# Sexual transmission of covid **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Created:** [May 21, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837 "2024-05-21T01:00:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/1 "2024-05-21T01:00:17Z")
This was a thing spoken about at the beginning. I remember during lockdown reading a booklet or two about safer sex in covid times. (You can picture the recommandations!) An internet search didn’t yield much info about if the covid virus is transmissible through intercourse. Meaning, I’ve found a couple of pages about how it’s probably not, but I like to think of the SDMB as that place where one usually can find someone who knows about the oddest piece of information. So, does anyone has some more recent info? Also, if it’s a respiratory virus, could it even contaminate someone through the vagina/anus? Can it work that way? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/2 "2024-05-21T01:24:49Z")
It’s awfully hard to have sex without getting your respiratory bits very close together, too. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/3 "2024-05-21T01:26:18Z")
Leaving aside a couple of fairly kinky scenarios, people who are having sex are likely to be in the kind of proximity which favours the short range aerosol/airborne transmission of disease. So even if you catch covid during a sexual encounter, the likelihood is that you caught it in the conventional way. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/4 "2024-05-21T08:05:15Z")
This is also my take on it, but I’m dealing with people for whom it seems to be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/5 "2024-05-21T08:48:26Z")
Well, I think you can say this to them: the virus has been detected in semen, salive and vaginal fluids, so nobody can say that it’s _impossible_ for Covid to be transmitted through sexual contact. But it seems the risk of actual sexual transmission would be low. It would certainly be a fraction of the risk of respiratory transmission that you would run in an intimate relationship. So, if your partner has Covid, avoiding sex is not, on its own, going to do much to reduce the risk of transmission. Even if your sexual contact is casual or, um, commercial in nature the risk of transmission remains predominantly a risk of respiratory transmission. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/6 "2024-05-21T12:58:18Z")
Covid is an infection of epithelial cells. Infection is linked to the expression of ACE2. “ACE2 expression was mainly observed in enterocytes, renal tubules, gallbladder, cardiomyocytes, male reproductive cells, placental trophoblasts, ductal cells, eye, and vasculature” [Tissue distribution of ACE2 protein, the functional receptor for SARS coronavirus. A first step in understanding SARS pathogenesis - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7167720/) “The highest expression was observed in the intestinal tract, followed by kidney, testis, gallbladder and heart … several organs had an expression level just above or below cutoff, including liver, female reproductive organs” [The protein expression profile of ACE2 in human tissues - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7383091/) It appears likely that direct infection of the rectum is possible, but direct infection of the vagina is unlikely. (Lung problems are associated with infection of the surface of blood vessels) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/7 "2024-05-21T13:16:50Z")
There was an outbreak of fooferaw recenty over transmission of spike protein via sex - though the claim involved spike protein “shedding” from vaccinated people. This particular misinformation superspreader event was courtesy of a once semi-respected scientist, [Pierre Kory](https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/11/09/dr-pierre-kory-sex-lies-and-covid-19-vaccine-shedding/), who’s now gone deeply down the antivax rabbit hole. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-transmission-of-covid/1001837/8 "2024-05-23T10:09:38Z")
Thanks for the explanation about the epithelial cells! And, damn, Jackmannii, I had missed that piece of antivax kookiness…