To this date, research has not been able to confirm whether or not men can get an infection through intercourse if their partner has bacterial vaginosis. However, we do know that men can't be affected by the condition without intercourse, which of course is stating the obvious. But the lack of verified results from a laboratory test is what's holding medical researchers and professionals back from proving that males can be affected by bacterial vaginosis.
Several health experts claim that men are not susceptible to bacterial vaginosis through intercourse because they can't carry the bacteria. So despite having intercourse with a woman infected, a man would not be susceptible to experiencing any affects from her. With that said, keep in mind that men are able to transfer bacterial infections from one female to another through intercourse, so avoiding sex with multiple partners is still encouraged even for men. Unprotected sex for both genders of course is completely unadvised.
If you are a guy, you might be thinking that all you have to do is have sex only with women who don't have bacterial vaginosis, and then there will be nothing to be concerned about. While this theory in general is sound, there is still plenty of risk involved because you won't know for sure who has the infection and who doesn't; this is partially because BV is often asymptomatic. So if women don't even know they have it in many cases, how would men? And even if a woman does know that she has it, the only way a man can find out is if she tells them or he asks her; the latter of course would be inappropriate. Because this condition is very embarrassing to many women, the odds that they admit they have it are not very high to begin with.
Men should also be aware that one of the most common ways to treat bacterial vaginosis is with antibiotics, and this treatment can reduce the effectiveness of contraceptives. Under these circumstances, it would seem that men would be more prone towards getting a woman pregnant while exposing themselves to being affected somehow by BV. For this reason, safe sex should always be practiced by both males and females, though this is not 100% full proof either. Men should also know that their sperm can cause the fishy smell that is accompanied with bacterial vaginosis in women. In addition, sex can actually worsen the condition in women by enhancing the environment for bacteria to grow.
