DrownedBoy

If you set out this kind of spread for a massage appointment, your dinner parties must be off the charts.

^This!!!
Here is my two cents in typical long form fashion.
Firstly, thank you @SouthOfTheBorder for posting this topic. Clients don’t want to talk or think about these things. So many people are immature when it comes to discussing sexual health. Our culture stigmatizes people for wanting - and having - sex. Our culture looks down on sex workers and treats us as scapegoats. We’re the “dirty” ones, the irresponsible, the depraved. But that’s just not true. If anything, professional sex workers are much more responsible and informed than the average person with regard to managing risks, maintaining good sexual health, communicating with their partners, and guarding their personal safety.
For every sketchy provider story I hear about on here, there are half a dozen experienced working men doing the right things and handling business professionally, not doing drugs or extorting people or behaving recklessly. The negative stories stick out more so we tend to focus on those. In between the horror stories are many good guys doing good work.
I’ll share the following because I know that many of you respect honesty and straight talk. A lot of providers don’t want to share this type of stuff openly because many clients are uneducated and carry around unfair biases and misinformation around sex and sexual health and use it to demonize us. The concern is clients will hold such information against us thinking “So-and-so had such and such last year. Ohhh better not hire him because I might catch the same thing”. It’s not fair because your average msm bareback hookup is going to be a much higher risk to you than hiring a professional. Hiring an experienced pro with a head on his shoulders is going to be relatively much safer for you than random sex in the wild. Clients on this platform are more educated than average on such matters, so perhaps I am preaching to the choir - still stigma persists no matter what we share or keep silent on. That’s why we don’t talk about this stuff very often. Also, it’s not sexy. But it’s important just the same.
Non-provider men similar to me have WAAAY more unprotected casual sex than I do, and they only get checked every three months (at best!). Most of them are on PreP and bareback exclusively. Doctors in the US require quarterly testing for patients receiving a PreP regimen, so that’s normal. Some of my peers are not on PreP and don’t know their HIV status, much less whether they are spreading STIs around because they are not testing on any regular basis - perhaps only if/when they experience symptoms (and not everyone experiences symptoms). Many straight-curious and bi men fall into this category, but any type can. If they test, it might be only once or twice a year. Your best case scenario outside of hiring is a conscientious gay guy getting tested every three months.
I test every month because of my work. Not because I have more sex than others, but because I care a great deal about my clients, my own health, and my ability to work. Monthly testing only leaves a small window for anything to happen and me not know about it. Keep in mind when you test, you are not clear as of that date you test. You are clear as of 10-14 days or so prior to the date you test, perhaps less. Incubation periods take time for the infection to show up on a test and to be communicable to others. Verify this info with your healthcare provider, as I am not your doctor. I merely bring up the point to clarify testing is not an up-to-the-minute snapshot of what is in your body - rather a snapshot of what has developed in your body (or not) over a period of time since your last exposure up to the time you test.
For example, I had a session last year for a client with multiple providers in which I had unprotected sex (bottom) with one of the providers. I topped the client and another provider in that session. As it so happened, I tested on my monthly schedule the following day. A couple days later I got the test results and all was negative. Little did I know one provider I was exposed to during that encounter passed an STI on to me. Given my activities in the weeks surrounding the encounter, I was able to confirm by process of elimination who it was and when. I topped clients, as I typically do, in the following weeks without knowing any of this, and thankfully did not expose any of them to an infection since the infection was rectal only. On my next test, I caught the issue and immediately alerted a few people who may have been exposed based on the activities with which we had recently engaged. It was only a two week or so window that I potentially passed it on and was yet unaware I had an infection. Since I have much fewer clients engaging me for bottom and/or bottom-adjacent activities, it was pretty easy to identify the few that may have been exposed in that short window. Since I test so frequently, I fortunately had the opportunity to give them all quick notice to get tested and/or treated before an infection had enough time to develop, express symptoms, and/or be passed on to anyone else. Here is a client response:

I love my regular clients. Most them are really good people.
Aside - the provider I got the infection from is married to another provider. Given they have frequent unprotected sex with one another and with all of their respective clients, the risks for them are necessarily higher than your average working guy. Keep this in mind when hiring a provider couple, or one of a pair of providers. Not to stigmatize, but to measure your risk.
I have a fraction of the sex of men similar to me, and it’s generally with people who a) are more conscious about the risks they are taking, b) have much less sex on average, and c) practice safer sex -maybe 10-20%.
Every provider is different. Some have more recreational sex, some have less. Some have riskier sex, some safer sex, perhaps some mix of both. I’d say that providers tend to have much less recreational sex than their peers, if not by intentional choice, than by the mere practical realities of being in this business. That’s me. One cannot be blowing loads recreationally right and left and expect to have any sexual energy left for his clients to enjoy. 
Sex carries some risk no matter how much or little sex you have, be it protected or unprotected. Having sex exposes you to the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted infections, full stop. How much risk you are willing to tolerate is up to you. We have many other threads in the forums on how to mitigate risks, like oral vs anal, top vs bottom play, using condoms, vetting your guys, etc, so I won’t get into all those here. My point is you have to be responsible for your own health and assess your own personal level of risk tolerance.
For the married/attached guys out there regularly having sex with their significant other, it’s best to keep open communication with your partner/spouse about your hiring. I know many of you don’t share for various reasons, so you risk inadvertently passing an STI on to your partner, and that is a much more difficult conversation to have than discussing the boundaries of your relationship beforehand. I suppose, if you’re not having sex with your partner, you can manage your own sexual health without your partner needing to know anything about your hiring or hooking up habits. Assess and manage your personal level risk, and get tested regularly in proportion to that risk and treat infections promptly if/when they manifest. Simple as that. Better yet, if you’re able, get on PreP and follow the required testing regimen. I know many won’t for shared health record privacy concerns. Talk to your significant other. Sooner or later things will surface. One of my clients likes to bareback flip fuck and he regularly has sex with his wife. I am upfront with him about all of my sexual health and relative risks. He wants the sex anyway. Hey, to each his own.
This is our livelihood. It behooves us to stay healthy, obviously for our own sake, but also for the sake of our business. We can’t make money when we are recovering from a sexually transmitted infection. For masseurs like myself, I can’t offer escort service, but I can still massage, sans the extras I otherwise might offer during my recovery, nor can I offer combo massage / sex work service. It puts a damper on what I can earn in that 1-2 week period. For the full time escorts out there, they can’t earn a dime unless they are knowingly putting their clients at risk, which is not only problematic from an ethical and moral perspective, but also just doesn’t make business sense to do. We have too much to lose by damaging our reputations in this way.
So…in a sense, seeing a responsible, professional provider may actually carry, in many ways, less risk than having casual recreational sex with the average man who has sex with men. I don’t mean zero risk. Less risk.
I agree with much of the other posters on mitigating risk with visual checks, mouthwash, peeing after sex, washing, etc. Never a bad idea, but all of these are marginal at best in helping reduce your risk. If you have the sex at all, you already took on the risk. Very little in the form of after care will prevent you from getting STIs.
We sex workers take on this personal level of risk and manage that risk as best we can. That’s part of what you’re paying us for. Think like how much you pay an oil rigger vs a controlled environment factory line worker. One job is inherently more risky, so you compensate it more to account for that level of risk and damage control.
When your providers inform you that you may have been exposed to an STI, they are being responsible and doing the right thing. Please do not stigmatize them or punish them for doing their job or for taking on reasonable levels of risk that this job requires. Honor them and show them respect. Keep hiring us when we are well, because we are responsible and professional, and we care.

I keep saying 2x a month at most and I keep breaking that rule.  This month will be 6.  

Now that's the type of bi I was thinking of 😄

I'll come by for the homemade bread after he leaves.....thanks so much!

I have regular checks (every month or 2, depends of how often I have unprotected sex)plus my body always have symptoms if something is wrong.
Your question is understandable towards us providers but keep in mind that an average gay in a big city have unprotected sex with multiple partners daily.
Personally I have less casual sex (grindr, bars, clubs, parties, orgies) and I focus mainly on my health and status so I'm more comfortable clients that ask me if we can do bb (if we do both have tested recently, on prep and "feel" healthy).
Yes, I do a visual inspection and yes it happened that I insisted on wearing a condom or refused to be breeded.
If you don't wanna catch STI then use condoms, if you wanna do bb then that's a risk. If you have a wife at home it's on you having unprotected sex with risk of bringing home something.

Basstiann, since you're one of Ryan's competitors in the Chicago market, I would think you'd have the courtesy not to use this forum to try and smear your colleagues.
I read your long post on a different thread, and I read Ryan's here. You would benefit from some of his education and humility.

I have an ongoing joke with my husband about how I clean for providers like my mother's coming over. I am 100% doing too much, but I can't help it. 

Ditto.
Also - a question for providers - is it common to list yourself as bi even if you're almost completely gay? I've met a lot of people (both in the real world and RM) who seem to do that. I'm guessing it signals more masculinity,

For outcalls, I think the bottled water/mouthwash/clean towels/sheets are sufficient, at least for me.
However, I'm one of those clean freaks who won't have anyone over to their home unless the place at least looks tidy.

My first thought when I saw the ad was "these pics look stolen off some random guy's Instagram."  Thanks for confirming.

You sound like an ideal client…there must be a catch somewhere! 

I’d expect fresh flowers, somewhere to hang my clothes, some candles for atmosphere, music playing (something classical, I find Mahler or Debussy quite good for massage), Egyptian cotton sheets on the bed of course (not too high a thread count…I’ll judge you on that) and a phone charger should my phone be running low. Payment should be done discreetly afterwards (I find it awkward to ask so please offer it as I dress, in cash). 
Seriously though….all I look for with an out call is a clean and tidy room, space for my table (if I’ve bought it), no distractions and the possibility to shower afterwards. It sounds like you have all that and more covered! 
 
 

This all sounds like a date, rather than a hire. He might see it as worrisome.

You are going a little overboard, arent you? I mean, homemade bread? Is he kneading you or the dough? 😋 Is he staying over?  Maybe just ask him his beverage of choice and dont try too hard to impress. Condoms, lube and a smile is all you really need! 😉

Bumble Boogie - the modern version of that song.

I guess some clients would prefer to keep their providers private and cheap, instead of letting other people realize how good they are. They might decide to raise their rates then.
You're not dating the guy; you're paying him. The Deli would be a good place to talk about him.

Flight of the Bumblebee?

I did discover the cam world during COVID when escorts were not available.  
I learned from models that I got to know a bit that it is a very hard way to make a living.  The site takes 50% of the fees and if you work for a studio, the studio takes another 25%.  The guys are lucky to make $400-500 a week.  Most of the cam guys tend to come from countries with limited job opportunities like Colombia or Romania.  You almost never see guys from the USA or Europe there.   
As Nate mentioned, the income you make does not even begin to compare to escorting.  
I would not recommend it as a career.

Louisiana is a noticeably tough state to find male escorts.  Even in New Orleans, recommendations for decent massuers and men to rent are hard to find.  Good luck 🤞

So do your fingers and hands wander just during classical music? Or do they like to explore with Country  Music as well? Classic rock?

Been there, experienced the same.  I have 3 go to guys who all provide different type sessions, but are all great.  After some recent subpar experiences, I'm sticking with them.

We all run across that gorgeous escort who just popped up on RM one day. A New guy, we think. Hits all your buttons. In my experience, without exception, every one of these has been a disappointment, if not a disaster. Through painful and hard won experience I have learned to avoid these guys like the plague. Stick with the well known, well reviewed fellows. And just try to be a decent person at all times. If I could get back all the money I've wasted on unknown guys I'd have enough to take "insert your favorite guy here" to Aruba for a week. Live and learn.

Just wait until he gets to your ass.
Did you let Mike know your 'safe word' yet?