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'Make Aids gel a lubricant'
26/04/2006 22:36 - (SA)
Cape Town - The way an anti-Aids microbicide was marketed could make it easier for women to use the product, a researcher told the Microbicides 2006 conference in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Dr Sara Whitehead, a medical epidemiologist, said that while microbicides were rightly celebrated as a woman-initiated prevention measure, decisions about their use might not always be fully controlled by women.
Covert use was not acceptable to many women and men, and products marketed "for disease protection" could suffer a stigma similar to that of condoms, transmitting a message of distrust.
She said a survey of participants in a clinical trial of a microbicide gel in Thailand showed most men and women liked it.
More than half said it increased sexual pleasure, a proportion which rose during the period of the study.
'It could be a fun part of sex'
Whitehead said: "About 41% of the men inserted the gel for their partner at least once during the study.
"This suggests that, for a substantial proportion of the couples, this could be incorporated as a fun part of sex, or at least not a distasteful part."
Only 15% of women, compared to 43% of men, believed it would be "possible" to use it without the male partner's knowledge - though it was not clear to what degree this answer simply indicated preference, said Whitehead, rather than whether the gel was noticeable.
In many other studies, women had said they did not want to use a product without their partner knowing.
Whitehead said the Thai findings supported the notion that women could use a strategy of "indirect covert use", telling their partners they were using a product, but not saying it was specifically to protect against HIV.
Those other purposes could be lubrication, increased sexual pleasure or contraception.
'Most men want to be involved'
Whitehead said: "Men may certainly be aware of what the product is supposed to do, and that it has an HIV prevention effect.
"But, I think it makes the discussion, negotiation and decision-making process much less awkward in some relationships if there are multiple purposes for the gel.
"Then, you don't have to say which of the purposes is your main reason for wanting to use it."
Dumsile Magagula, of the South African medical research council, said a survey among men taking part in a trial in KwaZulu-Natal showed that most men wanted to be involved in the decision on whether to use a microbicide or not.
However, virtually all the men thought women should be able to use a microbicide without their partner knowing.
- SAPA
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