A qualitative study on HIV vulnerability among men who have sex with men in Spain

This article explores the hypotheses put forth in the literature on health and sexuality to explain vulnerability to HIV. The aim is to generate meaningful narratives about the reasons that justify forms of unsafe sexuality among men, which could serve as a platform for future research (perhaps based on surveys). The questions addressed are as follows: Is vulnerability to HIV, as suggested by the literature on health and epidemiology, a problem of ignorance or lack of information about risk? Or could it be, as those literatures also suggest, the result of an inability to protect oneself? Or, on the contrary, could we be, as the literature on sexuality postulates, facing a set of decisions made in a context of sufficient information, but that accept uncertainty about risk in the hope of achieving certain objectives in terms of personal and sexual satisfaction? Based on the analysis of more than 30 hours of material, obtained from 22 in-depth interviews with MSM, a vision of sexual relations among men is proposed, understood as the result of complex balances between objectives as opposed as safety and risk. Trust plays a central role in resolving these balances: often, risky sexual practices are chosen in the need to establish relationships of trust. Uncertainty is accepted as a small price to pay to connect with sexual and emotional partners.