Lifetime Prevalence and Correlates of Female Condom Use for Anal Sex in a Geographically Diverse Sample of Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in the United States

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the use of the female condom (FC) for anal sex among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States. Methods: An online survey among 3,837 MSM. Results: 5.2% had used the FC for anal sex. Use was higher among those who had used the FC for vaginal sex (OR = 14.39, p < .001), those with multiple partners, (OR = 2.68, p = .004), and those who were HIV-positive (OR = 2.07, p < .001) or on PrEP (OR = 2.66, p < .001). Conclusions: FC use for anal sex was associated with the risk of HIV infection/transmission and may be a risk reduction strategy used by MSM in the United States.

Keywords:

• Female condom
• anal sex
• men who have sex with men (MSM)
• United States of America (US)

Acknowledgments

The authors give special thanks to members of the team at CHEST (Chris Murphy, Carlos Ponton, Chris Hietikko, Mark Pawson, Lamar Lewis, Desmond Dutcher, Andrew Cortopassi, Demetria Cain, Darren Agboh), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Shirlyn Charles, Zoe Ginsburg), and NYU (Smiti Nadkarni). Finally, the authors thank Virginia “Ginny” Bowen and Kyle Bernstein at the CDC and the many participants who gave their time. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control or National Institutes for Health.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper

Data availability statement

Data is available from the corresponding author (CG) upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded NYU-CUNY Prevention Research Center [U48DP005008] Special Interest Project [SIP 15-009; Christian Grov/Simona Kwon—MPI]. Drs. Kelvin, Anastos and Patel were supported by the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research [P30-AI-124414], which is supported by the following NIH co-funding and participating institutes and centers: NIAID, NCI, NICHD, NHLBI, NIDA, NIMH, NIA, FIC, and OAR. Dr. Patel was also supported by a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health [K23-MH102118; Viraj V. Patel, PI].