Producing bodies at risk in sexual health – an ethnographic comparative analysis between the combined oral contraceptive pill and pre-exposure prophylaxis in Switzerland

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates that ‘bodies at risk’ in sexual health are socially constructed. It does so via a heuristic comparison between two molecular technologies that are central to the promotion of sexual health: the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in two sexual health institutions in the western part of Switzerland, the article presents two main findings. First, it argues that bodies are constructed as being at low or high risk by sexual health professionals (based on health and lifestyle criteria). Second, it shows that access to either the COCP or PrEP is largely based on this former classification. The article also demonstrates that there are ambivalent situations in which sexual health professionals seek compromises between different risks, and pragmatically adapt their medical protocols.

KEYWORDS:

• Combined oral contraceptive pill
• pre-exposure prophylaxis
• sexual health
• bodies at risk
• ethnography

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Claudine Burton-Jeangros, Armelle Weil, Camille Bajeux, Carolina Topini, and the researchers of the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) for their precious suggestions. Thanks to the editors and the anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful comments. I would also like to thank the participants who took part of this research. Finally, thanks to Andrea Hajek, and Anouk Severin for their language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All translations of French citations are mine.

2 In this article, the notions of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ refer to cisgender persons, meaning that their gender identity matches the one they were assigned at birth.