The drug that’s turning the safe sex message on its head

[poledriver]

The drug that’s turning the safe sex message on its head

IT’S BEEN called the “game changer” that could eliminate HIV in Australia within five years.
But the little blue pill that promises the freedom to engage in unbridled promiscuity is dividing the gay community.

It costs $10,000 for a year’s supply of Truvada, a drug that prevents transmission of the virus that is no longer a death sentence, but still requires lifelong treatment.
While some see it as a ticket to freedom, others deplore the drug as “dangerous”, raising concerns about its impact on the kidneys, and the risk of spreading other sexually transmitted infections.
Apart from a few hundred participants in a limited study that began last year, most Australians on Truvada buy it online from India, for about a quarter of the price.

But that’s about to change, after NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner announced on Tuesday that a comprehensive trial will give thousands of high-risk gay and bisexual Australian men free access to the drug.
If all goes well, it could be on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme within a couple of years.

At present, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has only approved Truvada for its original use: to reduce the viral load in patients who are already HIV positive.
The World Health Organisation supports its extended use to prevent people from getting HIV, but not everyone is so keen.

Truvada’s most enthusiastic supporters around the world label themselves with the hashtags #truvadawhore and #prepwarrior, co-opting a HuffPo denunciation of their lifestyle and referencing the medical term for the drug therapy (pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP).

For those in the GLBTIQ community who cringe at the stereotype of gay men as inherently promiscuous, this grates.
The battle lines are drawn between the sex-positive advocates of the PrEP lifestyle, and those they argue are slut-shaming them.

In the United States, where Truvada has been available since 2012, its critics include Michael Weinstein, the chief executive of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Mr Weinstein has labelled PrEP a “party drug”, warning that many gay men would not take it consistently, and that its widespread use could spark drug resistance in HIV-positive patients.

“If something comes along that’s better than condoms, I’m all for it, but Truvada is not that,” Weinstein told the Associated Press last year.
Self-described “Truvada whore” Adam Zeboski explained PrEP’s appeal in a piece for HIV Equal Online.
“Old school, natural, sex without condoms is kind of amazing,” he said.

“Prep is a dangerous program. It promotes unprotected sex, and the side effects are really dangerous to your liver and kidneys,” one Facebook user said.

Cont -

http://www.news.com.au/finance/busi...d/news-story/da37bccd6cf4e4ebba0cbb518cb8517f

 

[szuko000]

Mr Weinstein has labelled PrEP a “party drug”, warning that many gay men would not take it consistently, and that its widespread use could spark drug resistance in HIV-positive patients.

Although I can understand his position maybe through proper education and not saying it "prevents the transmission of" but rather "lowers the chance of" it has a better chance of being used right. People will always misuse medications even ones that have no benefit because people make mistakes a lot of time due to no education on the subject. I dont think gay people are looking for a way to not use condoms, at least not the community as a whole, so to treat them like they are is kinda backwards.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Although I can understand his position maybe through proper education and not saying it "prevents the transmission of" but rather "lowers the chance of" it has a better chance of being used right. People will always misuse medications even ones that have no benefit because people make mistakes a lot of time due to no education on the subject. I dont think gay people are looking for a way to not use condoms, at least not the community as a whole, so to treat them like they are is kinda backwards.

Exactly. PreP/Truvada is supposed to be used with condoms and safer sex practices; but nobody I know that's a gay man who takes it actually does this. They use it as an excuse to bareback like it's the early or mid 70s, and think that they'll always stay DDF/HIV Neg STD free. *facepalm*

The drug is toxic as is mentioned in the article, and condoms are less expensive, have no negative side effects-even people who are allergic to latex can use the poly-urethane ones, and they're not toxic drugs like PreP/Truvada.

Condoms do sometimes break on rare ocassions; but they're far more effective than the alternative of "Are you HIV negative?" "Yes I'm (insert one neg but really poz, on meds and undetectable, or on prep)" "OK cool cum in my ass!"

 

[manboychef]

It is amazing the price of the medications for HIV and Hep C in the states. It has made treatment out of reach for quite a few people, and there is precious few spots available for free treatment (I know I have tried to be in studies, tried to get free medical help through outreach groups...etc). $10,000 a year is so incredibly steep, especially if it damages your liver and kidneys. I guess everyone does have a price that their life is worth. (mine happens to be upwards of $84,000)

 

[Dresden]

Although highly active antiretroviral (HAART) treatments for HIV are currently working, HIV/AIDS is still the proverbial 300lb. gorilla in the room of the gay community that no one likes to talk about anymore. And some strains of HIV are resistant to Truvada; what happens to a person on PrEP who comes into contact with one of those? I have a feeling s/he'll be SOL. Still, I don't completely like the safer sex / condom message any more than many of the next guys. They are less intimate and romantic and more artificial than bareback / having your ass cummed in. Also, I have a feeling that condoms' true effectiveness is either not completely known or is at least a bit exaggerated, manybe more than a bit. So it's been back to celibacy for me until I can't stand it anymore, which usually takes about 5 years for me. Not exactly ideal.

 

[Jabberwocky]

condom + sex > abstinence > unprotected sex

 

[SixBuckets]

I have my own complex opinions about PrEP which I don't necessarily want to share in this forum, but I will say this about the push to replace condoms with PrEP: men who advocate PrEP and TasP as the answer that will allow everyone to bareback freely areliterally the only people anywhere in the health industry/sector who are recommending that we use more antibiotics. Everyone else in other areas of health are using terms like "antibiotic apocalypse" to refer to what medicine is going to look like when we have large scale infection outbreaks that are resistant to all known antibiotics - it's going to look like the 19th century. We've already on our second-to-last treatment option for gonorrhea in Australia. Let's just say that scientists don't use the word "apocalypse" very lightly.

I admit that I don't understand the issues a lot of men (especially gay and bisexual men) have with condoms, but I know I'd rather learn to love condoms than learn to love incurable gonorrhea or syphilis.

 

[Crankinit]

In fairness, I get the downside with condoms - they break the mood, they can be uncomfortable and they can inhibit your options in terms of moving between positions, and making sure one is always available can be a pain. But compared to the downside of risking even something like gonorrhea, let alone HIV (not to mention, as a straight guy, having to worry about pregnancy), I'd take the bulkiest, most painful and slow to apply condom any day of the week.

 

[szuko000]

I'd take the bulkiest, most painful and slow to apply condom any day of the week.

Hear, Hear! Reminds me of back in college the student health place would have free condoms one was "extra strength" and I use to joke that those were for "more questionable partners." I made that joke to my now fiance like months before we were dating when she was just a text box on AIM... start hanging out with her after college and that particular one was all i had and she nearly slapped me (jokingly) So yeah sometimes you need to watch what you say least it come back in the future :D

 

[SixBuckets]

In fairness, I get the downside with condoms - they break the mood, they can be uncomfortable and they can inhibit your options in terms of moving between positions, and making sure one is always available can be a pain. But compared to the downside of risking even something like gonorrhea, let alone HIV (not to mention, as a straight guy, having to worry about pregnancy), I'd take the bulkiest, most painful and slow to apply condom any day of the week.

They only break the mood if you let them break the mood. If you treat them as a fun, enjoyable part of foreplay rather than an unwanted chore (learning how to put them on with your mouth, for example, or using flavoured condoms as a prelude to oral sex), they can actually make a sexual experience more fun. A lot of brands also now make versions that have little removal pull down tabs on the side that make them really fast and easy to apply.

I don't have a penis, so I'm not an expert on how "uncomfortable" they can be, but I will say that literally zero men with whom I've had a condom break have noticed a change in sensation when that has happened. I'm inclined to believe that most of the concerns about condoms feeling weird or decreasing sensation are psychological.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Although highly active antiretroviral (HAART) treatments for HIV are currently working, HIV/AIDS is still the proverbial 300lb. gorilla in the room of the gay community that no one likes to talk about anymore. And some strains of HIV are resistant to Truvada; what happens to a person on PrEP who comes into contact with one of those? I have a feeling s/he'll be SOL. Still, I don't completely like the safer sex / condom message any more than many of the next guys. They are less intimate and romantic and more artificial than bareback / having your ass cummed in. Also, I have a feeling that condoms' true effectiveness is either not completely known or is at least a bit exaggerated, manybe more than a bit. So it's been back to celibacy for me until I can't stand it anymore, which usually takes about 5 years for me. Not exactly ideal.

All of this is very true. I have been on LGBT sites where younger people who were not around during the 80s or even early 90s when a lot of people were infected and dying of AIDS or complications from HIV seem to think that they can have all the bareback/raw sex they want and PreP/Truvada will protect them from all strains of HIV, or that they can just go on meds if they become HIV+, or there does not seem to be concern about other STDs you can get from unprotected sex like herpes, HPV, various types of hepatitis, etc. *facepalm*

 

[Jabberwocky]

They only break the mood if you let them break the mood. If you treat them as a fun, enjoyable part of foreplay rather than an unwanted chore (learning how to put them on with your mouth, for example, or using flavoured condoms as a prelude to oral sex), they can actually make a sexual experience more fun. A lot of brands also now make versions that have little removal pull down tabs on the side that make them really fast and easy to apply.

I don't have a penis, so I'm not an expert on how "uncomfortable" they can be, but I will say that literally zero men with whom I've had a condom break have noticed a change in sensation when that has happened. I'm inclined to believe that most of the concerns about condoms feeling weird or decreasing sensation are psychological.

Oooooo, Interesting. I have a very different experience, although I def agree with you about how they only break the mood if you let them, how a condom can be integrated into a very sensual, pleasurable experience in a lot of way. However...

I have definitely noticed a BIG difference when having sex and a condom breaks, or without using a condom. I have to admit that my former fiance and I never had sex using a condom. I mean, it was a risk I did consider at first... I remember when we first made love and I didn't have a condom on me and I was kind of freaking out, and she basically told me that she was on the pill and preferred that I not use a condom. I've heard from other women I've been with that they also prefer sex without having to use a condom. It kind of scares me that the girl I'm with has the kind of mindset where she prefers not using a condom right off the bat, but there you have it...

If it's someone I don't know, or the first time I've been with them, I will definitely go on the safe side and use one. Once I've gotten to know the girl more, assuming she is okay and more so supports the idea, and she's on some sort of birth control (not that birth control does anything to protect against HIV/etc, I just feel I have to be explicit about that), under those circumstances I'll consider not using a condom. And if I (and we, the girl I'm having sex with) decide it's appropriate, I will totally enjoy and love and prefer having sex without one.

But I'm not comfortable fucking someone I just don't know at all and not using a condom. Then again, I've grown older and more mature. My penis does love the feeling of a vagina though, without any interference. Wearing a condom is certainly preferable in certain cases as far as my sex life is concerned, but under other circumstances I'm happy to go without, particularly and really only if the girl I'm with also prefers such (and assuming I'm confident it isn't dangerous, which can be a difficult situation to put myself in I guess).

There's definitely a difference in how enjoyable sex is with versus without a condom for me, although that fact does not prevent me from wearing one when it's called for (which may be very, very often; it's not every day both myself and the girl I'm with feels okay without using one, because that has meant I'm in a serious relationship with them and already know her really well).

Anyways... I mean, sex isn't uncomfortable with a condom - it's about way more than penetration anyways, the actual penis going into the vagina is only one part of a sensually multifaceted, intimate experience. That's my perspective anyways, as an owner of said penis. I guess the fucking part is pretty important I'm just saying foreplay and being intimate involves so much more, that the other aspects that can go into making love are so, so wonderful...

Sorry for the digression, I just wanted to beat that horse to death a bit more Happy memories :D

That's kind of funny Buckets, I already pictured you as a guy from somewhere like Louisiana, why I have no idea. It's fascinating how gender stereotypes/archetypes and assumptions work. Assumptions sure are the brother or mother of all fuck ups.