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ABSTRACT The present paper attempts to understand sexual and risk-taking behavior of men. Data for the study included a representative sample survey of 1,004 men from slums of Dhaka City in Bangladesh and 72 in-depth interviews of men from the community. The data show high prevalence of premarital sex (61%) usually beginning at 16 years of age. Sixteen percent reported multiple sexual partners within one year prior to the survey. Twenty-three percent reported ever having sex with a commercial sex worker (CSW), out of which only 40 percent used condoms. Sixty-five percent of the respondents who did not use condoms during sex with CSWs believed that condoms could protect them from getting HIV/STIs. Nonavailability, price, dislike of condoms, unplanned sex, and belief that they can't acquire the disease contributed to such risky decisions. A substantial number of men in Bangladesh suffer from sexual worries. These relate to performance, sexual health, and sexual physiology. Masturbation was largely disapproved of as 98 percent believed that loss of semen due to masturbation could cause physical or sexual weakness. Many believed that "70 drops of blood make up a single drop of semen." Although both frequent intercourse and masturbation were believed to cause deterioration of sexual and physical health and loss of semen, the concerns regarding shape and size of penis were primarily in case of masturbation and hence perhaps made CSWs appear as a safer bet. The data showed strong association (p „T 0.025) between sexual worries and risk behavior. Learning objectives
Oral Session 5072.0—Issues in HIV and AIDS: International This page updated |
