My guess is that the guys referred to in this article are probably not taking the pill as an ALTERNATIVE to using a condom…they probably weren't going to use a condom at all.

Has anyone looked on Craigslist lately? The number of guys who don't seem to mind exposing themselves to HIV is ASTONISHING.

Now, that said…if this pill proves to be an effective way to prevent HIV infection, that is GREAT NEWS. Let's not us gays get hung up on condoms as a moral issue when it comes to fighting HIV. ANY effective barrier is a good barrier, no?? For so long, condoms have been the only option for us to protect ourselves, and there is a stigma attached to having bare sex (which, as we know, seems to be fading fast…).

I hope this pill works for everyone's sake!!!

Let me note that these drugs are staggeringly expensive: thousands of dollars for a regimen (which consists of a 1-month supply). I don't have a single client who has completed the regimen, because it causes a whole host of problems including constant nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. They really ought to ONLY be reserved for rape victims and doctors/nurses who are exposed, because they are a very extreme and expensive course of action.

"it causes a whole host of problems including constant nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting"

I for one have experienced nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting WHILE getting my ass fucked

Yeah, PrEP is VERY expensive, and you are supposed to stay on them for a month's regimen. This article makes it sound like you just pop one pill before you go out at night. That is dangerously incorrect. Whoever the hell wrote this thing even sounds liable for misleading gay men that they can have unsafe sex with popping a pill.

"Whether in a serodiscordant relationship or just looking for a fun night (or weekend) out, guys are trading rubbers for HIV drugs like tenofovir, known commercially as Viread, in hopes of preventing infection."

I don't get it. Presumably in order to get these drugs, one has to go through certain procedures that would involve, say, VISITING A DOCTOR? I, too, find this article to be confusing, or worse, misleading.

@tone tone: "I don't have a single client who has completed the regimen, because it causes a whole host of problems including constant nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting." How weird. Millions are taking tenofovir for their hiv treatment, without any problems. It is one of the best tolerated hiv-drugs. And, you are probably talking about PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis), a regimen of one months of three hiv-drugs after being exposed to hiv. In case of PrEP it is just the tenofovir, and not for a month, but before probable exposure. Whether PrEp works, has yet to be determined.

After reading the whole article,I did not find it to be wreckless or misleading. However, this does give another avenue for protection for those folks who cant or wont use condoms. Once again the gay community is needlessly attacking it's own; the only real solution to all of this is supporting efforts to find a cure and eradicate this horrible diesease.

@Zac: Yeah, the whole thing is worrisome to me. Condoms, ya'll. Condoms!!

The article is not reckless or misleading. The author says it's not proven or even safe. He's just reporting about a bunch of self-destrutive idiots.

OUT did an article about this a few years ago I believe. It was insane for me then, but also living in a smaller big city, I haven't really witnessed this. However, I truly believe it. Think of the number of guys who refuse to use condoms (stupidly) especially in cities where HIV is at crisis levels like New York.

Sad really. OUT said that it's often used by people who are into the club drug scene. They pop X, Viagra and PrEP and find someone to fuck them bareback.

Here's a shocking concept: Gay men outside the circuit party scene have unsafe sex too. And not just because they're tweaked out of their minds.

The article starts off with a guy who wanted to lose the condom so he could be more intimate with his HIV-positive partner.

The article does a disservice–and it is a red herring–to focuss mostly only on the big-city party circuit, a relic from the '90s anyway.

There's gotta be a better term than "serodiscordant relationship," no?

Hmmmm… How many women have got pregnant because they were on the Pill and it didn't work or forgot to take it or were just so randy at that moment that they said they were taking it to alleviate the guy's worries? It's virtually impossible to miss a condom while having sex. As a result, currently a condom is going to be safer.

Almost as stupid as proffering circumcision as a protection against HIV. Use a fucking condom.

@Mike: Read the whole thing on Advocate.com. The article (unlike this excerpt) give exactly the details you incorrectly assumed are missing.

If you're willing to risk HIV for sex… if you're willing to have your lips turn to blisters, practically vomit out your stomach, your esophagus raw (not from the fellatio, either), on the verge of shitting yourself to death… suffering from muscle aches and cramps that have nothing to do with your BDSM fetishes… then by all means… take the pill… the fact that your asshole and throat may be so raw that you won't want to have sex for weeks… is completely insignificant, and the fact that the pill will cost your left arm, right leg, and so much money that you can't make your damned mortgage payment is insignificant too… because hey… you didn't have to use a rubber.

I highly suspect that the notion of pre-exposure prophylaxis is… very similar to the nifty regimen healthcare providers are subjected to after being jabbed with a needle… called post-exposure prophylaxis… when I took it… it was only 70 something (79, I think) percent effective. I'm not about to have somebody shove his pecker in my ass… do his duty to God and his country, and take an 80/20 chance that I may well end up with an infectious disease… because of that pesky disease-risk-reducing sheath of latex.