Hi fam! I work in healthcare, and sexual health/STI testing is a topic about which I am passionate. I basically have two sets of recommendations depending on how you play:

Condom use 100% of time (with ALL play partners who are not in a mutual monogamous relationship with you):

Active (playing at least once per 3 month period): You should get tested every three months. Your test should include at least gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomonas, syphilis, HIV, and Hep C. Condoms when used correctly are pretty good at minimizing risk of really common STIs that spread very easily. The reasoning for the 3 month time period is that’s how long it takes for most of the blood infections to show up on a test.

Inactive (playing less than once per 3 month period): If you don’t play often, you could push your testing out to only testing as needed before play meets.

Bareback play:

Active (playing at least once per 14 days): Like the recommendations above, you should still be tested every three months for HIV, syphilis, and Hep C. These will still take about three months to show up on a test, so testing more often has only limited benefit. Unless you are doing an HIV rapid RNA test (which I strongly recommend if playing bareback), which can detect HIV as soon as about 2 weeks.

However, you should be tested AT LEAST EVERY 14 days for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas, but preferably in between EVERY unprotected partner regardless of frequency. This is because gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas spread like wildfire without condom use, show up very rapidly on a urine test (sometimes as early as 1-2 days), and are much more common in the general population than people realize. Furthermore, these infections sometimes have subacute or no symptoms, so people spread them around a lot because they don’t realize they have it. Thankfully these ones are also super treatable.

Inactive (playing less than once per 14 days):

HIV, Syphilis, and Hep C as above every three months at least. Gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas test prior to EVERY unprotected partner. Strongly recommend HIV Rapid RNA as well, at least every month.

Exchanging results:

If you choose to play without condoms, not only should you be tested like above, but ensure your partners are as well. And don’t ever take their word for it. Ask for actual written test results. Some people will say they are “all negative,” but without test results you can’t verify what they mean by “all,” nor can you actually confirm they aren’t lying about being tested.

A note on HSV:

There is a lot of misinformation about HSV, due primarily to cultural stigma propagated by ignorance. 1. HSV is extremely common. Roughly 50% - 80% of the population has HSV 1, and roughly 10% - 20% have HSV 2. 2. About 80% of HSV infections are asymptomatic or subacute. Meaning these people don’t know they have it. And they spread it like crazy. 3. People who have HSV will almost never test positive for HSV on a serum blood test. The reason for this is not fully understood by the scientific community. 4. Condoms do not protect against the spread of HSV very well (estimated 30% reduction in risk of infection, compared to >95% reduction of risk with other STIs). Because of these things, the CDC has determined that testing for HSV is completely ineffective and useless.

I hope this helps guide your decisions on maintaining your sexual health.