Health: There is someone in our corner
I am a 48-year-old gay male who recently contracted the hepatitis B virus. This is my story. It all started late last year when out of the blue I felt very bloated; a feeling I was not accustomed to. This was replaced by on/off nausea and feeling tired. I thought it would pass but when […]
Changing lives for 21 years
OUT, the Pretoria-based health and well-being non-profit organisation serving the LGBT community, is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year. One of the longest-running LGBT groups in the country OUT was launched on the cusp of the new South Africa. Initially a loose network of individuals who wanted to make a difference, it’s become a respected […]
Revolutionary anti-HIV skin implant developed
Could ARV pills become a thing of the past? Scientists have developed a revolutionary implant that automatically administers anti-HIV medicine. Researchers from the Oak Crest Institute of Science in California have developed the matchstick size implant, similar to a contraceptive implant, placed under the skin to deliver a controlled, sustained release of ARV drugs for […]
New antibody therapy shows promise in fighting HIV
Researchers have shown that a new experimental therapy can dramatically reduce the amount of HIV present in a patient’s blood. The results stem from HIV patient trials of a new generation of so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies, conducted by Rockefeller University researchers in New York. The work, reported this week in Nature, brings fresh optimism to […]
Study: Online dating and apps not just for hooking up
An Australian study has found that gay and bisexual men are increasingly using online dating sites and dating apps to meet long term partners. The rise in these apps and websites has been typically associated with a culture of hooking-up or one-off sexual encounters. And while they do get used for this, it appears men are also […]
Health: Getting testy
Standing on Seapoint Main road in Cape Town has many connotations. More than a decade ago, my friend and I were doing just that, but it was daytime and the sex workers we’d come to know quite well had long since gone home for the day. We were there to get HIV tests. We’d heard […]
Does watching porn make you better in bed?
A new study has challenged conventional thinking by finding that watching porn could actually help men stay more aroused and perform better in the bedroom. It’s been widely accepted that a predilection for porn usually means bad news in bed. Many clinicians and anecdotal reports have suggested that a man’s habit of viewing sex films […]
SA university performs first-ever penis transplant on botched circumcision victim
In a ground-breaking operation, a team of surgeons from Stellenbosch University (SU) and Tygerberg Hospital performed the world’s first-ever successful penile transplant. The marathon nine-hour operation, led by Prof André van der Merwe, head of SU’s Division of Urology, was performed on 11 December 2014 at Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville, Cape Town. The 21-year-old patient’s […]
The indignities of ‘playing doctor’
No one likes to go to the doctor. No one leaps out of bed, excited by the prospect of sitting in an airless reception room with snivelling, miserable people who look much too contagious to be mingling with the general public. No one enjoys shooting the breeze with their doctor so much that they cancel […]
Scientists prove that HIV prevention drugs work for gay & bi men
Researchers have presented unequivocal evidence that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) can be used as a reliable HIV prevention strategy by men who have sex with men (MSM). While ARVs are traditionally used to treat people who are HIV positive, certain ARVs can also be used to prevent HIV negative men from becoming infected, a method referred […]