Do gay men use condoms
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While a majority (56 percent) of gay and bisexual men say gay leaders are paying the right amount of attention to the issue of HIV relative to other issues, about a third (34 percent) say they’re paying too little attention.
Despite a general sense that LGBT organizations are doing enough to address the problem of HIV/AIDS in the U.S., few gay and bisexual men say that they’ve personally gotten a lot of information about the disease from these organizations – or from any other source – in the past year.
The most commonly reported source of information on HIV/AIDS is the Internet (45 percent say they have gotten at least “some” information from this source in the past year), followed by LGBT media (35 percent), HIV/AIDS organizations (33 percent), LGBT community organizations (30 percent), doctors and other health professionals (29 percent), mainstream media (22 percent), and friends and family (13 percent).
Key Findings: Section 6: Some Key Characteristics Of Gay And Bisexual Men
In addition to their opinions and experiences related to HIV/AIDS, this survey allows us to provide some basic demographic information about gay and bisexual men.
Fully three in ten (30 percent) say they have never been tested for HIV.8
For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher. Large majorities say the topic of HIV comes up “rarely” or “never” in conversations with their friends (68 percent) or family members (84 percent). Asked specifically about health issues affecting gay and bisexual men, HIV is by far the number one issue at 52 percent, followed by other sexually transmitted diseases (28 percent).
At the top of the list, six in ten (60 percent) would like to have more information about medication to prevent the transmission of HIV among HIV-negative persons, and half (50 percent) say they’d like to know more about how soon to begin treatment after testing positive. Lack of communication with doctors may be a barrier to more men getting tested: almost half say they’ve never discussed their sexual orientation with a doctor, and three in ten say they don’t feel comfortable discussing sexual behaviors with health professionals.
However, it is important to recognize that during the act of anal intercourse, many penetrators or “tops” cannot achieve orgasm while sheathed in a condom due to the reduction in friction. Still, some would like to see more focus on HIV by gay community leaders. Rates of people who weren’t using condoms was higher among younger and Latinos, 7.2% per year for young MSM ages 15 to 24, and 18.7% among young Latino gay and bisexual men.
Properly used condoms can prevent the spread of disease, including HIV; taking PrEP also reduces the likelihood of HIV transmission.
Only about a quarter (26 percent) know about PrEP, a recently approved medication that people who are HIV-negative can take to lower their risk of becoming infected. While most (71 percent) say they feel “very” or “somewhat” comfortable discussing topics related to sexual behavior with their doctor, almost three in ten (28 percent) say they feel uncomfortable doing so.
Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish using GfK’s KnowledgePanel, an online research panel. Compared with the general public, gay and bisexual men are somewhat more likely to say they discuss HIV with their friends at least “sometimes” (32 percent versus 22 percent), though they are no more likely than the general public to report discussing it with family members (15 percent versus 19 percent).
While gay and bisexual men are more likely to report discussing HIV with their sexual partners than with family and friends, still a majority (60 percent) say they “rarely” or “never” discuss the topic with their long-term partners, and half (50 percent) say the same about their casual partners.
Young men who have sex with men are among the groups with the fastest growing rates of new cases of HIV [1]. What messages have we been putting out? In my own HIV prevention research, I distributed flyers to recruit young gay men. The study was funded by the CDC and the National Institute of Health.
For more information, contact Goodreau at goodreau@uw.edu.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Anthropology • Steven GoodreauFurther, and even more disturbing, little attention is paid to the decrease in pleasure inherent in condom use.
However, this is likely to be an underestimate of the true rate in the population, since some men may have chosen not to disclose their own status in the survey, and others are likely to be unaware they are HIV-positive. The increase in condomless sex for men not on PrEP suggests potential new HIV transmission pathways, researchers said, and the concentration among young Latino men could expand existing health disparities.
UW News spoke with Steven Goodreau, lead author and UW professor of anthropology, to discuss the study, health equity and the importance of continued education about the benefits of using condoms during sex.
What are the barriers to PrEP uptake?
Respondents who did not reconfirm as gay or bisexual on either question were thanked for their time and told that the interview was over.
The survey data were weighted to be representative of gay and bisexual men nationwide. 19
When it comes to conversations about HIV with long-term sexual partners, gay and bisexual men of color are more likely than whites to say they discuss the topic at least “sometimes” (52 percent versus 34 percent), and those who identify as gay are more likely to report these conversations than those who consider themselves bisexual (47 percent versus 27 percent).
Asked more specifically about discussions at the beginning of new relationships, most gay and bisexual men (61 percent) say they ask a person’s HIV status before beginning a sexual relationship “always” or “most of the time,” although nearly four in ten say they don’t routinely ask, including 22 percent who say they “never” do so.20