can wear medical gloves for touching.

If your genitalia is touching your partner's genitalia, keeping your clothes on will reduce the chances of exposure to body fluids and open sores that can spread HIV or other STDs.

If you use sex toys, do not share them with your partner, or if you do, always cover it with a new condom, and wash it carefully after each use.

Additional Resources

Learn the relative risk of different sexual activities, and how some factors can increase or decrease the risk of getting or transmitting HIV.

Learn about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV prevention campaigns:

Act Against AIDS: Encouraging all Americans to learn more about HIV/AIDS.