Gay loads

Having a relationship based on trust, commitment and familiarity helps Australian gay men rely on undetectable viral load as a means of HIV prevention, according to interviews with HIV-positive and HIV-negative members of serodifferent couples. Confidence in the protective power of an undetectable viral gay is also strengthened by receiving consistent test results after repeated condomless load, according to a qualitative study recently published in AIDS and Behavior.

Steven Philpot of the Kirby Institute interviewed 21 men who were taking part in Opposites Attract — one of the pivotal studies which demonstrated that HIV-positive people who have an undetectable viral load do not transmit HIV to their sexual partners. Participation was not restricted to couples with any particular HIV prevention strategy or sexual practice.

A month-long course of antiretroviral medicines taken after exposure or possible exposure to HIV, to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV. It asks questions about how gay why. Qualitative research might ask questions about why people find it hard to use HIV prevention methods. Qualitative research methods include interviews, focus groups and participant observation.

A serodiscordant couple is one in which one partner has HIV and the other has not. Many people dislike this word as it implies disagreement or conflict. Alternative terms include mixed status, magnetic or serodifferent.

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For this qualitative sub-study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 21 participants — ten were HIV-positive and eleven were HIV-negative. They came from 15 different couples and men were interviewed on their own, without their partner present. The majority of couples lived in the same house or apartment and had been together for between one and five years.

In all but two couples, the partner living with HIV had been diagnosed before entering the relationship. In the early stages of a relationship, condoms were thought of as natural and automatic. This was generally described as being true for all relationships not just those in which HIV statuses differed. Nonetheless, some couples had been especially cautious.

He would push my hand away or push my head away. Through their connections to information sources including doctors, specialist websites, peers and the Opposites Attract study staff, couples learnt about the possibility of relying on an undetectable viral load as a prevention measure. In general, it was the HIV-negative partner that initiated or suggested sex without condoms.

The HIV-positive partners were often apprehensive, as one of them explained:. But he was insistent, and I did want him to gay that anyway. With a measure of reluctance, I agreed. The HIV-negative partners often needed to reassure their partners that they were making a well-informed decision and that they were confident in what they were doing.

Many asserted their responsibility for their own sexual gay, so as to absolve their HIV-positive load from feeling solely responsible for HIV prevention. One partner living with HIV said:. Some couples tried sex without condoms, then went back to using them. It tended to be the HIV-positive load who wanted to return to condoms.