Chances of getting AIDS.

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Even if you are careful about your sex partners, you don't know how careful they have been, or how careful the people they have slept with have been. Even if you're "sure" someone is infection-free, they might have slept with someone who slept with someone five years ago who was HIV positive and didn't know it yet.

The saying goes that when you have sex with someone, you're also having sex with every person that he/she has ever had sex with.

Hi John,

The guestimates such as they are seem to support my optimism. All the studies do involve the uncertainty that you can't do the normal controls, and in some cases where multiple partners and multiple activities are involved it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the transmission.

From these links (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020301.html and http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_373.html) it does appear that the risk is much greater for the male homosexual than the male heterosexual. Looks like your grandson might wanna seek out Monica to be on the safest side

I tried to find the CDC study mentioned in the later link, but only came up with this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11773877&dopt=Abstract
Can't find the entire thing online.

I think it's fair to say that those who engage in risky sexual behaviors hurt not only themselves but the population at large.

I guess I'm most struck by the statistics regarding condom use and effectiveness -- or rather relative lack thereof.

I'm struck by the utter recklessness of the gay male population in the face of stats like these: If your partner is HIV-positive, your chances of getting AIDS after one night are 1 in 5,000 with a condom, 1 in 500 without. Have sex with an HIV-positive partner 500 times using condoms and your chances escalate to 1 in 11. Skip the gift wrap and they're 2 in 3.

Given the high infection rates in some major US cities, it seems unfathomable to me that any gay man would take the chance with even protected anonymous encounters the way many surveys have shown they do, let alone unprotected which is still all too common despite fishbowls of condoms available free at the bar.

Evie