Table 3.

HIV risk reduction practices reported by participants (N=76)

Risk Reduction Strategy	n
Serosorting:	50
A. Indirect assessment of HIV status	32
”Well there’s people who are top, bottom, hung, horny -- you know all these things are people who go online multiple times, so these are people to be…avoided at all risks.”
B. Direct HIV status inquiry	18
”I ask before -- I ask, like 100 times. You HIV negative?”
Avoiding internal ejaculation	30
”I don’t breed or seed, except on very rare occasions and maybe on my birthday.”
Using condoms	18
”Usually if I’m with somebody for the first time, I’ll always, always wear a condom.”
Avoiding partners with STIs:	18
A. Visual inspection
”If you notice someone has a few markings, like dark spots in certain areas, like lesions or bumps, uh, avoid. Avoid like the -- avoid like the plague.”	13
B. Direct inquiry	5
”You know, as long as I see the results and I know that you’re negative for, you know, all the STDs, then I’m -- I’m OK.”
Reducing bareback sexual partners	13
”In my case, I would just like abstain from new sexual partners and just stick with the old ones. That group is pretty big, I could find a couple I could recycle.”
Cleansing acts: washing, enemas, gargling, urination	10
”Like when I - and this is another thing that I think may have also saved me regarding HIV - which is that, in general, I will gargle with my own piss in between every cock I suck.”
“I prefer, you know, hosting, because, you know, right after that I shower. I douche, you know make -- let me make sure everything is out, you know.”
Strategic positioning	9
”Now I’m strictly a top. And I’ve been for 20 years. I don’t know if I would be strictly a top if I thought there would be no risk involved with being bottom”
Maintaining personal health/Compromised health	8
”I don’t really think of going to meet up with anybody if I have any kind of open sore, you know, cold sore, cut, or anything like that.”
Substitutions: offering conciliatory, low-risk sexual acts	6
”There would be lower-risk behavior, which could be just jerking off or, you know, mutual body contact and things like that. That has happened at times, either on a conscious level to reduce the risk or just because that’s the way the sex goes.”