The Wisdom of Whores

Dutch researchers recently revealed a stunning fact: If a guy loses his hard-on when he uses a condom, he’s more likely to have sex without a condom in the future.

Researchers who came to this insightful conclusion have at least COINED a term for the disorder (it comes from COndom INduced Erectile Dysfunction). The study among gay men in Amsterdam (presented at Mexico and brought to my attention by way of AIDSMAP and IRMA), did include some data that surprised me. Just 18% of the 306 guys who had casual partners said they had unprotected anal sex with someone whose HIV status was different from their own, or unknown. And that’s over a 6 month period. A disproportionate number of those were among the 10% who drooped when they tried to use condoms. Close to one in five potentially exposing themselves or others to HIV and other infections is still too high, but it’s lower than we’ve seen in recent data from many other cities.

The abstract of the study is here (pdf).