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| ...taken from the CDC web-site. |
The risk of acquiring HIV through unprotected anal sex is at least 20 times greater than with unprotected vaginal sex and increases if other infections are already present in the rectal lining. In the United States alone, receptive anal intercourse is practiced in up to 90% of gay and other men who have sex with men, according to International Rectal Microbicides Advocates. Moreover, the practice is not limited to men. U.S. estimates and surveys in the United Kingdom indicate between 10 to 35% of heterosexual women have engaged in anal sex at least once. Lubricants are typically used before and during receptive anal intercourse, but their use could increase the risk of rectal sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a study involving nearly 900 men and women in Baltimore and Los Angeles has found. Even after controlling for gender, HIV status, city, condom use, and number of sex partners in the past month, the association between lubricant use before receptive rectal intercourse and rectal STIs remained strong, reported Pamina Gorbach, Dr.PH, from the School of Public Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the study. According to the study's statistical analysis that considered the HIV status, gender, condom use and study site, participants who used lubricants before receptive anal intercourse were three times more likely to have a rectal STI. A laboratory study that compared over-the-counter and mail-order lubricants commonly used with receptive anal intercourse found many of the products contain higher amounts of dissolved salts and sugars compared to what's normally found in a cell. As a result, the products had toxic effects on the cells and rectal tissue studied. Some of the lubricants caused significant portions of the epithelium -- the layer of cells that serves as a protective barrier inside the rectum -- to be stripped away.
Author’s note: As I wrote in an earlier blog, initial US government recommendations (particularly targeting the gay male community) about the use of the spermicide Nonoxynol-9 [N-9] in preventing HIV infection have since been proven highly incorrect (see: http://www.josephsciambra.com/2015/01/oops-i-did-it-again-why-us-government.html.) And, now, the same could be stated about the continuing endorsements from the CDC to Planned Parenthood’s teeny website “Go Ask Alice” that the use of lubricants, in conjunction with condoms, makes anal sex “comfortable” and “pleasurable.” Interestingly, no one uses the term “safe sex” anymore; along with “Just Say No!” it was the drilled-into-your-head tag-line mantra of the 1980s.
Link to study: