Why do gay guys have to use condoms
"What do you contact a gay guy who got infected in the '80s? A victim. What do you call a queer guy who gets infected in 2010? An idiot." Adv put by a reader to my gay dating column, but way off the mark.
According to the CDC, novel HIV infection rates among gay men keep climbing and this year is no exception. I understand the level of anger a lot of homosexual guys have about this sobering trend. I've just had two 20-something friends turn HIV positive. Some in our inner circle went ballistic with ire. "Why didn't they use condoms?" seethed one friend. "It's not like they don't how to protect themselves -- they CHOSE not to. And if that's the case don't they be entitled to what they got?"
Well, no. True, if people were any more stupid about safe sex we'd have to liquid them twice a week, but the anger has no logic. When emergency workers pull lifeless or injured people out of ride crashes do they blame the victims for not wearing seat belts? Execute they refuse to help them?
The usual reasons experts offer about rising infections center around "Plague Fatigue" and misplaced "AIDS Optimism" (believing that HIV is manageable and a cure is just around the corner), but there's also a few other
Some Gay Men on PrEP May Halt Using Condoms. Does It Matter?
When I talk to my adolescent patients about sex and sexuality, there’s a line I usually enclose in my patter. I tell them that they’re in my office for medical advice, not moral guidance. The questions I inquire and information I give are for the purposes of keeping them sound and healthy, not so I can pass judgment on their character.
Ironically, it’s when I contain patients who are gay men enjoy me that I sometimes need to keep any moralizing in check.
In 2016, the National LGBTQ Task Force Deed Fund and the National Coalition for LGBT Health noted the need for ongoing education and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Their guide specifically notes “People on PrEP may be less likely to use condoms, perceiving other STIs/STDs as easily cured despite the troubling soar of drug resistant gonorrhea.”
“PrEP” is brief for pre-exposure prophylaxis. It’s a regimen of two diverse medications that, when taken daily, can substantially reduce the likelihood of entity infected with HIV for those at increased risk, including men who contain sex with other men (MSM). Reading that people taking it may be less likely to
Q&A: Decline in condom use indicates need for further education, awareness
Research | Social science | UW News blog
February 27, 2024
A new University of Washington study measures changes in sex without condoms among HIV-negative gay and bisexual men who are not taking PrEP.Pixabay
New analyze from the University of Washington shows that condom use has been trending downward among younger lgbtq+ and bisexual men over the last decade, even when they aren’t taking pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.
The study, published Feb. 27 in AIDS and Action, measures changes in sex without condoms among HIV-negative gay and bisexual men who are not taking PrEP. Using data from the 2014-19 cycles of the American Men’s Internet Survey — a web-based survey of cisgender men ages 15 and older who have sex with men (MSM) — researchers found that roughly half of HIV-negative men reported using condoms at least sometimes in the last year. That was higher than the 15% of respondents who reported using PrEP.
But HIV-negative MSM who are not using PrEP seem to be not using condoms increasingly often. The study found that the proportion of these men who had condomles
Sexual health for male lover and bisexual men
Having unprotected penetrative sex is the most likely way to pass on a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Using a condom helps shield against HIV and lowers the risk of getting many other STIs.
If you’re a man having sex with men (MSM), without condoms and with someone unused, you should have an STI and HIV assess every 3 months, otherwise, it should be at least once a year. This can be done at a sexual health clinic (SHC) or genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic. This is important, as some STIs do not bring about any symptoms.
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is a liver infection that's spread by a virus in poo.
Hepatitis A is uncommon in the UK but you can find it through sex, including oral-anal sex ("rimming") and giving oral sex after anal sex. MSM with multiple partners are particularly at risk. You can also get it through contaminated food and drink.
Symptoms of hepatitis A can arrive up to 8 weeks after sex and enclose tiredness and feeling sick (nausea).
Hepatitis A is not usually life-threatening and most people make a entire recovery within a couple of months.
MSM can escape getting hepatitis A by:
- washing hands after sex (bottom, groin a
What About Condoms?
That was a difficult conversation to have. It forced me to understand how all my frantic efforts to get everyone in the community to use a condom 100% inadvertently shamed and alienated the individuals who weren’t following suit. It made me understand that I wasn’t someone my friends could reliance with these pleasurable yet terrifying experiences. It revealed to me the limitations of a rigid HIV prevention strategy that reflected a medical ideal while ignoring complicated feelings of ambivalence, confusion, and craving to share another man’s body without barriers.
Over the next decade, new HIV rates in the U.S. remained consistent, at about 50,000 per year, with no significant rises or decreases. So in 2011, when I began study about a daily pill called Truvada that can prevent HIV by up to 99% when used daily, I had to seriously take pause. Could this finally be the key to bringing down new infection rates after a decade of stagnation? I decided that for myself this would be the ideal strategy for remaining HIV-negative after 22 years of being sexually active and constantly worrying if and when and how I would someday become HIV-positive. For these reasons,