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Sexual Compulsivity and STDs: A New Look at the Spread of HIV
Posted under Sexual Addiction on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
A preoccupation with sex can be as debilitating to an individual as any addiction. When that preoccupation is then partnered with action, the individual is at a higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). A failure to control sexual impulses can lead to an increased likelihood of engaging in high-risk sexual acts even if a threat of disease is very real.
This preoccupation is also known as sexual compulsivity, a heterogeneous psychological construct that can lead to acting on certain sexual desires and result in disruptions in social relationships, an inability to maintain a job and even problems with living a normal life. Sexual compulsivity is not considered to be a formal psychiatric diagnosis and is not synonymous with sexual addiction or hypersexuality.
Research into sexual compulsivity has identified a correlation between HIV-AIDS and sexual risk practices, which can include activities that transmit the HIV virus to sex partners that are uninfected. A 1997 study by Kalichman, Greenberg, and Abel found that HIV-positive men who had engaged in unprotected sexual activities with a number of different sexual partners in recent months scored higher on the scale of sexual compulsivity than those who engaged in high risk activities that involved only one sexual partner.
Another study conducted by Benotsch, Kalichman, and Kelly found that these same men that scored higher and had HIV tended to engage more frequently in sexual acts with partners while unprotected. They also report a higher rate of cocaine use in combination with their sexual activity and considered their high-risk sexual acts as more pleasurable.
Focusing on the same issue in 2001, Benotsch, Kalichman and Pinkerton studied HIV-positive men and women to get a grasp on their sexual compulsivity. Those who scored higher in sexual compulsivity for both genders proved to engage in more anal and vaginal intercourse with sexual partners who were either HIV-negative or of unknown HIV status compared with individuals who scored lower on the sexual compulsivity scale.
According to predictions that emerged as a result of this study, four times as many new HIV infections were predicted among individuals with higher sexual compulsivity. Those who scored highly on this scale and were already HIV positive were more likely engage in cocaine use and return higher scores on psychopathology measures.
While it was easy to assume when HIV and AIDS first emerged on the scene that this was a disease that affected only the homosexual crowd, the findings of the studies mentioned here suggest sexual compulsivity played a much larger role than sexual orientation. And, while many of these individuals engaged in activities that put their lives – and the lives of others – at risk, the increased danger only seemed to heighten the pleasure of engagement.
