Each time you choose another partner, your chance of contracting a sexually transmitted disease goes up dramatically.

Your Partners

Your Exposure

1 1
2 3
3 7
4 15
5 31
6 63
7 27
8 255
9 511
10 1,023
11 2,047
12 4,095
13 8,195
14 16,383
15 32,767
16 65,535

“When you have sex with someone,you are having sex with everyone they have had sex with for the last ten years, and everyone they and their partners have had sex with for the last ten years.”  C.Everett Koop, M.D., Former U.S. Surgeon General

The only 100% sure way to avoid exposure to sexually transmitted diseases is abstinence.

This chart assumes each person involved has had only as many partners as you have.  Each exposure represents the possibility of contracting a serious sexual disease.

For you math students: F(n) = 2n -1 where n is the number of partners