A total of 117 people responded to the survey about male-to-male sex, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections 

Hivpoint’s survey of men who have sex with men gathered 117 responses in June. Thank you to everyone who responded! 20 respondents participated in the competition, which was attached to the survey, and a giant pumpkin was drawn, which was won by Juho from Helsinki. People named Juho have been lucky in the draws of our survey, because the winner of the corresponding survey last year was also Juho 🙂 

Survey is useful for the prevention of HIV and other STIs

The survey is part of The Prevent – Test – Treat – Enjoy! campaign aimed at men who have sex with men. A similar survey was also carried out in the first year of the campaign in 2021, when the survey reached 209 respondents. With a survey, we surveyed the campaign’s target group’s level of knowledge about sex between men, HIV, and other STIs. The results of the survey will be used in the further planning and targeting of the campaign. In particular, the campaign will provide information on those topics on which, according to the results of the survey, there seems to be the greatest need to raise awareness from the perspective of hiv and other sexually transmitted diseases prevention for men who have sex with men. 

Comparison of surveys

When comparing the responses in 2022 with those of the previous year (2021), no major changes are noticeable. The respondents’ level of knowledge had mainly remained unchanged or slightly improved, but in some questions it had weakened somewhat. In 2021, around 36 % of the respondents were from other parts of the country than the Helsinki metropolitan area and the Uusimaa region, while the corresponding figure rose in 2022, being around 49 %. This probably explains why the level of knowledge deteriorated in some questions, as the first survey (2021) found that the level of knowledge was better or even clearly better, in the Greater Helsinki area and the Uusimaa region than in the rest of the country. Hivpoint’s services reach people living in the Helsinki metropolitan area more concretely and better, because Hivpoint only has an office in Helsinki. The fact that Hivpoint had to close down its other offices (Tampere and Oulu) in 2021 due to funding cuts should not improve the situation, at least. Unless resources are increased for the prevention of HIV and other STIs in sex between men, the situation is in danger of deteriorating further. 

More about demographic and other background questions for the survey 

In addition to the place of residence, the survey included demographic and other background questions about age, gender and which reference group the respondent’s sexual relations were directed to. In these questions, the answers had changed somewhat between 2021 and 2022. Based on age, the biggest change was that those aged 18 to 24 responded to the 2022 survey more actively than in the previous year (in 2021, around 18 % of the respondents were in this age group and in 2022 around 30 %).

The question of gender could be answered by choosing several options. In the survey of both years, only a few respondents chose their gender as described by several categories. Approximately 98 % of respondents chose “male” as their gender in the 2021 survey and about 95 % in the 2022 survey. Those who chose the “non-binary gender” or “I don’t know/don’t want to define” options as their gender were proportionally higher in the 2022 survey than a year earlier (about 3- % in 2021 and 6 % in 2022). 

Less sexlessness and sexual partners’ reference group wider 

There were some differences in which reference group the respondent’s sexual relationships were oriented based on the responses to the surveys. Also in this question it was possible to choose more than one option. In both surveys, by far the most frequent respondents had had sex with a man(s) (89 % in 2021 and 82 % in 2022). In the 2022 survey, the respondents’ sex was not as often directed alone at men as in the previous year’s survey, as there was more sex with women (about 5 % in 2021 and about 13 % in 2022). In a later survey, more respondents also had sex with non-binary, transgender or non-binary people (about 6 % in 2021 and about 11 % in 2022). Instead, the number of respondents who chose the answer option “no sex recently, for the last few years” had decreased (about 10 % in 2021 and about 7 % in 2022). Perhaps COVID-19-pandemic limited sex more in the first survey, although of course there may be other reasons for not having sex. 

More detailed results of the survey during the autumn

Three articles on different themes have been written about the 2021 survey. Based on the results of the 2022 survey, at least three articles will be written this autumn so that they will be published in October, November and December. So follow our pages!