Monday, July 14, 2014

PrEP School


In his latest New York magazine cover story -- Sex Without Fear -- writer and friend of KIT212 Tim Murphy examines the new pill that could revolutionize gay life but is also reawakening old arguments. As a newly single gay man, I've been asked if I would consider taking Truvada. After discussing it with a friend who works for an LGBT advocacy organization, I decided no. I think it's a wonder drug and don't get why it's controversial at all -- isn't this exactly what we've been fighting for? -- but for me, it comes down to this: Even if it does prevent HIV transmission, I still wouldn't feel comfortable having anal sex without condoms because of all of the other sexually transmitted diseases out there, so it seems sort of unnecessary given the possible side effects and the fact that condoms alone are very effective against the transmission of HIV. Read HERE.



3 comments:

Countervail said...

Everywhere I see stories trumpeting PREP therapy, I remind people that we just saw a case of a baby in Texas we all thought was cured by similar aggressive antiviral treatment and that baby has relapsed. She literally was thought clear of the virus, completely undetectable.

How do we know that PREP therapy doesn't just mask the presence of virus? What's to say that you couldn't contract the virus and seem uninfected while on PREP? The time of the study and the time this baby was thought cured was about the same length.

Brent said...

Newly single??

MyDogBen said...

Thanks for the post. Thoughtful piece about a complex issue. If our community slut-shames people away from it, people who clearly should be using it, that would be a travesty.