Durex AD - YOu won't see this on TV In America!

I am always amazed how mature Europeans, well not only Europeans but lot of other countries are when it comes to sex! I got this ad from a really cool cat. Check out his blog here

REALLY? Online Dating May Not Increase STI rates!

Another article from AIDS MAP. Many of the guys in this area use the computer to find dates and hook up buds. Some of them have seen the articles that suggest if they use the internet to hook up, they are in danger of getting some nasty STI's (Sexually Transmitted Infections). Here is a study that contradicts the claim from nasty sex neg folks..



Finding sex through the internet does not increase the risk of catching the two most common sexually transmitted infections, a US survey published in Sexually Transmitted Infections has found. Indeed in the case of heterosexual men, meeting partners through the internet was associated with a lower risk of sexually transmitted infections compared with other ways of meeting.

Gay men who met someone through the internet in the last four months were slightly more likely, and women slightly less likely, to be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection, bit in neither case were these figures statistically significant and could have been a chance finding. However heterosexual men who had had at least one internet date in the last four months were around 60% less likely to have a sexually transmitted infection than men who hadn’t, and this was statistically significant.

The study authors note that some other surveys have found that internet dating is strongly associated with the risk of sexually transmitted infections and HIV. However, they say, many surveys measured risk behaviour such as non-use of condoms rather than incidence of sexually transmitted infections. They also compared dissimilar populations: if people who make contact through the internet are generally more interested in sex and have more partners, then all surveys are doing is comparing rates of sexually transmitted infections between people who have a lot of sex and people who have less, rather than finding a specific risk associated with online contacts.

The study involved nearly 15,000 patients who had attended a sexually transmitted infections clinic in Denver, Colorado for checkups and who could therefore be assumed to be roughly similar in sexual behaviour and demographics. It then compared internet dating rates between the 2800 patients (nearly one in five) who were diagnosed with gonorrhoea or chlamydia, and the remainder who were not.

It asked patients whether they had had sex with someone met through the internet in the last four months, in the last year, more than a year ago, or never and also related sexually transmitted infections and internet-dating rates to patients’ gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, HIV status, and number of partners.

Internet dating was more common in gay men than heterosexuals: nearly a quarter of gay men (23%) had had an internet meet in the last four months compared with 3% of heterosexual men and 2% of women. But since only one in ten of the clinic population was a gay man, nearly as many heterosexuals (290) as gay men (339) had had a recent internet meet.

Internet dating was, as predicted, associated with having more partners. A cross all sexual categories, internet daters were 21-23% more likely to have had more than one partner in the last four months than non-users.

Internet users were younger on average, and among heterosexuals, though not gay men, there was an interesting association with ethnicity: women internet daters were significantly more likely to be white and straight male daters significantly more likely to be black.

Straight men were slightly more likely to be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection than women or gay men; men were more likely to have gonorrhoea and women more likely to have chlamydia.

Amongst gay men, internet users were 50% more likely to have HIV; the HIV rate among internet users was 12% compared to 8% for non-users. There were only four cases of HIV among heterosexuals diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infections (three women, one man); rates in people without a sexually transmitted infections aren’t know because many straight patients had not been tested for HIV.

As detailed above, gay men who had had an internet date in the last four months were 12% more likely to have a sexually transmitted infections, women 29% less likely, and straight men 42% less likely, with the figure reaching statistical significance in straight men.

When the figures were adjusted for partner numbers and ethnicity, straight men who had internet dates were still a third less likely to have a sexually transmitted infections than internet non-daters; in other words the fact that internet daters had more partners did not make a difference, and there appears to be a genuine association between internet dating and a somewhat lower risk of sexually transmitted infections.

The authors point out that they only asked a single question about internet dating. Their study therefore makes no distinction between gay ‘party boys’ and straight ‘swingers’ who may use the internet for multiple sex contacts, and people who are seeking longer term relationships that way.

Distinguishing these two populations might have found widely different sexually transmitted infections rates and risks associated with internet contact.
However the fact that sexually transmitted infection risk was somewhat lower in heterosexuals may show that the internet is allowing some safer sex negotiations, the add.

Reference

Al-Tayyib AA et al. Finding sex partners on the internet: what is the risk for sexually transmitted infections? Sex Transm Infec (online publication), 19 December 2008. doi:10.1136/sti.2008.032631

Does Having Oral Sex Lead To Immunity Against HIV?

I found this great article on aidsmap today. I have written before that we get lots of questions about HIV transmission and oral sex. Read it and let me know what you think.


Some HIV-negative men in long term relationships with HIV-positive men have an antibody response in saliva which may inhibit HIV infection, report Swedish researchers in an article published online ahead of print in AIDS. This is the first time that such a response has been described in saliva, and may help explain why infection through oral sex is somewhat infrequently reported even in serodiscordant couples.

While it is well established that while HIV infection during fellatio and other types of oral sex can and does happen, the number of infections that can be attributed to oral sex is relatively small in comparison with the number of times that unprotected oral sex is practiced. One reason is that saliva contains enzymes which partially inhibit HIV infection.

Moreover, a number of studies, most famously among commercial sex workers in Kenya, have identified individuals who have had unprotected vaginal sex on many occasions and are likely to have been repeatedly exposed to HIV, but who have not been infected. It is thought that, through repeated exposure, these individuals have acquired a stronger immune response which makes HIV infection less likely. Different researchers have investigated a number of different markers of this immune response, including the presence of specific antibodies (IgA1) which may neutralise HIV, and HIV-specific CD4 cell responses.

Klara Hasselrot and colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm wished to investigate whether in long term relationships where one partner has HIV, the HIV-negative partner develops IgA1 antibodies in saliva that would help inhibit HIV infection during oral sex.

They recruited 25 HIV-negative men who were in a relationship of at least six months duration with an HIV-positive man. In addition, 22 HIV-negative men who were not in a serodiscordant relationship were recruited at a blood donor clinic to act as controls.

Klara Hasselrot told aidsmap.com that the study participants’ questionnaires showed that 24 of the 25 men had performed unprotected receptive oral sex in the previous six months. For 21 men, this was with their HIV-positive partner, but for three men it was with casual partners of unknown HIV status. Just three men also reported unprotected receptive anal intercourse.

Moreover, analysis of the medical records of the HIV-positive partners showed that whilst most were on treatment at the time of the study, only two had been on antiretroviral treatment with undetectable viral loads for the entire length of their relationship. The researchers judge that this means that, with two exceptions, all HIV-negative partners have probably been exposed to HIV at some point.