A survey of New York City men finds that nearly one in 10 who identify themselves as "straight" have sex only with other men.About 70 percent of these men are married. Ten percent of all married men reported have sex with men during the past year.
D. Preeti Pathela, with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and colleagues write that safe-sex messages are likely missing this subgroup.
They write, "To reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection among men who have sex with men, it is of utmost importance for [health care] providers to take a sexual history that ascertains the sex of a partner."
The add, "Asking about a patient's sexual identity will not adequately assess his risk."
For the survey, 4,200 men in New York City were interviewed. Researchers conducted the surveys in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian; a translation service helped conduct interviews in Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Polish, and Haitian Creole.
According to WebMD, nearly all studies about sexual behavior find that the number of men who report having sex with men is higher than the number who identify themselves as gay.
Pathela's team asked men if they were bisexual, gay or straight. Then they asked about specific sexual behaviors.
Their findings include:
* Straight men who have sex with men report fewer sex partners than gay men.
* Straight men who have sex with men report fewer STDs in the past year than gay men.
* Straight men who have sex with men are less likely than gay men to report using a condom during their last sexual encounter.
* Straight men who have sex with men are more likely to be foreign born than gay men.
The survey also found that a straight-identified man who is having sex with men is more likely to be married than a straight man who has sex with women.
The study appears in the Sept. 19 issue of the "Annals of Internal Medicine."
from All Headline News
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