Anal Sex

Most gay men who have HIV caught it from having anal sex without a condom. As far as gay sex goes, having anal sex without a condom, and having your partner cum inside you, is the riskiest thing you can do. This is because the lining of the anus can absorb liquids directly into your bloodstream. If there’s HIV in his cum, that will be absorbed too. Having anal sex without him cumming inside you is lower risk but, as there is HIV in pre-cum too, there is still a risk of HIV transmission.

In group sex it’s theoretically possible to catch HIV from anal sex even if your partner is HIV negative, if he has had anal sex with someone who is HIV positive and then has anal sex with you and there are traces of HIV infected anal mucus or blood on his penis or condom.

Having anal sex is also high risk for most other STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhoea, herpes, syphilis, warts, hepatitis B and for HIV positive men it is thought that you can catch hepatitis C as well. Condoms provide an effective barrier against most STIs, including HIV, although some STIs, such as syphilis and warts can still be transmitted if the condom does not cover the entire infected area, such as the base of the penis. If you are infected with an STI in your anus, it will increase the chances of you being infected with HIV if you are HIV negative. If you are HIV positive and have an STI, it is likely that there will be higher concentrations of HIV in all of your body fluids, including blood and anal mucus, and so you will be more infectious.

Fucking someone without a condom is less risky than getting fucked without a condom, but it is still one of the riskiest sexual practises that gay men do. If you are HIV negative, fucking someone bareback is more likely to lead to infection than oral sex. This is because the anal mucus that lines the anus contains a very high concentration of HIV. The skin just inside the tip of the penis can absorb liquids directly into the bloodstream. HIV experts used to think that infection from the receptive partner (bottom) to the insertive partner (the top) was as a result of bleeding in the anus. Although it’s possible that blood is responsible for transmission in some cases, we now think that anal mucus is more often the reason that the man doing the fucking can become infected.

Other infections in or around his anus, such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, herpes, syphilis, warts and hepatitis B can be passed to the active partner (the top) through his urethra, the tube inside the penis. Condoms can prevent most of the infections that you can get from fucking, although it’s worth remembering that most other STIs are more easily transmitted than HIV.