10% of “straight” men aren’t
From: Doug Ireland [mailto:direland@nyc.rr.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 12:04 AM To: Doug Ireland Subject: 10% of straight men only hve sex with men, study finds
These interesting findings appear in the Sept. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
WebMD 28 Sept 06 http://www.webmd.com/content/article/127/116736.htm
Many ‘Straight’ Men Have Gay Sex
Nearly 10% of Self-Proclaimed ‘Straight’ Men Only Have Sex With Men By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
Sept. 18, 2006 — Nearly one in 10 men who say they’re straight have sex only with other men, a New York City survey finds.
And 70% of those straight-identified men having sex with men are
married.
In fact, 10% of all married men in this survey report same-sex behavior during the past year.
This means safe-sex messages aimed at straight and gay men are likely
missing this important subgroup, suggest Preeti Pathela, DrPH, New
York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and colleagues.
“To reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection
among men who have sex with men, it is of utmost importance for [health
care] providers to take a sexual history that ascertains the sex of a
partner,” Pathela and colleagues report. “Asking about a patient’s
sexual
identity will not adequately assess his risk.”
Straight Men Who Have Sex With Men
In 2003, Pathela’s team performed telephone interviews with nearly
4,200 New
York City men. They conducted the interviews in English, Spanish,
Chinese,
and Russian; a translation service helped with interviews in Greek,
Korean,
Yiddish, Polish, and Haitian Creole.
In nearly every study of sexual behavior, the percentage of men who
report
sex with men is higher than the percentage of men who report being gay.
So Pathela and colleagues first asked the men if they were bisexual,
gay, or
straight. Then they asked about specific sexual behaviors.
Some of the findings:
Straight-identified men who have sex with men report fewer sex
partners than
gay men.
Straight-identified men who have sex with men report fewer STDs in
the past
year than gay men.
Straight-identified men who have sex with men are less likely than
gay men
to report using a condom during their last sexual encounter.
Straight-identified men who have sex with men are more likely to be
foreign
born than gay men.
Also, a man who says he is straight but is having sex with other men
is more
likely to be married than a straight man who has sex with women,
according
to the survey. Only 54% of the men who say they’re straight and have sex
with women are married, compared with the 70% marriage rate among the
men
who say they’re straight but have sex with men.
Pathela and colleagues note that because they report fewer STDs and
fewer
sex partners than gay men, straight-identified men who have sex with
men may
think they are at lower risk of HIV and STDs. This isn’t necessarily so.
The men with whom these straight-identified men have sex may
themselves have
multiple sex partners and elevated STD and HIV risk. The low rate of
condom
use makes the straight-identified men vulnerable.
“Prevention messages should focus on the activities that pose risk –
for
example, unprotected receptive anal sex — and should not be framed to
appeal solely to gay-identified men,” Pathela and colleagues suggest.
The findings appear in the Sept. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
SOURCES: Pathela, P. Annals of Internal Medicine, Sept. 19, 2006; vol 145: pp 416-425.