Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Email: j. This paper relies on interview data with bugchasers themselves to discuss the process of discontinuation and its effects. The paper argues that, for these men, discontinuation is a fluid, complex, and sometimes contradictory process.
It also describes how participants perceived themselves as being at different stages of discontinuation. The paper also analyzes how these men see PrEP as a barrier to intimacy, risk, and a tool to negotiate their desires and identity: through discontinuing PrEP, these men are able to reflect on and build their identities as bugchasers.
PrEP, the acronym for pre-exposure prophylaxis refers to the use of antiretroviral medication to prevent HIV infection in those at risk of it.
However, the promise of PrEP has continually been dampened by poor availability, relatively low uptake among key at-risk populations, and poor adherence. In particular, it is necessary—and currently under studied—to explore why and how some people stop taking PrEP while they engage in practices that put them at enhanced risk of HIV.
First, this paper provides a summary of PrEP. Then, I move to considering the importance and complexity that underlies PrEP discontinuation. Second, this paper overviews the figure of the bugchaser and the reasons why these men eroticize HIV and risk-taking.
