Sexual behaviour and practices of men who have sex with men in Ahmedabad city

Abstract

Background: Because many Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in India do not openly acknowledge their sexual behaviour, this has resulted in scanty knowledge about their sex behavior and its context. Without this knowledge it is difficult to plan effective MSM-related HIV prevention. The objective was to study the different socio-demographic characteristics of the MSM population, their pattern of sexual behavior and practices and to find out various reasons for sexual acts with men. Methods: Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted amongst 410 MSM in Drop In Centers of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working for MSM in Ahmedabad city through purposive sampling during the period of December 2010 – December 2011. Results: The mean age of the study population was 33.6 ± 9.4 years. The sexual practices of MSM were not limited to male partners only. 74.6% MSM had their first sexual act in adolescent age group (10-19 years) and the mean age of the first sexual act was only 17.2 ± 4.3 years. First sexual partner of MSM was a male friend (57.3%) followed by girlfriend (12.7%), relative (10%) etc. MSM had an average 3.8 different male partner per month with weekly average frequency of sexual act 7.4 which indicates more frequent sexual act with multiple male sexual partners. Preferred place for sexual act was at home (57.3%) followed by at Hotel (31.2%). The commonest reasons for sexual act of men with men given were for specific sexual acts either anal or oral sex (67.8%), desire for other men gender and or sexual orientation (66.1%) etc. Only 42.2% MSM were using condom consistently and 9.5% did not have knowledge that HIV can be transmitted by unprotected sexual intercourse while knowledge regarding HIV transmission by infected blood contact, infected needle and syringes and parent to child transmission were 57.8%, 48.5% and 27.6% respectively. Conclusions: MSM had more frequent sexual act with multiple male sexual partners preferably at home and 47.8% MSM were not using condom consistently.