PrEP, TasP and the casual sex scripts among serodiscordant gay men

Abstract HIV-prevention strategies have produced a divide between serodiscordant gay men. Using Sexual Scripts Theory and interviews, we explore how pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is shaping gay men’s casual sex relationships among serodiscordant partners. Together with Treatment-as-Prevention, PrEP appears to be improving these relationships. Participants’ stories reveal that they are engaged in the fluctuating sexual landscapes formed by new prevention approaches, maintaining shared safe-sex scripts that foster risk-reduction, but modifying them to include reexamined fears and resulting barriers to sexual communication, opportunities and satisfaction and reevaluated ideas about appropriate partners. We discuss the health and service implications of these transforming scripts.