it'll never happen to me
certainly the attitude of many 25-35 year olds in the past. Certainly it was my attitude. There's nothing more harrowing than going to the clinic and waiting for 2 weeks for results. thankfully everything in my case was ok but it scared the bejaysus out of me because like so many others I hadn't even thought of potential risks.
Having spoken to doctors in relation to this, the STD risk in Ireland, especially Dublin is amazingly high.
Its common sense to get yourself checked out, because you just dont know. What may look like a safe choice bed partner may have dire consequences. It only take one infected person, infected even accidentally themselves to pass chlamydia, gonnorhea, syphillis, HIV or other nasties on. When you start to think of how they can possibly affect you, then it opens your eyes and safe sex is the only option, especially in the cultural environment we live in today. by that I mean, we all go on holidays, we have lots of foreign nationals and who knows who has been with who. hopefully this is not as taken as a racist jibe which its not.