'Straight' NYC Men Have Gay Sex

NEW YORK, NY -- A survey of New York City men finds that nearly one in 10 who identify themselves as "straight" have sex with other men. About 70 percent of these men are married.

Survey author Dr. Preeti Pathela of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and her colleagues, believe that safe-sex messages are likely missing this subgroup.

"To reduce the burden of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection among men who have sex with men, it is of utmost importance for [health care] providers to take a sexual history that ascertains the sex of a partner," Pathela says in the report. "Asking about a patient's sexual identity will not adequately assess his risk."

For the survey, 4,200 men in New York City were interviewed. Researchers conducted the surveys in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian; a translation service helped conduct interviews in Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Polish, and Haitian Creole.

Almost 4 percent said they were gay, 91 percent described themselves as "straight." The rest told investigators they were bisexual, "unsure," or declined to answer.

Pathela's team asked the men if they were bisexual, gay or straight. Then they asked about specific sexual behaviors.

Their findings include:

- Straight men who have sex with men report fewer sex partners than gay men.

- Straight men who have sex with men report fewer STDs in the past year than gay men.

- Straight men who have sex with men are less likely than gay men to report using a condom during their last sexual encounter.

- Straight men who have sex with men are more likely to be foreign born than gay men.

Most worrisome, straight men who have sex with men, were less likely to have been tested for HIV infection during the previous year and less likely to have used a condom during the last sexual encounter than men who identified themselves as gay.

The study appears in the Sept. 19 issue of the "Annals of Internal Medicine."