Coronavirus and isolation

The NHS advice seems to be that if you or your partner have symptoms you should stay at least three meters apart and sleep in different rooms. This is going to rule out any sexy times and even a kiss for a while!

Would you do this or ignore the advice and keep sleeping together and carry on having sexy times?

Personally we would carry on as usual (!) but we are blessed that neither of us appear to be in a high risk category, but of course your answer might be different if one of you is more at risk...

Hope you are all ok!

I have a low immune system so unfortuantly I wouldn't be able to carry on as normal until I got betterl. But even then, I'm just being more aware of washing hands properly and being more aware of touching objects and NOT touching my face, mouth or eyes and not going to crowded places unless I really have to.

EmmaC1989 wrote:

I have a low immune system so unfortuantly I wouldn't be able to carry on as normal until I got betterl. But even then, I'm just being more aware of washing hands properly and being more aware of touching objects and NOT touching my face, mouth or eyes and not going to crowded places unless I really have to.

I hope my post hasn't offended you! Stay healthy...

300 wrote:

EmmaC1989 wrote:

I have a low immune system so unfortuantly I wouldn't be able to carry on as normal until I got betterl. But even then, I'm just being more aware of washing hands properly and being more aware of touching objects and NOT touching my face, mouth or eyes and not going to crowded places unless I really have to.

I hope my post hasn't offended you! Stay healthy...

I'm not offended :)

Funnily enough I have written about this on my blog, and then a few other peoples blogs lol.

Simple answer is that being close to someone regardless of sex increases the risk of contracting it. However there is no evidence it is in vaginal fluid or semen. But there are ethical issues with possibly knowingly having sexual contact whilst infected, which could lead to legal issues.

There's a load of issues that this can cause, but my main concern as someone who supports many throughout relationship crisis physical intamancy is not going to be the main issue. The main trouble I see is the strain on the mental an emotional side of this all happening, alongside a rise of STIs and pregnancies through survival sex or even unfortunatly forced intercourse. I have already had more support requests for domestic issues and had to refer couples to the right support lines =(.

Oops, sorry! This was meant to be a simple question. I can see now that it isn't.

Feel free to report this thread and get it deleted if you like!

Both me and my partner have been home this week with flu-like symptoms. I didn't go to the GP because we had a bereavement (we knew it was coming) in the family this same week and my immune system tends to take a knocking at times like this. Neither of us have a diagnosis but between the phlegm, headaches and shortness of breath I don't think we could even if we wanted to.

I work in a hospital and the general consensus is that most of the population will experience this virus. The thing is many of us may have or have had it alsready and not known about it. Most people will get very mild cold like symptoms, and how many of us have had a cold in the last month?

Im not playing down the risks to people who have pre-existing medical conditions or who are immune compromised, for these people this virus may be extremely dangerous, possibly even fatal. My own husband has terminal heart failure and we have discussed the fact that if he get it he will more than likely end up in hospital and that there is a good chance that he would not survive.

From his day to day activities he is at very low risk. He doesn't go out much and when he does the most interaction he has with other people is with the person serving drive through coffee. His biggest risk is me! Hospitals are full of people and we all come in contact with hundreds in a day. I'm relatively fit and healthy and may very well carry the illness to him before I show any signs or symptoms. It's not possible for us to sleep in separate rooms, we live in a very small terraced house. So sadly staying apart is not a possibility. Sexy times are not an option due to his illness, but we still kiss and cuddle and we will continue to do so. For us there is no point in not kissing and cuddling but sleeping next to one another in the same bed.

For many people isolating yourself from the other people in your house will not be possible, purely on a practice level. Please be reassured that although this seems a huge problem right now, we will come through this. There are a lot of comparisons to Italy, but the uk is very different to Italy the mortality rate in Italy is/was 6.7% but the uk it's 1.4%. For the elderly, immune compromised and those with significant pre-existing medical problems this is going to be very tough, but for most people this will pass with no more than a bad cold or a chest infection.

Thank you Louise. That is very well written and informative. You have covered every point and I think you are correct. I truly hope this will soon peak and go. My best wishes to you and your husband. Stay safe and healthy. Xx❤

@300, I personally don’t think this is an inappropriate thread as it’s very relevant at this time. I’m finding this time really challenging, I’m getting anxiety about the Coronavirus and that makes me not want sex which is very sad. But thank God for my understanding wife. Thank you Fun Louise for your helpful and moving post, as maturecpl says, best wishes and stay safe and healthy xx

I’m a nurse in a large hospital, I’m pretty convinced I will get it at some point. I have children in nursery and school. Staying 3 foot away from my children would be vertically impossible. And to be honest I like my bed, I think if one of us gets it then we can decide if we sleep separately if it comes to it.

I think by living in the same space together, touching the same surfaces (like light switches) and breathing the same air would make little difference if you chose to be intimate or not. So I guess I would also carry on as usual.

Keep informed, take sensible precautions, but do not let it take over your life. The worry and stress thinking about it, is of equal concern. Be sensible, keep safe and look out for one another.

I thnk this is a really important topic, 300.

The role of intimate relations in the spread of the virus - or what to do regarding them - has not been raised in any offical guidance as far as I know. We are carrying on as normal in terms of kissing and hugging (each other and the children), and sex.

One of my children and I are at high risk if we contract the virus. We can limit social contact in society but not easily at home. We are a family of 5 living in an ordinary 3 bed semi. It would be impossible to self isolate from each other as my child's care is very hands on (nappies, tube feeding etc) or to find separate sleeping places (two of our children share a room).

I think if I felt ill, or my husband, we wouldn't be up for sex. That tends to be the way it goes with normal infections - we catch up later. But we would still (probably) have to share a bed and even if one of us took the sofa instead we would still be in contact and touching the same door handles, taps, fridge, kettle, child, cash, post etc. Someone would have to go within a metre of the sick person to give them soup, water etc.

In my opinion it is impossible to self isolate from other people in the same household when there are children around. I think we would do the best we could and hope for mild cases rather than no contagion at all.

As far as sex goes, there is a far greater chance of partners inadvertantly passing it on to each other before symptoms show. It is scary, but what can we do? Lock down cities and refrain from sex? I think any lock down will lead to both more sex and more arguments for couples... not scientifically researched, obvs, but certainly a social issue.

Anecdotally, more unexpected pregnancies due to sponateous consensual sex, more domestic abuse and more rape (along with more looting and black market sales) have a history during wartime conditions. It was never all 'keep calm and carry on'.

Keep well, keep safe, and keep kind.

Thank you to those who have replied and even more thanks for not thinking my post was inappropriate!

I hope you all stay safe and well.

300

I find the advice very confusing from this point of view! They say that you don't know you've got it for the first 5 days and in those 5 days your at your most contagious so the high probability is your partner and family will already have it anyway!! And then there's the herd immunity scenario they keep going on about so in this case surely they want us to get it anyway!! Its not supposed to affect kids anywhere near as bad as adults so to be honest I'd rather the inevitable happen to my kids now whilst they in good shape to fight it!! It's all mind blowing at the moment!!

I'm very susceptible to colds generally, so we all do this stuff all the time. It's just generally being hygienic. Hand washing and santising are standard for us now, and my husband has got his team doing it, as they were being threatened because of their sickness absence record, and by purposefully doing good basic hygiene, they have gone from the worst department in the company to the second best.

So everyone should be better hygiene all the time, Coronavirus or not.

Now, there was a couple of occasions where one of us had a cold, and the other didn't get it. We achieved this by a few things:

No kissing on the mouth or touching each other's faces.

No sharing of cutlery etc.

Collecting sneezes in tissues etc.

We did sleep apart.

We still shagged, but anal or vaginal with a twist (so we weren't face to face). Lots of cunnilingus too. If one of us were to get Coronavirus, we'd do the same again, as it has worked well before.

HunnyMonster29 wrote:

I think by living in the same space together, touching the same surfaces (like light switches) and breathing the same air would make little difference if you chose to be intimate or not. So I guess I would also carry on as usual.

Exactly this 👆. Might as well enjoy some intimacy in these stressful times.

I was ill over Christmas, I had, high temperature 103F in old school, persistant cough(that still won't go away) tightness of chest causing breathing issues, sound similar? I've heard it said the virus was in many countries before it was "identified"

Self isolate, Hmmm, I'm(we) are one of the millions that simply cannot afford to not go to work, just how will the landlord get paid? or the council tax bill due to land, the water rates due in a few weeks not to mention all the other normal bills, now if the TV tax was abolished thats most of my half year water bill,,,,,

We’re fortunate that we have enough space to self isolate. I’ve been dropping hubby’s food outside the door and texting him once I’m downstairs. He pretty much has the top floor to himself. I’ve moved in to one of the children’s rooms and abandoned the shared bathroom up there 🙈 In Standard terraced houses I don’t think this is possible