A new survey has revealed the number of men having unprotected sex has jumped in the last decade
The number of men having unprotected sex in America has risen over 10% in the last decade, a new survey has revealed.
The National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Survey was conducted in 21 cities across the country in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014 and asked more than 1,000 men if they used a condom on their last sexual encounter.
The report showed that regardless of whether people were of the same HIV status or if they even knew their partner’s HIV status, less men were using protection.
Between 2005 and 2014, the number of HIV-negative gay and bisexual men who reported having sex without a condom rose from 29% to 41%.
Previous reports have suggested that the growing number of porn studios, showing unprotected sex, could lead more men to forego using condoms.
Although PrEP usage has also been attributed as a factor, experts have said the decline started to occur long before the preference of the drug.
PrEP usage was reported by 0.5 percent of the gay and bi men in 2011. That number only rose to 3.5 percent of men in 2014, massively short of the increase in condomless sex.
When it came to HIV-positive men’s usage of condoms the trend was similar. Positive gay and bi men also reported higher incidence of condomless sex (37% in 2008 to 45% in 2014) and also happened regardless of whether the man thought his partner’s status was positive, negative, or unknown.
More worrying was that the decline in condoms was also witnessed among HIV-positive men who weren’t taking medication to treat their HIV.
HIV Plus magazine also reported that while the condom usage of 1,000 to 1,500 people may not reflect the behavior of all gay and bi men, the decline in usage could actually be higher, due to the impact of the self-reporting bias.
A survey earlier this year found that less than half of America’s youth identified as straight. In a social attitude survey, only 48% of ‘Generation Z’ identified as “exclusively heterosexual”.
