Unspeakable PrEP: a qualitative study of sexual communication, problematic integration, and uncertainty management among men who have sex with men in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This study explored how men who have sex with men (MSM) communicated their use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on smartphone applications. Informed by the theory of problematic integration and uncertainty management, we asked if revealing ‘HIV negative, on PrEP’ status on smartphone applications might increase one's uncertainty in communicating about safe sex with others. We conducted interviews with 31 Taiwanese MSM currently taking PrEP who participated in a national demonstration project. We identified three types of PrEP-related uncertainty: condition, information, and stigma uncertainty. Applied implications of our findings indicate the importance of the feasibility of medical infrastructure in implementing PrEP, the complication in translating scientific and medical jargon into everyday language, and dynamics of negotiating stigmas associated with HIV and AIDS in the context of HIV prevention.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• PrEP
• sexual communication
• social apps
• Taiwan
• uncertainty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Poyao Huang's https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3319-5145

Carol Strong http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2934-5382

Notes

1 According to the Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control (TW CDC, 2016, 2018), in 2016 MSM comprised more than 80% of Taiwan's HIV-inflected population.

Additional information

Funding

The writing of this manuscript was assisted by a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.