What is Risk?
As you’ve likely seen, there’s lots of information on this site about HIV, but you may be wondering – am I at risk of getting HIV?
First, it is important to define what risk really is. Risk describes your likelihood of contracting HIV based on the things you do, protection methods you might use, health conditions you have, and many more factors. Everyone’s risk is different, but risk doesn’t guarantee anything. For example, engaging in a higher risk sex act doesn’t mean you will for sure contact HIV, and doing something to lower your risk during sex doesn’t mean that for sure you won’t.
It is important to understand how the things you do might increase or decrease your risk so that you can make informed choices around what you do, and what you might want to do to keep yourself and your communities safe.
Activities that can transmit HIV are not wrong or shameful, we just want to give you the information you need to make informed choices about what you do, and how you want to go about it. Some of the conditions that create risk can be out of our control, luckily, there are things we can do to manage our risk after exposure to HIV and there are now highly effective treatment options out there for folks that are HIV+.
HIV has historically been thought of as a gay men’s issue in North America, and while it does impact gay men, and other queer men at a higher rate than the general population, being a queer man does not mean you will get HIV, and not being a queer man does not mean you won’t. Different communities have different risk based on access to healthcare, social stigma, and common activities; that being said, the communities you belong to is just one of the many complex factors that influences your personal risk.
Some sex acts (in particular barrier / condom free anal sex), and drug use methods that involve breaking skin (injections and less commonly snorting or smoking), are two of the most common activities where HIV transmission occurs in Canada. This means that if you do either of these you may be at a high risk of contracting HIV. These activities can be fun, pleasurable, and important to our lives. We want everyone to learn more about what their own risk of HIV is, how to decrease risk, and the tools out there for people who have HIV.
You can learn more about where we got this information from at CATIE.
*disclaimer: we do not necessarily endorse all of the information, content, or language used in these references