fandomnumbergenerator | Entries tagged with safer sex

We’ve Been Cheated Out of Condoms That Actually Feel Good During Sex

Apparently, I didn’t already post this?

Interesting discussion of the efficacy of natural membrane vs latex condoms in real world situations.

Consistent condom use in anal sex stops 70% of HIV infections, study finds

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 in preventing HIV transmission during anal sex since 1989. It found condoms stop seven out of ten anal transmissions – the same efficacy found by the 1989 study. However, it also found that sometimes using condoms is not effective at preventing HIV infection, and that long-term 100% condom use is a minority behaviour: only one-in-six gay men actually managed to maintain it over the three- to four-year time frame of the analysis.

“This analysis also shows that sometimes using condoms is no better than not using them at all. Overall, men who said they sometimes used condoms were only 4.4% less likely to acquire HIV than men who never used them. This difference was statistically insignificant;”

Smith D et al. Condom efficacy by consistency of use among MSM: US. 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Atlanta, abstract 32, 2013.

There must be some other variables that aren’t being taken into account. Since all else being equal, using condoms some of the time should mean fewer episodes of unprotected sex should mean fewer chances to get infected.

Issue 198: July 2010 - Are lubricants safe?

The ‘lubes’ used most often in sex may actually make HIV transmission more likely. Gus Cairns explores some unnerving new findings from the 2010 International Microbicides Conference.

“Four of the water-based lubricants completely stripped off the epithelium (outer layer) of cells from rectal tissue. In contrast, PRÉ and Wet Platinum caused relatively little damage. Astroglide caused almost as much damage as nonoxynol-9, the spermicide that has already been shown to double the risk of HIV infection.”

Peer reviewed version: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23144863

nanodash:

scienceyoucanlove:
These condoms include Vivagel, a new antiviral compound that disables 99.9% of HIV, herpes, and other sexually transmitted viruses:http://bit.ly/1ne3B9V
from Science Alert
Discuss.
Additional, slightly more detailed, article (x). It uses nanotech!

None of the clinical trials of this drug relate to HIV: http://www.starpharma.com/vivagel/vivagel_clinical_trials

Twenty years ago, we were constantly being told to use nonoxynyl-9 condoms, but they were all burny, so I only used non-spermicidal ones, and always felt kind of guilty about it. Nonoxynyl-9 (essentially detergent) worked really well to kill HIV in the test tube, but when they tested it as an anti-HIV microbicide, it made HIV transmission more likely because it caused vaginal inflammation.

I think microbicides will be a really important way to prevent HIV transmission, but I doubt this microbicide is going to be the one.

Summary of current state of microbicide research, including info on nonoxynyl-9: http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/microbicides/microbicides/en/

"Similarly, the risk-reduction strategy of negotiated safety substitutes the limit of monogamy for that of latex. Given that this strategy rationalized the abandonment of condoms in strictly controlled circumstances, it is not surprising that the doctrine of negotiated safety originated outside the United States. A central element of Australian and European safe-sex education, negotiated safety involved gay men in a committed couple going bareback only when both repeatedly test negative for HIV. As Shernoff correctly observes, “negotiated safety makes AIDS prevention professionals in the Unites States nervous,” because they do not wish to be seen as condoning the abandonment of condoms. Although the doctrine of negotiated safety preceded the emergence of bareback subculture by several years, it should be regarded as a fully rationalized, supremely safe version of barebacking – and therefore, some would say, it hardly qualifies as barebacking at all. Negotiated safety enables unlimited intimacy with a single partner, while simultaneously imposing stringent limits of extramarital liaisons. With this approach – in which condom use remains the norm relative to which a single exception may be carefully elaborated – the investment lies in safety rather than risk.
By contrast, the technique of strategic positioning is employed during bareback sex between discordant partners. Here a high-risk situation may be ameliorated by the HIV-positive man’s taking the role of “bottom,” while his HIV-negative partner takes that of “top.” this configuration reduces (although it certainly does not eliminate) the risk of infection, since viral transmission occurs most readily when a positive man ejaculates inside a negative man’s rectum. As a term, strategic positioning, like negotiated safety, is derived from Australian research’ as a practice, it does not qualify as safer sex (the only sanctioned goal of HIV prevention in the United States) but as a harm-reduction technique."

—

Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on The Subculture of Barebacking by Tim Dean (2009)

What is the US problem with harm reduction? Trust the US to apply the logic of abstinence-only to safer sex. No wonder it’s not working very well.

Also straight couples use negotiated safety all the time (albeit usually in a watered down form where these is no contingency plan for what happens if one partner strays). How can you have an official policy that expects married gay men to never stop using condoms even within the marriage?

When I’m single, I don’t bareback on purpose usually. I practice safe sex often enough to consider myself “always safe,” even though that’s not quite true. While the overwhelming majority of times that I’ve had casual anal sex, I’ve had the wherewithal and self control to stop and put on the condom I’ve already made sure is within my reach, there have been times when pre-sex teasing has led to penetration. I’ve slipped. There are times when a few condom-free strokes don’t seem like they’d hurt anyone and we were both down so… I’ve given in to requests of full-on bare sex to orgasm on occasion, depending how hot and convincing the invitation was and how turned on I already was. It’s always the exception, though. “That’s not me,” I tell myself during and especially after.

It’s easy enough to sweep this all under the rug if nothing comes of it. If you don’t contract HIV from bareback sex, was it unsafe? What does it even matter? Just do better next time and take solace in the personal rules—somewhat informed, somewhat arbitrary—that you suspect are keeping you protected: I’ve never gotten fucked raw by anyone who wasn’t my monogamous boyfriend—I never need to bottom so badly that I’d ever let a casual acquaintance enter me without a condom.

—

Jim Pickett, the director of advocacy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, quoted in “What Is Safe Sex? The Raw and Uncomfortable Truth About Truvada” by Rich Juzwiak, Gawker, March 4, 2014

Just read Unlimited Intimacy, which I found fascinating but also terrifying. I am much more in the category of Jim Pickett (the “That’s not me” problem), with a set of strict rules that sometimes get broken (both in terms of sex and when I used to inject drugs) than the “No limits” men Tim Dean describes. It set off such a deep irrational terror, that I found myself thinking, maybe I should start using condoms again with my husband

"You’re here because people barebacked. Your grandmother was a barebacker. That secretary in your office, when you’re invited to her baby shower, she’s a barebacker. You’re bringing gifts for someone who engaged in risky fucking behavior. What the fuck are you doing? She’s a bad person. We would never [say] that. We’re like, ‘Yay! You’re pregnant! What is it? Woohoo!’ With a gay man, it’s like, 'Oh my God. You’re reckless, you’re careless, you’re insane, you’re self-destructive, you want to hurt yourself and others.’ And we ignore the fact that gay men have the same needs to feel close and intimate and pleasure. For a lot of people, condoms get in the way. That just is. That’s just a fact. And if you can use a condom yourself and that doesn’t interfere, again, great for you. Hallelujah! Keep doing it. But if you can’t, that’s not a mark against you."

—

Jim Pickett, the director of advocacy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, quoted in “What Is Safe Sex? The Raw and Uncomfortable Truth About Truvada” by Rich Juzwiak, Gawker, March 4, 2014

When I stopped using condoms with my now husband (after we’d been dating for about 6 months), it seemed really scary. Condoms had always been the rule for me, even if there were slip-ups now and then and, yeah, I let the first guy I slept with talk me out of using condoms (I guess all the evidence I need that I was not as grown up as I thought and that maybe it was a big deal that he was 27 and I was 17). But an actual conscious decision to stop using condoms seemed really weird and really serious. And the times since then when we’ve used condoms (e.g. between when our daughter was born and when I had an IUD put in) the doctor seemed kind of incredulous that we (as a married het couple) would actually be willing to use condoms.

Things Guys Say To Avoid Using Condoms

Decades of research in sexual health has revealed that people do not practice safe-sex consistently. Of course, part of the reason for this is because condoms are not always available when people want to have sex. Other contributing factors include negative attitudes toward condoms and an inability to find condoms that fit well. However, one of the more disturbing reasons people sometimes forego protection is because they are convinced by their sexual partners that they should not use condoms. Indeed, one study of college students found that 49% of the women surveyed reported that a sexual partner had previously persuaded them to not use condoms on at least one occasion [1]. Building upon this finding, a new study published in the Journal of Sex Research reveals some of the more common persuasion tactics men employ in order to resist condom use with their female partners [2].

On the topic of consciousness raising, all those sex ed classes did not prepare me for this when I was a teenager. For being so eager to lose my (heterosexual) virginity, that when we got to his bedroom and he said he wasn’t going to be able to stay hard with a condom on, I just went along with it. Of course, when I had sex with him 6 months later (and he knew I’d had other sexual partners in between) he had no problem using a condom.