ABSTRACT
Previous studies of HIV-positive gay men have focused either on their contribution to the subsequent spread of the epidemic or the impact of diagnosis and disease progression on psychological wellbeing (Green et al., 1992; Hedge et al., 1992). Studies of sexual behaviour remain rare and findings about the sexual risk behaviour of HIV-positive gay men are largely inconclusive (Higgins et al., 1991; Weatherburn et al., 1993). However, differences in psychosexual adjustment have been found between samples of HIVpositive gay men and their HIV-negative counterparts. For instance, high levels of sexual dysfunction such as erectile failure and psychosexual morbidity such as loss of sexual pleasure, have been found both in samples of HIV-positive men (Brown and Pace, 1989; Jones, Klimes and Catalan, 1994) and in comparative studies of HIV-positive and HIVnegative gay men (Meyer-Bahlburg et al., 1991). However, many studies of the effects of HIV on sexual behaviour deliberately study only respondents who have been living with HIV for a number of years (Jones, Klimes and Catalan, 1994) and avoid any considerations of adjustment effects to a new diagnosis by concentrating on long-term sexual behaviour patterns. Other studies concentrate on men with symptomatic HIV disease in order to investigate the effects of various drugs on sexual functioning and physiological impairment (Tindall, Forde and Cooper, 1992).
