HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

A 2003 random telephone survey sample of 4,193 male New York City residents found a high proportion of men self-identifying as heterosexual nevertheless also reporting sex with men. The study is a wake-up call for doctors not to make assumptions about their patients' sexual practices, or rely upon self-reported identities, but rather to focus on behavior, said researchers.

The annual New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (MHH) survey found the majority of heterosexual-identifying men who have sex with men (MSM) did not use condoms, and 70 percent were married. Most heterosexual-identifying MSM were racial and ethnic minorities or foreign-born persons.

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mong straight respondents, 9.4 percent had sex with a man in the previous year. Many reported having only one male sex partner, but the survey did not ask whether the relation was one of long duration. The survey also did not ask whether the men revealed their sexual behavior to female partners. "It's probably above [9.4 percent]," said Thomas Coates, a University of California-Los Angeles psychologist specializing in sexual behavior, "because it's hard to get people to admit to this kind of behavior."

from the Philadelphia Inquirer