What Is The Best Way To Avoid Getting HIV, and How Much Money Will It Cost You?

There are a lot of ways to avoid becoming HIV-positive, but which way is the most effective? And how much money do you really need to spend to protect yourself?

Everywhere you look—posters, billboards, magazines, and online—there are sexy and fun men in advertisements telling you to get tested for HIV. And while HIV testing is a highly accurate way to determine if you’ve become infected with HIV, it unfortunately does absolutely nothing to actually stop the transmission of the disease from one person to another.

Here are four real-world options that can and do actually stop the spread of HIV:

Abstinence
Effectiveness: 100% effective
Cost: $0.00
If you want to guarantee that you will never get HIV, don’t have sex.

Low Risk Sex
Effectiveness: 99.9% effective
Cost: $0.00
I’m defining “low risk sex” as touching, fingering, mutual masturbation, kissing, and yes, even oral sex. Unless you have a gaping wound in your mouth, hand, or genitals that comes in direct contact with another gaping wound in an HIV-positive person’s mouth, hand, or genitals, you will be fine. (Side note: If you have a gaping wound, you should probably go to the doctor and not be having sex.)

Condoms
Effectiveness: “Highly effective”
Cost: $200 per year
If you’re having anal sex and you don’t want to catch HIV, you (or your partner) should wear a condom. The CDC doesn’t assign a percentage, but it does call them “highly” effective. If you look online, you’ll find various studies saying condoms are anywhere from 95%-98% effective. Assuming you have sex once a day (yeah right) and a condom is used each time, it will cost you around $200 per year. Or, you can go to any public health clinic, gay and lesbian center, or any gay event anywhere and get as many condoms as you want for free.

Truvada (a.k.a. PrEP)
Effectiveness: 42% effective
Cost: $14,000 per year
Truvada is an extremely expensive pill that, when taken every day, supposedly blocks an enzyme that HIV needs in order to replicate in your body. Unfortunately, it was only effective in about 4 out of 10 people in a recent clinical trial, and it can cause severe kidney damage after long term use. How something this dangerous was FDA-approved and is now being marketed as a “miracle” drug to gay men who are already desperate for any excuse to go bareback is beyond all moral and medical comprehension. You might as well just have bareback sex and save yourself the $14,000. Better yet, fly to Las Vegas, go to a roulette table, bet $14,000 on red (your odds are at least 50/50 there), and then go have bareback sex up in your hotel room with an intravenous drug-using hooker.

***

If and when you do contract HIV, the annual cost of medications is between $15,000 and $30,000. And as they say, HIV is “no longer a death sentence”—the life expectancy for many HIV-positive men is up into the 70s and 80s now as newer and more advanced drugs become available. So, you (or your insurance company or government assistance program) can keep spending more money on more medications for as long as you’re alive. That’s great.

27 thoughts on “What Is The Best Way To Avoid Getting HIV, and How Much Money Will It Cost You?”

  1. “The court ruled that the FDA worked with Gilead on what to say to get their unfavorable drug trial results spun in such a way that the FDA deemed them sufficient to approve the drug for expanded use of Truvada as an HIV prevention pill for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in uninfected individuals.

    Additionally, the court’s ruling implies collusion, suggesting the FDA cooperated with Gilead on what to say to get their unfavorable drug trial results spun in such a way that the FDA deemed them sufficient to approve the drug.”

    http://www.aidshealth.org/archives/16931

  2. I’m awaiting for the new bareback scene Lucas Entertainment has shot.

    Interesting how Micheal suspiciously timed the article about using Truvada.

    I guess all those years of preaching condoms goes right out the window when it comes down to financial needs.

  3. I believe one of my posts above might have been snarky and a bit off-base. I do think this was a responsible and well thought-out post on HIV prevention. I was in somewhat of a fog last night when reading it – and not thoroughly either mind you – and feel I jumped the shark on it’s well written and informative content.

    Sorry, Zach. Well done.

  4. * In the previous comment I said, “one partner had HIV.” That’s a typo! I meant: “one partner *HAS* HIV, the other does not.”

  5. I don’t think Truvada makes any sense unless the two partners are a couple in a committed serodiscordant relationship (one partner had HIV, the other does not), and the HIV-positive partner is committed to his anti-retroviral regimen and maintains an undetectable viral load — and for whatever reason the couple wants/needs to have unprotected sex. In that case, having both partners on meds makes sense.

    But, yeah, don’t think that taking Truvada means you can go out and have all the unprotected sex you want without fear of getting infected — that just isn’t the case!

  6. I’m amazed and impressed that the most thoughtful and truthful post on this topic is here on The Sword–kudos and well done!

  7. Sherrelda Caprice

    Even though there weren’t any hot naked men in this post it’s still one of your best in a long time. You may want to send a copy to Michael Lucas…

  8. I can’t believe those monkeys from the pharmaceutical industry that are pushing TRuvada as a way to prevent HIV, I’ve seen many bad news articles about it that presented it as some “great advance” in the prevention of HIV…Gurl please.

    It’s a hardcore drug, causing fatigue, headaches, and in the long run, lipodistrophy in a lot of cases.

    It’s not something you wanna swallow every day even if you are a billionaire.

  9. Oh Zach, you clever boy. Dissing a certain someone and his latest public endorsement without mentioning his name?

  10. Zach, you might want to stick to snarking on porn and not pontificating on health matters.

    The reason why PrEP is being discussed so much in health circles and being seen as a possible game changer in the fight against new infections, is that its effectiveness is somewhere between 67-98% effective, depending on the cohort and compliance of the population taking the drug.

    “Partners PrEP found that two separate antiretroviral regimens – TDF/FTC in combination and tenofovir alone – when provided to uninfected persons whose partners have HIV infection (sero-discordant couples) significantly reduced HIV acquisition (by 75 percent and 67 percent, respectively). Participants in the TDF/FTC group with detectable levels of the medication experienced a 90 percent reduction in risk for HIV infection; in the tenofovir- only group, the presence of medication in the blood was associated with an 86 percent reduction in risk. CDC co-managed two of the nine sites for this study.”

    http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/prevention/research/prep/

    More and more insurance companies are covering PReP, as preventing the disease is far less expensive than treating it.

    While there is still more research to be done, this is one of the most promising breakthroughs in a decade. Don’t short change something you don’t understand.

    1. Nice try, but the participants (who were all having heterosexual sex, btw) in that study were all using CONDOMS in addition to the drug! You might want to stick to getting a fucking clue.

      “When taken daily, Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) reduced the risk of HIV infection by 42 percent compared with a placebo. That was in a clinical trial where HIV-negative individuals had unprotected sex with multiple partners, including some HIV carriers, according to the FDA. Another trial involving heterosexual couples where one partner was infected — and condoms were used routinely — found that Truvada reduced the risk of infections by 75 percent.”

      It’s the condoms, stupid.

      So like I said and linked to in the post, it works for about 4 in 10 people having bareback sex. Wanna go for it? Be my guest.

      1. Perez Hilton is Ron Perlman

        Agree and I wish people would stop being rude to Zach. I don’t know him personally but he has a great sense of humor. If you don’t like him or this blog why post here? That’s like me bitching about Starbucks making me a fatass as I order a drink there.

  11. I personally feel Zach is a great educator on the topic of HIV. While most of his posts are tongue-in-cheek, posts like these are the reason I keep coming back. It is accurate, blunt and informative at the same time.

    The only thing hurting our community these days is people like Treasure Island Media, where every man, woman and child should only BE so lucky to contract the most liberating, sexually freeing disease on the planet. Remember kids: a pill a day can keep the measles away… until then, fuck your brains out bareback.

  12. Follow the money. The money is the medication – not in finding the cure.

    Similarly, your post headline reeks of, and for, Google SEO hits – not really caring much about the latter topic – so much.

    What Is The Best Way To Avoid Getting HIV?

    Realizing that too many porn media websites today are less concerned about your personal health and more concerned about drawing you back into a nightmare which once killed thousands of young men of our community and promoting again – everything which killed so many of them (Us) before – for profit.

    If I was looking for advice on how to avoid HIV – THIS is the one of last websites I would look toward for that advice and information.

  13. Brilliant post!! You hit the nail right on the head. As a healthcare professional, I’m stunned by the utter obliviousness there is our community about the reality of HIV infection. A lot of young guys think that getting infected is “no big deal” and “you can just take a pill for it.” Right. They have no clue. The truth of the matter is, people with HIV rarely die from HIV these days. They usually die from one of the consequences of taking these very toxic drugs for long periods of time, including but not limited to: heart disease, liver disease, cancer. For most patients, there is a finite clock running once they get infected whether they realize it or not. Maybe it’s not measured in the months to years as it once was, but let’s be clear: a kid who is infected at 22 is unlikely to see 65. He’s probably unlikely to see other milestone years too, but as I’m not a statistician, I’ll stick to what I know.

    It’s a shame that we are failing ourselves as a community as badly as we are. While I think it’s great that we’re all fighting for marriage equality and equal rights, I’ve long felt that it’s criminal that stopping HIV transmission in our community has all but disappeared from the agenda. It’s criminal that the majority of HIV infections are taking place STILL in the gay community and largely among guys in their 20s. There is no good reason why 50,000 of us each year are newly infected.

    1. I agree with everything you have just stated. The one link missing, however, is the lack of responsibility and the reckless and irresponsible actions that blogs such as this (at times) – and many others demonstrate – to promote the unsafe sex which we all know is at the core of spreading this virus – to simply turn a profit.

      HIV was once an undeserved, uninvited and unexpected attack upon and against our community. Once we figured out how to prevent it – along came the very same community – or at least elements of it – promoting the very activities which caused the spread of it to begin with. HIV is no longer our worst enemy.

      We are.

      1. Perez Hilton is Ron Perlman

        I totally agree Josh. It seems minorities are often their worst enemy. I know straight people have always treated me better than other gays. It’s really sad.

      2. My tinhat theory is that bareback porn at the beginning was (and maybe still is) funded by Christian and Right Wing fanatics not to mention pharma companies intending to keep the disease spreading within the Gay Community and kill a great deal of its members to keep the Gay Community down so-to-speak.

    2. My brother is a pharmacist at a Bay Area HMO. In his 30 years he’s seen many HIV patients. One younger ,”Queen”)His words not mine),came in the other day to pick up his medication. Not only did he complain about his medication causing him to feel funny at times he bitched about the size of his once a day HIV PILL. My brother was so angry he told him that not too long ago,people w/ his affliction would have to take up to over 30 pills a day,many much bigger than that one!

  14. Out of curiosity, what is the shelf life of your average condom? I’m wondering if it’s something you can hoard or stockpile like an extreme couponer.

    1. Every condom I’ve ever seen has an expiration date printed on the outer wrapper. It may depend on the brand/style, but I think at least a year…probably longer.

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