HIV / Researchers suggest more men use PrEP as part of intervention.
A new survey of gay and bisexual men shows almost half report having unprotected sex always, often or sometimes.
Of the 725 men surveyed, most say they are educated about HIV/AIDS, and fear getting infected or re-infected.
Dr Freddy Molano and Renato Barucco of New York’s non-profit Community Healthcare Network (CHN) focused on men who use apps such as Grindr, Scruff, Manhunt and Growlr to meet sexual partners.
The focus of the survey, which received replies from men in Australia, South America, Eastern Europe, the UK, Canada, and mostly the US, was to gain insight into men’s perspectives on HIV/AIDS and unprotected sex. It also included an optional section asking respondents why they might take risks during sex.
According to the findings, 81 percent of respondents know HIV is transmitted through “unprotected anal sex, vaginal sex and, less frequently, oral sex.”
About 68 percent are afraid to be infected or re-infected and believe people should be more concerned about the epidemic.
A “vast majority” considers barebacking dangerous and believes barebackers know the risks.
Almost 47 percent of respondents admit to barebacking “always, often or sometimes,” while almost 54 percent say they never have unprotected anal intercourse.
Barucco says respondents have unprotected sex primarily because condoms don’t feel good (almost 85 percent); they act impulsively (74 percent); or they are under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Vancouver therapist Bill Coleman, who has worked with the HIV community for more than 25 years, adds that people are often not assertive enough to insist on condom use. “Part of it is, ‘if I insist you use a condom, then I’m accusing you of being positive or you are going to think I am positive.’”
He says often people feel vulnerable in hookup situations, or they’re expecting hot sex only to find themselves in a “boring negotiation” that may put people off.
Coleman says people are not out looking to get infected, and know that fucking without condoms is a risk, but it happens anyway.
Wayne Robert, executive director of Vancouver’s Health Initiative for Men (HIM), says the CHN study is one of the first he’s seen that investigates the apps connection. HIM, too, is interested in how men meet.
“The percentage of times where guys are saying that they met their last sexual contact online has been rising, and that’s been going on for a long time,” he notes.
“At the beginning of last year, we said it would be helpful to serve our patients better to find out what’s going on on these apps,” Barucco says, adding that the study did not specifically investigate a correlation between an increasing use of apps and an increase in HIV infections among men who have sex with men. He notes that some of the apps actually work with HIV prevention initiatives.
Robert says the numbers in the CHN study are somewhat similar to those in the ManCount study conducted in Vancouver bars, clubs and cafes in 2008.
ManCount found 59 percent of men surveyed said they used a condom the last time they had anal sex, while almost 40 percent didn’t.
Hookup app users may be more sexually active than average gay men, Robert suggests. “It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that those numbers were higher.”
Still, Robert says all kinds of people engaging in all kinds of behaviour are at risk.
“If you’re having unprotected anal sex with somebody whose status you don’t know, or aren’t entirely sure of, and if you’re not getting tested on a regular basis, then there’s a potential for a risk.”
That’s the important message, he says, regardless of whether you’re finding guys “through an app or Sunday school.”
There’s great diversity in men’s sexual lives and experiences, Robert says, pointing out that those who use apps like Grindr may need messages tailored to their needs. “Also we need to ensure that we’re not then saying those are the only guys who need to hear these messages. The fact is that anyone can find themselves in a situation where they’re exposed.”
Molano and Barucco hope the study will be helpful in developing different ways to deliver prevention messages.
“We have spent a lot of money and time on condom initiatives, and I’m pretty sure that many people are using condoms, but the reality is other people have decided that they would rather have sex without condoms,” Molano says.
Given the high rates of at least occasional barebacking, the CHN researchers recommend increased use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) pills in the gay community.
Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada, a PrEP drug that could significantly reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals. It was approved for use in conjunction with other safer-sex tools such as condom use and regular HIV testing.
“If you do it as part of an intervention, that you go to counselling, education, and have a baseline to know that you are negative, that your partner is positive, and also looking at the viral load of your partner, that could be of great help,” Molano suggests.
Robert says HIM is looking at all kinds of strategies, from condom negotiation to PrEP. He says it’s “really early days” for PrEP, noting that it hasn’t been tried with significant numbers of gay men for significant periods of time.
“The concern around that is whether people would then start to rely on that as a stand-alone. It’s not intended that way.”
Molano says he’s never been a strong believer in condom use as prevention, even though it’s useful and works.
“The secret is to meet your patients where they’re at,” Barucco says. “If they don’t want to hear condoms, you can mention it as much as you want, you’re not going to achieve any results.”
Coleman agrees. “We have sex because it’s fun, and it’s a connection, and negotiation of condoms can really get in the way of that.”
Condom use has been the message for 20 years, and it’s not sensitive to reality, Coleman continues. “If it were just a matter of people needing to know that, we wouldn’t have problems with people getting infected now.”
Barucco says it’s not a question of abandoning the strategies of the past. “We just want to add on to it, and maybe using treatment as well. We are already using treatment as prevention, not so much in terms of pre-exposure prophylaxis, but in terms of treating the positive.”
Molano says a key element is empowering people with relevant information so that they can make the right decision for their circumstances. “We cannot be judgmental,” he adds.
Hot Pics, bareback sex is the best sex 😀
I love bareback. I love feeling him shoot his load in me and I love the feeling of shooting my load in him. But I’m not reckless. I only bareback with guys I know are 100% clean. But there’s no better feeling then that of his nut being emptied in me.
I love when a group of men bareback me and fill my ass with their cum and they come back for seconds or third or more 😛
Thinking that someone is 100% CLEAN, is not protecting yourself at all. Don’t lie, just be real.
Don’t be silly, and cover that Willy.
It’s hard to argue for protection when you’re showing those pictures. Ha!
Yeah, I think that just confirms the dilemma- these are such horny, hot pics i can understand why many guys are happy to bareback. I’ve done it myself, knowing the risk
the profile photo of my cock does infact have a condom on it, but its difficult to see it in this photo
Great blog post v informative but loved the BB pics too! 🙂
ok, is me or people have no ideas of the consequences??? are gay guys that crazy ? this can have severe consequences, and honestly, with or without I do not see the difference, it’s all in between your ears…
Be informed,do the work, make good choices. KNOW who you’re with, KNOW their status, KNOW YOUR STATUS….And have fun, fuck your brains out…
WOW.The man’s cock are in other man’s ass for long time.Safe sex.
I love the pics.
If you want to take the chance of having to take a handfull of pills every day for the rest of your life, keep on barebacking. If you don’t know your partner’s activities before he fucks you, you are fooling yourself.
Not to mention the rise of other STDs because of it. Come on guys, respect yourself..
Great pictures. About the study I think that we all know the risks but still we do it. Why? because we like it and we shouldn’t do it, part of our nature.
Absolutely appalled and disgusted by this report. Guys, wise up. Some are clearly in denial…it is never safe to BB. Either fuck with condoms or don’t fuck at all. Never be pressured into doing something you don’t want to.
I have never fucked (or been fucked) because it is simply to dangerous. I am not prepared to put my health at risk either.
I’m in the sex industry and i find its mostly the married guys that want BB sex .. WHY .. we all have so much to loose if we BB ( our lifes / health etc) but they have more to loose with having a wife and kids so Why do they risk everything just for a 10 minute shag
I never do BB sex.. i respect myself to much
I rarely bareback but cannot feel the difference when a guy shoots his load in my ass with or without a condom so do not understand wher guys say it feels so much better when a guy shoots his load inside without a condom. I can feel no difference at all so why would you want to risk getting infected for something so indiferret in feelling?
Yes guys it’s all the STD’s as well that are a problem. Sort it out in your mind guys BEFORE you’re horny and be ready so that your dick doesn’t completely take charge of your mind..
If you want bare back sex get a fleshlite…or dildo yourself…
If your with a group or single one on one always wear a condom
The old days are over…Barebackers are just making more room for us on this planet because they wont live long…Ive watched and buried
over 80 of my friends over the years and Im still here and unskathed !
Protect or Dick and your Ass Boys or you wont have one ! And the pills
in the cocktail can only protect some from not dieing…Think !
I’m shaking my head reading that some guys dont want to ‘negotiate’ using condoms for fear they might turn potential partners off and not get laid. People take the time to negotiate bank loans, mortgages, cars, etc, but won’t take the time to negotiate their health and lives? Please ask yourself this: Is the half an hour (or less) of pleasure you will get from a good fuck worth 10, 20 or more years of doctors appointments, popping countless pills that could make you sick with side effects, then eventually suffering from one or more of various opportunistic diseases that will kill you?
thanks for posting this… I’ve always been all for safe sex but have slipped up recently. I’ve just booked myself in to get checked. If the sauna culture of the 80s was a catalyst for HIV then on-line hook ups (which I’ve just gotten into) have the potential to be even more dangerous for barebacking. It’s good to get a slap across the face and reminder like this.. the pictures help as well !! nice one squirt x
oh any while I’m here.. why does most of squirt seem to live in Canada ?? 🙂
Did anyone actually read all those words between those hot fuck pics? Blah, blah blah.. words, talk. I use a condom to protect myself from unclean butt holes.
As I only top, and get checked often, I know I’m clean and resent having to use a rubber, especially since it tangles in the jewelery. However I accept that because I say so doesn’t mean my bottom should believe me in his own self-interests… hence I don’t fuck often. But when I do, it’s only bareback and feels 1000% better, such that if I have to wrap it, I’d rather wank it.
@Lurker86 Judging from your overall ingorant, abrasive attitude you’ve shown on these boards, i’d say that you’re the safest Squirter here when it comes to HIV and STD’s. After all, one is best protected when they can’t get laid.
Next time, read past the first two comments before you type.
Absolutely horrified to read about this survey. Actually, I think the number of gay/bi guys who don’t use a condom and do bareback is actually higher than the figures suggest!
If you can’t respect yourself by using some kind of protection then please have the decency to protect the other guy! In the UK several dudes have been imprisoned for infecting people with HIV/AIDS because they didn’t mention the fact that they were +ve. And remember, oral sex is not 100% safe either. If a guy shoots a load of jizz into your gob there is a finite chance of catching the big H along with a pretty good chance of HEP, SYPH., GON etc. etc. Just because the “literature” say there have been “no reported cases of infection with HIV from oral sex…” doesn’t necessarily mean that nobody has been infected in this way! Remember thy said the Titanic was unsinkable!
Hey guys wise up and cover up, if you don’t the only people who will benefit will be funeral parlor directors!!!!!
Maybe the guys who BB , when they do get aids should have to pay for all medical expenses . They are a drain on tax payers money . I do not bare back and as for the married guys , how much respect do they have for their wife and kids ?
Barebacking continues to be the driving force in the AIDS epidemic. AIDS cases continue to drop in the western world except among gays where the cases continue to grow at 8%/year over the previous one. Ther are 50,000 new AIDS cases each year here in the U.S. According to UNAIDS, the chance of contracting AIDS by anal sex without a condom for both men & women is 1.4%…that is 18 times more risky than vaginal sex. They estimate that if the anal sex risk were the same as vaginal sex, the rate of AIDS would drop 80-98% over the next 5 years. So barebacking is the single most dangerous type of sex for gay men.
A study in Sydney found the following chances of infection among gay men per single sex acts:
Cut tops: .11% or 1 in 909
Uncut tops: .62% or 1 in 161
Bottom w/o ejac.: .65% or 1 in 154
Bottom w ejac.: 1.43% or 1 in 70
The starting odds for a single act are not good, but if you start multiplying them, the odds quickly turn on you. This problem is particularly acute in some subgroups in the gay community…especially among minorities. Our Black and Latino brothers are under siege because of cultural denial or lack of information. The Black AIDS Institute at the International AIDS Conference this past year in Washington, D.C. released the alarming statistics that 1 in 500 Blacks are gay/bi, but account for 25% of all new AIDS cases. A Black gay/bi man has a 1 in 4 chance of being Poz by age 25 and 60% by age 40. This is devastating and unacceptable.
Too many think modern drug therapy makes the risk acceptable. This is insane. Viruses keep mutating making the current therapies less effective annually. Not to mention that each infected partner has different strains…eventually you land up with a resistant strain…you’re done. Guys tell you they’re clean, but don’t test. 15% of guys that say that are clean are unknowingly infected…that’s 1 in 7!…not good odds either.
Even the medical community continues to find new transmission problems. A UCLA study just recently found that the common advice to use plenty of lube during anal sex has problems. The use of lube aids in the transmission of STDs threefold over none depending on the product used. This has to do with how the lube reacts with the epithelial lining. To make lubes have a nice texture and feel, they add glycerin. This adds sugars and salts to the mix. The lining cells of the rectum sense a higher concentration of these than in the cells themselves and excrete water to balance this. They dessicate themselves and die making an opening for viruses and microbes to enter. The study looked at: Astroglide, Elbow Grease, ID Glide, KY, Wet Platinum and PRE. Astroglide was the most toxic to cells and tissues. KY killed all the beneficial bacteria. Only the silicone based Wet Platinum and the water based PRE were isotonic, that is, very close to the composition of the cells and thus neutral and keeping them intact. So even the long held advice to play safe changes.
If you think you have been exposed, get to a doctor as soon as possible. They just approved Truvada as a PrEP…pre-exposure prophylaxis. This is not a first line of defense, but an option if you know yourself to be impulsive/reckless, but will run you about $11K/yr. If you were stupid or if a condom failed with a Poz partner, you have the option of PEP…post exposure prophylaxis. This is most effective starting within the first 24 hours. It’s basically the AIDS cocktail you take for a few months.
Play safe to play long and keep up to date on AIDS information.
Please guys be sensible and rubber up. I have had two friends die from HIV and an old school friend (who is also married) has been diagnosed three months ago. Yes treatments for HIV are improving, but do you really want to be on medication for the rest of your life? We can all have fun but lets be safe too.
Why don’t you scolds from the 1980’s (like we didn’t hear enough bullshit from the health NAZIs) do something useful such as campaign against tattoos? that’s the real danger to the progress and morality of our community.
Lots of talk about HIV, & all important & valid. No one has mentioned the other goodies — Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, or NGU (aka: NSU — non-gonoccal urethritis or non-specific urethritis). True, these can be cured, formerly with just a shot, now with pills, but even these infections are becoming antibiotic resistant. When did the guy you are topping last douche thoroughly? Feces fragments enter the urethra and in 3-5 days you are showing symptoms of NGU/NSU or worse. The GI tract, including the rectum, has more copies of HIV per sample than any bloodstream sample. I wear condoms as a matter of course — not to protect you from me, but to protect me from you. It also eliminates all the awkwardness of the negotiation, & the lies that the “untested” will tell you.
Tattoos are a danger to morality?
Lurker, you’ve just gone to a new level of ridiculousness. Move to wonderland because you’re pure nonsense.
well, gentlemen, not only not wrapping causes aids as you so lightly put it, but also sucking a hiv poz person, that hasn’t revealed to you that they are, . brushing your teeth one hour prior to oral sex, causes higher risks of getting the virus.. with open scraps on the gums from brushing, so in all fairness, we should abstain from sex altogether, NOT, yes i understand, all the comments on barebacking is not safe, but I only bareback one guy, we are both adults, and knowing the risks, we both get tested regularly, and over the past 6 years neither of us has recived any virus,, so it also based on honesty and trust,
Besides the common sense of using condoms, don’t put yourself into situations that might make you make impaired decisions. The PNP (party and play) scene often includes using meth/Tina/E, etc. that leads you to forget protection. Then there’s the whole bug chasing/gifting group. Though I have no problems with tattoos, this is area where being aware of some specific ones may be wise….remember that these MIGHT mean these messages and are not absolute. Bug chasers sometimes put “HIV-” tats where they can be seen by Poz guys as advertising they want to be infected. Don’t assume that’s truth in advertising… when they convert, they just change the “-” sign to “+”. Once Poz, they can now become “givers” infecting the next batch of bug chasers. These guys often will have a ‘bio hazard’ tattoo. The most insidious are the Poz guys are the “stealthers”. These are Poz guys who go through the whole charade of safe sex, but are secretly infecting others. They will clip their fingernails so they have a jagged ‘hook’,so that when they are fingering your hole they are secretly creating many tiny open wounds for the virus to enter your bloodstream. They then wrap up their dicks, but with a condom that they brought that has tiny holes or use their nails again to create them in your condoms. Oops! The condom leaked or broke…these things happen don’t they? They just pozzed you as they planned. This is where you inner voice needs to be listened to…if the guy seems sketchy in any way…call it off, no matter how hot he is, it’s never too late to kick him out. Beware by being aware! Live for another time and place. There is no “safe sex”, only safer sex. Stay aware of your surroundings, check out the other guy..watch and listen to his attitudes and actions. Stay in control of yourself. Yep, it’s all the stuff that your parents taught you when you were young..still the best advice. Have a good time, but only trust yourself…play as if everything he says is a lie and you will be safe as you can be.
I’ve actually had guys on here come at me all butt hurt because I have a NO BB policy. I’ll continue to BB my right hand but sorry, no play if no rubber. Hell, in a lot of ways, the irresponsibilities in this community have freaked me out to the point that sex is less appealing all the time. I’m not paranoid but my trust issues with gay men, I sleep better not playing around.
I think the problem is that people aren’t afraid of HIV anymore. We try to get people to get tested by telling them it isn’t a death sentence. If they believe its not a death sentence, then they’ll keep having unprotected sex. Most people don’t rob banks because they’ll go to jail for a long time. Tell them jail isn’t as bad as they think and they’ll go on a spree… get it?