I had sex with my girlfriend while she was on her period, will I be affected with any diseases?

feminine productsYou will likely be fine if you and your partner practiced safe sex. But remember, anytime you have sex you may be exposed to STIs. If you used a male or female condom, your risks are less, but still there.

Safe sex is important ALL the time. When a girl is on her period, sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and Hepatitis (that are carried in the blood) are spread especially easily through contact with infected blood.

Also, when a girl is menstruating, she has a higher risk for developing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) from gonorrhea or Chlamydia infections.

One last thing… Don’t take for granted that your girlfriend won’t get pregnant while she is on her period. It’s still possible, unless she is using birth control pills or another effective hormone method.

Always practice safe sex!


Our health guides are developed through a systematic, rigorous process to ensure accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness. Written and reviewed by experienced healthcare clinicians from Boston Children's Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and consistently ranked as a top hospital by Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, these guides combine clinical expertise, specialized knowledge, and evidence-based medicine. We also incorporate research and best practices from authoritative sources such as the CDC, NIH, PubMed, top medical journals, and UpToDate.com. Clinical specialists and subject matter experts review and edit each guide, reinforcing our commitment to high-quality, factual, scientifically accurate health information for young people.