Are swingers more likely to get STDs?

There is no simple yes or no, and a confident answer either way is a guess. The few studies of swingers come from STI clinics and clubs in the Netherlands and Sweden, and none compares swingers with the general population directly. Together they are reassuring in one way and a nudge in another: swingers tend to test often and some samples show low infection rates, but condom use has been falling, which is why regular testing matters.

The largest study covered 7,714 swinger consultations at the South Limburg STI clinic and 2,070 at the Amsterdam clinic between 2006 and 2013 (Dukers-Muijrers and colleagues, Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2017). Positivity at any visit was 3–4% for gonorrhoea, higher than other heterosexual attenders, and 6–8% for chlamydia, lower than heterosexual attenders overall but higher than older heterosexuals. Swingers came back to test 48 to 57 times per 100 person-years, more often than the other groups, and their infection rate at those repeat visits was similar to other heterosexual men and women. These are people who chose to visit an STI clinic, so they are not a random sample of swingers.

A Swedish study offered STI tests at meetings of two swingers' clubs, and 235 people took part: 118 women and 117 men (Andersson and colleagues, International Journal of STD & AIDS, 2021). Urogenital chlamydia prevalence was 1.7%, Mycoplasma genitalium was found in 7.6% of women and 4.3% of men, and nobody tested positive for gonorrhoea or trichomonas. The authors concluded that Swedish swingers did not seem to have an increased prevalence of STIs, and also found that only 46.6% of women and 38.5% of men always used protection for vaginal sex with a temporary partner.

Behaviour is where the caution comes in. Dutch online surveys advertised on swinger websites, answered by 1,173 people in 2011 and 1,005 in 2018, found that about 65% had tested for STIs in the previous year in both years. Condom use for vaginal sex fell from 73% to 60%, and for oral sex from 5% to 2%, while 23% and then 30% reported having had an STI (Kampman and colleagues, PLOS One, 2020). A 2009–2012 study of 289 swingers at one Dutch clinic found chlamydia and/or gonorrhoea in 13%, and 79% reported recreational drug use, a figure that included alcohol and erectile dysfunction drugs (Spauwen and colleagues, Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2015).

Researchers at the same Dutch clinic also found that people misjudge their partners: 70 swingers correctly knew the STI status of only 22% of their partners who had had an STI in the previous six months (Niekamp and colleagues, BMC Infectious Diseases, 2021). That is the practical case for testing on a schedule, asking partners when they last tested and what for, and using condoms and dental dams with new partners rather than relying on impressions.

Read these studies with their limits in mind. Clinic samples over-represent people with a reason to test, the club sample is small, several figures are self-reported, and none of the studies was done in the US. None of them can tell you your own risk. What they support is a calm conclusion rather than a scary or a rosy one: the risk is real and manageable, and the lifestyle's habits of testing, barriers and honest conversation are what manage it.

For a practical testing rhythm, see the JoinTheSwing guide to STD testing for swingers; the play-safe guide covers condoms, dental dams, PrEP, vaccines and consent. This answer is general information, not medical advice.