Risk and Sexual Behaviours
What are risk behaviours?
Risk behaviours are any type of activity (sexual or other) that puts us at risk to HIV, AIDS or STI infection. What do we mean by this? Risk behaviour is not just about having sex, it is more importantly about our BEHAVIOUR.
The majority of HIV, AIDS and STI initiatives under the categories of Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support are all concerned with what we refer to as BCC - Behaviour Change Communications. In other words, it’s all about adopting different approaches to understand more about ourselves; the decisions that we normally would make; how with information and education we can make better decisions; and how we can improve in permanently changing our behaviour.
It is important to remember that anyone who is sexually active is at risk – regardless of age, gender, orientation, marital status, nationality, race or ethnic group, religion, class, level of education or occupation.
Who is at Risk?
Any sexually active person is at risk to HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. Remember HIV, AIDS and STIs do not discriminate and do not set out to infect or affect a specific community or individual.
Sexual Risk Behaviour
You are at risk to HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections:
- Not knowing your status - resistance to being regularly tested for HIV and STIs.
- Feeling that there is no chance of avoiding HIV infection.
- Guilt, fear or denial of current or past sexual history.
- If you use sex as a form of emotional comfort or escape.
- Feeling that you can detect HIV serostatus by a person’s appearance or personal hygiene.
- Resistance to or having sex without condoms.
- Not using condoms with the appropriate water based lubricant.
- By not having a steady sex partner in the past 6 months.
- By having frequent, multiple and chance sexual encounters with different partners.
- If your sex partner(s) have or are having sex with other persons.
- If you have sex with a partner who is HIV positive without using condoms and water based lubricant.
- If you are having sex whilst using drugs or alcohol.
- If you use sex to support or maintain any form of substance or drug habit, such as cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, other.
- If you share needles and syringes for injecting drug use.
- If you use sex as a means of security or survival - exchanging sex for money, food, basic necessities, shelter or worldly possessions.
- Entertaining myths such as - HIV tests are inconclusive; pulling out before coming; only persons from certain communities or socio-economic groups are at risk; only using vaginal / anal douches as a form of prevention; having sex with a virgin will cure you from HIV and AIDS.
Sexual Risk Activities
Sexual risk activities are defined when not using condoms, as follows:
- Receiving anal sex.
- Giving anal sex.
- Receiving vaginal sex.
- Giving vaginal sex.
- Giving oral sex.
- Receiving oral sex.
