Tracking sexual partners

There is a website out there that helps people keep track of the identity and number of their sex partners. There is an iPhone application that does the same thing.

The website, Nookist, claims to give users “the ability to assess [their] sexual behavior and to make changes” in their lives. Each user’s information is completely confident according to the site.

Nookist’s aim seems to be on keeping track of when its users have sex, and on determining if users are at risk for sexually transmissible infections. (The site refers to them as “sexually transmitted diseases,” a term that is no longer preferred since an infection is not necessarily a disease.)

Keeping track of one’s sexual partners does not prevent transmission of sexually transmissible infections, but it does allow one to contact those partners who may have also been exposed. That’s where the when is important since various STIs have different incubation periods, the time between exposure and manifestation of symptoms or positive test results (since many do not have symptoms at all).

Finally, Nookist claims to educate by letting users know the risk of transmitting various STIs based national averages and information the user has entered. Of course it is important to be aware of the risks of contracting the sundry STIs, but what Nookist doesn’t seem to emphasize is that it only takes one.

It only takes one exposure to one person who has an STI to contract said STI (though of course one contact is not a guarantee that the infection will be contracted). It would be more responsible of Nookist to focus on the proper and consistent use of barrier methods – condoms, dental dams, gloves – to prevent STIs rather than the who and the when of unprotected sexual activity.

The iPhone “entertainment” application, Sexulator, has a disclaimer that it is not intended to prevent pregnancy or STIs. How anyone would think an iPhone application could do either or both is beyond me, but the developer, Coconut Island Apps, is covering its tokus. Also in the better-safe-than-sorry realm, the app is meant only for those 18 and over.

Like Nookist, Sexulator allows users to record their sexual activities and the identities of the partners. Unlike Nookist, Sexulator users are encouraged to share the results of its calculations with others. Reasons for sharing include winning arguments regarding frequency of sexual relations within a couple, comparing “sex status levels” amongst friends, and in the case of pregnancy.

While not a menstruation calculator like iPeriod, Sexulator purports that a man will be able to deny paternity based roughly on when he had sex with a woman, and that a woman will be able to narrow down her selection of baby daddies based on her entries in Sexulator. Sadly, Sexulator may be featured on Maury in the near future.

Anything that will encourage more people to be aware of the risks of STIs and pregnancy, as well as ways to prevent both, is good. Both of these technologies should be used in combination with common sense and solid and accurate information, of course.

Nookist and Sexualtor look like they could be fun if not used as ultimate resources.

For more information:  Sex Degrees of Separation Calculator; "Sexulator – A Pro Athlete's Best Friend;"inSPOT.