Perceived Challenges and Rewards of Forming a Sexual Agreement among HIV-Negative Male Couples

Sexual agreements, explicit mutual understandings made between two partners about which sexual and related behaviors they agree to engage in within and/or outside of their relationship, are common among male couples. However, little is known about the perceived rewards and challenges partnered men face in the process of forming a sexual agreement. Such knowledge may be useful for the development of future HIV preventive and sexual health programs that encourage male couples to establish a sexual agreement in their relationship. 

By using qualitative dyadic data from a sample of 29 self-reported concordant HIV-negative male couples who had a sexual agreement, the present qualitative study sought to assess partnered men's perceived rewards and challenges of forming a sexual agreement in their relationship and examine whether both men in the couple concurred about their perceived rewards and challenges of forming a sexual agreement. Themes for perceived rewards were:

1. being honest, 
2. improving communication, 
3. increasing understanding about expectations and permitted behaviors, 
4. enhancing intimacy and relational bond, and 
5. building trust. 

Themes for perceived challenges were: 

1. stigma about having an open agreement; 
2. awkwardness about the topic and talking about it; 
3. jealousy; and 
4. no perceived challenges. 

Few couples had both partners concur about their perceived rewards or challenges toward establishing a sexual agreement. The variety of perceived rewards and challenges highlight the need for tailoring given that a variety of factors may influence partnered men's establishment of a sexual agreement in their relationship.

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By:  Mitchell JW1, Lee JY2, Woodyatt C3, Bauermeister J4, Sullivan P3, Stephenson R5.

• 1Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, 33136, USA. jwm35@med.miami.edu.
• 2Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, 33136, USA.
• 3Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
• 4Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, and The Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
• 5Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, School of Nursing, and The Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. 
• Arch Sex Behav. 2016 Mar 10. 

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