Image credit: NIAID
Several studies have been made on HIV, PrEP, and the cisgender gay male community. But when it comes to trans men who have sex with men, there have literally been no studies done.
That changes with a study published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society. Titled “High risk and low uptake of pre‐exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV acquisition in a national online sample of transgender men who have sex with men in the United States,” the study examined the risk factors faced by trans men who have sex with men, as well as their PrEP use. The study involved 857 trans men and was conducted online from November 2017 to December 2017.
The study participants can be divided into three groups: 71.6 percent who identified as a transgender male, 28.4 percent who identified as nonbinary, and 32.6 percent who identified as gay. All of them had either vaginal or anal sex within the past six months with a cisgender male.
The study, unfortunately, did not paint a reassuring picture when it came to trans men and PrEP use. Only a third of the study participants have ever taken PrEP, despite 84 percent of them knowing about PrEP as a way to prevent the spread of HIV. More than half of the study participants also revealed engaging in behavior that put them in high risk of being infected with HIV, which makes it even more important for them to take PrEP.
There are several reasons why researchers think PrEP use is low among trans men, with one of them being the stigma they face that often leads to substance abuse and mental health issues. Other compounding factors include a lack of adherence to the treatment, HIV testing centers being inaccessible to trans men, and a lack of health insurance.
With this study, the hope is that more are done that include transgender men so that appropriate interventions can be made to keep them healthy and safe.
“Only a third of the study participants have ever taken PrEP…” Maybe due to cost? Under the Affordable Healthcare Act, even if medications are “covered”, they can come with costly deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. There are also the cited potential side effects. PrEP is acclaimed as a wonder by Pharma and AIDS activists, but it’s not all butterflies and unicorns.
PReP is a sold gold fraud, perpetrated by morally bankrupt Big Pharma profit juggernaut Gilead Life Sciences. Why? Stats. Per their OWN FDA Phase III trial data, Truvada PReP only gives 51% better protection against being infected by the HIV-1 virus than…bareback. Yes, that figure is accurate. Now…per W.H.O. figures compiled since before the dawn of ARV use in 2003, we know that an anal bottom using nothing for protection taking a poz top bareback has a 1 in 64 chance of pozzing up. Take two loads, now you’re at 1 in 32, and so on. However, an unprotected bottom… Read more »
Unprotected sex is always the elephant in the room. We’ve known about transmission methods and rates since the 80s, and indeed anyone that didn’t want syph or the clap used rubbers before then. Agree the the Pharm companies are making a killing (literally), and the death rates even with treatments are atrocious, but the number of youngsters preferring raw sex is symptomatic of slow suicide. Obviously the big players are pushing people to have unprotected sex, the main issue to me is just plotting the scope of their actions. If I were an abnormal psych person I’d conclude the the… Read more »
I’m honestly wondering, if there isn’t some sort of concerted effort, designed to reduce the human populous, because of what’s coming in the obviously near future as far as climate change. The impending shortages of clean drinking water and food; lightening/reducing the load. What happened quite often during the transport of African slaves, not enough provisions; they dumped some of the slaves over-board to preserve their own lives. Welcome to the “New World Order,” it’s here pretty much fully operational, perfect example of “chess, not checkers.” Then, there’s those whom are absolutely programmed, seemingly, as you said, for self destruction.… Read more »
Not to mention, the fact that it is a man made disease in the first place. Conspiracy? More than likely, cause its too much like a kind of holocaust ’cause your sexing each other to death; albeit a very gradual-slow one fraught with miserable side effects. A kind of chattel slavery, really, cause the “pharms” and investors are getting more and more wealthy as the infected, are nothing more than bodies less than human. I love the hell out of the human race, period, but some are only physically human-more like nazis of sorts; sickly clever and efficient; capitalism=power at… Read more »
PrEP is free for those with Medicaid, which is a plus. But the side effects are brutal and proper medication sequence requires a serious regimen, which limits effectiveness for certain lifestyles. The fact that the transgender community is that with the consistently highest HIV rates would seem to indicate that there are counter-intuitive factors involved. Psychological factors are obviously understated in the article; no doubt additional controls are necessary for a successful program implementation at any rate.