Welcome to Ask Ang, your anonymous campus sexual health resource, brought to you by H*yas for Choice. We are made up of a team of undergraduate students who work to answer your sex questions! We post questions and answers weekly on Sundays. Anyone can submit a question, and the anonymous form can be found here: www.tinyurl.com/askang.
1. Hello, I am a cis male who engages only in male to female intercourse. I have recently learned about PrEP and am considering whether I should take it or not. Would you recommend that I ask my doctor for a prescription?
According to two large studies, Partners PrEP and TDF2, PrEP reduced the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men and women (PrEPfacts.org). So, PrEP will help you out in that regard. However, it is unlikely a doctor would recommend taking PrEP as you are not at as high of a risk for exposure as MSM (a group that includes those assigned male at birth who have sex with men) or those who regularly inject drugs. The CDC reports that gay and bisexual men, the only groups they counted, accounted for 70% of new HIV cases in 2014. Between 6% and 9% of new cases were attributed to injected drug use. New-case rates are falling among both groups. While only your doctor can provide medical advice, the available literature from the CDC and other sources suggest that you are not amongst the target demographic for PrEP.
You can read more about PrEP here! Also, check out the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's literature on HIV on their website. They have resources, programs, research statistics, and more!