Fluid Bonding: What does it mean to have unbarriered sex?

Fluid bonding refers to the decision to stop using barrier protection during sex and exchange bodily fluids with your partner. This is an intentional act and requires the consent of all people involved.

For some folks, unbarriered sex is an intimate form of bonding. The word bond implies, to many, a promise that this will be ongoing. Not all people use the term fluid bonding, many prefer to talk about using barriers or not, specifically to divest the idea of unbarriered sex from the emotional overtones that the term fluid bonding carries. They prefer to view unbarriered sex as a risk management decision and like all agreements, as something that can be renegotiated if necessary. Other people are deeply investing in fluid bonding and consider it an important part of intimacy. (So much of this is referencing excerpts from this book: More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert)

Unbarriered sex can mean different things for different people, with differing levels of emotional significance.

When considering having unbarriered sex with a partner ask yourself these questions:

1.) Are you making a risk-management decision that’s open to future negotiation?

2.) Would taking this step have emotional significance for you?

3.) Do you expect this agreement to be temporary or permanent?

4.) Do you know their sexual history/status?

5.) If pregnancy is a concern are there protective measures in place? Birth control?