Here’s a lovely Valentine: A successful pilot program that allows gay male couples to receive HIV counseling and testing together has been adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which will train counselors and expand the testing program nationwide—including to straight couples too. Developed by Emory University’s Patrick Sullivan, PhD, and Rob Stephenson, PhD, with help from the MAC AIDS Fund, the aptly titled Testing Together is important because as much as two-thirds of new infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) come from their primary partners. “This makes sense,” Sullivan explains, “because you have sex more often with your main partner, and gay men are more likely to have anal sex and less likely to use condoms with their main partner than a causal partner.” What’s more, counseling can help couples navigate other thorny issues, such as HIV disclosure and sex outside the relationship. Surely Cupid would approve.
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