HIV and sex

HIV and sex features

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  PrEP wars: debating pre-exposure prophylaxis in the gay community

  Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was approved in the US in July, following trials showing its efficacy in preventing sexual transmission of HIV. But, as Gus Cairns finds out, it...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Treatment as prevention: Experts in the UK agree it works

  Roger Pebody summarises the statement released in January that should now guide how our doctors talk to us about treatment as prevention. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  "How are we going to have a baby? I’m positive and you’re not"

  Joanna Moss of the African Health Policy Network (AHPN) looks at conception and fertility guidelines and services for people living with HIV in the UK. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  The gay globe

  In the last two years, three internet surveys in Europe, the USA and Asia asked over 200,000 gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM)...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Uncomfortable news on lubes for anal sex

  Commercially available sexual lubricants may increase people’s susceptibility to sexually transmitted infection (STIs), US scientists reported recently. A study found that people who consistently used shop-bought ‘lubes’ for...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Getting tough on criminalisation

  “Nothing short of barbaric.” This was the comment of a BBC presenter, confronted with the number and sheer arbitrary injustice of criminal convictions of people accused of transmitting...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Saving face: GMFA's sexual health messaging service

  Gay men’s health charity, GMFA, is launching a new service to make telling sexual partners about STIs less daunting. Gus Cairns investigates. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Treatment as prevention works!

  A large randomised study of treatment as prevention has closed more than three years early after interim analysis of the data showed that antiretroviral treatment reduced the...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Safer sex in the treatment era

  There is mounting evidence that reducing viral load through HIV treatment may be one of the most effective ways of stopping onward transmission of HIV. But how...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Do HIV drugs really mean you aren’t infectious?

  Gus Cairns looks at new research on this controversial subject. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

HIV and sex in your own words

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  Anger - I was furious

  I wasn’t really surprised when I found out I had HIV, after all I went to have an HIV test because I had all the...

  From:In your own words

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  The sex police

  I met Amy through a friend – a friend who knew my HIV status. We got on really well and she asked if I wanted...

  From:In your own words

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  A problem below stairs...

  I’ve had warts since I was a child – they run in my family. At one point, around the age of 12, I had small...

  From:In your own words

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  My hero!

  Sex. It’s messy, fraught with all sorts of psychological problems and yes, it’s obviously what got me into this whole predicament in the first place....

  From:In your own words

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  Bored and horny

  It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s raining. I’m bored and horny. However, I’ve got £20 left over from the night before and this will be enough...

  From:In your own words

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  Preventing mother-to-child transmission

  I found out about my HIV status when I was 16 weeks pregnant. After I had an HIV test, I had counselling with the midwife....

  From:In your own words

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  Grateful? I don't think so

  “You must be so grateful that your partner agreed to stay with you despite the fact that you have, you know, AIDS,” said a particularly...

  From:In your own words

HIV and sex news from aidsmap

• Routine tests prompted by electronic patient records increase rates of STI diagnoses among HIV-positive people in London

  The implementation of systematic, frequent and routine screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) led to a significant increase in the number of infections detected among HIV-positive people in London, investigators report in HIV Medicine. Doctors and nurses caring for HIV-positive ...

  12 hours ago | Michael Carter

• Lukewarm reaction to government’s sexual health framework for England

  Just two weeks before local authorities take over the commissioning of sexual health services – and twelve years since a sexual health strategy was last published – the Department of Health has released a “framework” which outlines the government’s ...

  19 March 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Consistent condom use in anal sex stops 70% of HIV infections, study finds, but intermittent use has no effect

  An analysis by Dawn Smith of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2013) on 4 March has provided the first estimate of the efficacy of condoms ...

  04 March 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Condoms used in one-in-four heterosexual encounters in the US

  A quarter of heterosexual adults in the United States used a condom the last time they had vaginal sex, researchers from Indiana University have found. Respondents generally reported that condom use made no difference to sexual pleasure, to orgasm, or to ...

  17 February 2013 | Gus Cairns

• CMV infection may contribute to the size of the latent HIV reservoir

  The presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in blood and semen is associated with higher levels of HIV DNA in blood, investigators from the United States report in the online edition of Journal of Infectious Diseases. The study involved gay men ...

  16 January 2013 | Michael Carter

• Young people know less about HIV and are less trustful of condoms, French survey finds

  The first survey for six years of attitudes to HIV and sexual risk behaviour among the general public in France has found that young people are less frightened of AIDS than they used to be, are more likely to ...

  10 January 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Combined oral contraception has less effect on nevirapine than efavirenz levels

  HIV therapy based on efavirenz may less suitable for women taking combined oral contraception due to greater reductions in efavirenz levels and a higher frequency of hormonal contraception side effects, according to research conducted in Thailand and ...

  21 December 2012 | Michael Carter

• Only half of people on HIV treatment fit 'Swiss Statement' criteria for non-infectiousness in US study

  A study of a sample of predominantly African-American people with HIV in the US has found that, in those taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), only 51% met the criteria for non-infectiousness set by the Swiss Statement of January 2008. This study (published ...

  09 November 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Young gay men with HIV in the UK worry about disclosure, transmission and prosecution – older ones about confidence and sex

  A large majority of gay men in the UK with HIV describe having one or more problems with sex, an analysis of a survey originally published in 2009 reveals. Amongst other problems, the analysis of the 2009 What do you ...

  07 November 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Viral load will be no defence against prosecution for HIV exposure or transmission in Norway

  HIV campaigners reacted with dismay today to the issuing of a report by a Norwegian Commission on HIV and the Law which, while making one significant concession in the shape of allowing condom use as a defence, in some other ...

  20 October 2012 | Gus Cairns

More news

HIV and sex news selected from other sources

• I'm Sorry My HIV Offends You

  It's easy to be an ass on mobile dating apps because you can hide behind a cell phone. It's also easy to get your feelings hurt if you don't quickly come to terms with the fact that guys online can be vicious.

  17 March 2013 | Huffington Post

• Gays can't have sex

  'Gays can’t have sex. We can have only “safer sex” or “protected sex” (where condoms or any other form of barriers are used). The sad part of “protected sex” is that it implies that sex between men is not safe,...' - psychotherapiast Marco Posadas ponders whether 'safer sex' is having a damaging effect on gay men's self-image.

  22 February 2013 | Xtra!

• PrEP...Forever? When Do You Stop Taking PrEP

  In his blog on taking pre-exposure prophylaxis, Jake Sobo asks: do we stop taking PrEP if we start a long-term relationship?

  17 January 2013 | Frontiers LA

• The Price of Ignoring the Sexuality of Kenya's HIV Positive Youth

  “The problem is in the transition into adolescence and teenage years. You are dealing with young people who are at an age where they don’t communicate well. The needs of HIV positive teenagers are real and they are ignored just the same way the sexual and reproductive health needs of teens in general are ignored,” an activist said.

  03 December 2012 | Inter Press Service

• USA: 20 percent of youth with HIV didn’t know they were infected at first sexual experience

  Roughly 20 percent of youth who have had HIV since birth did not know their HIV status when they first became sexually active, according to a study by a National Institutes of Health-supported research network.

  10 November 2012 | NIH News

• Porn Trial: This Time it's Extreme

  Today the Crown Prosecution Service will attempt to persuade a jury that images of fisting should be classified as “extreme pornography” with the risk to the defendant of three years in custody, inclusion on the sex offenders' register and damage to his personal and professional standing.

  30 July 2012 | Obscenity Lawyer

• Mark S. King: The Most Important Gay Porn Film Ever Made?

  In June 2004 Dawson's 20 Load Weekend was released and was precisely as advertised. Depending on your point of view, it is either a transgressive act of eroticism or an incredibly irresponsible act that demonstrates how to become infected with HIV. Or perhaps both.

  12 July 2012 | Huffington Post

• "I have something to tell you.I'm HIV positive"

  After telling his partner he was positive, Richard says he felt like he was starting his relationship again.

  06 July 2012 | Same Same

• For how long will anal health and hygiene be neglected?

  “It is high time that anal health [and hygiene] comes out of the closet” said Dr Ross Cranston, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA. Dr Cranston was referring to the multitude of anal health complications people practicing receptive anal intercourse are likely to be dealing with in their lives and very little quality care and products that exist to relieve them.

  17 April 2012 | Citizen News Service

• London: The drug epidemic that is hitting gay men hard

  As someone who has worked in the drug and alcohol field for many years, what concerns Monty Moncrieff are some of the current trends in drug use and how these are specifically impacting gay men: ‘We are seeing massive changes in the way that men who have sex with men are using drugs and the problems that they are experiencing as a result. Men are increasingly using drugs to enhance sex.’

  12 April 2012 | Gay Star News

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