Age pattern of sexual activities with the most recent partner among men who have sex with men in Melbourne, Australia: a cross-sectional study

Kilner, Alex
Fairley, Christopher K
Burrell, Sam
Bradshaw, Catriona S
Chen, Marcus Y
Chow, Eric P F

¹Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,
²Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,
³Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,
⁴Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,

Correspondence to Associate Professor Eric P F Chow, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia; e-mail; [email protected]

Received May 27, 2020; revision received July 22, 2020; Accepted July 23, 2020; previously published online August 31, 2020

BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health 47(3):p e4, July 2021. | DOI: 10.1136/bmjsrh-2020-200720

Background

Sexual behavioural studies among men who have sex with men (MSM) are predominantly focused on penile-anal intercourse. Other non-anal sexual activities are under-studied. This study aimed to examine the age pattern of a range of sexual activities among MSM with the most recent male sex partner.

Methods

We conducted a survey among MSM attending the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in 2017. This survey asked about nine different sexual activities with their most recent regular and casual partner. A Chi-square trend test was used to examine the age patterns of each sexual activity.

Results

A total of 1596 men answered the survey and their median age was 30 (IQR 25-37) years. With casual partners, kissing was the most common activity (92.4%), followed by performing penile-oral sex (86.0%) and receiving penile-oral sex (83.9%). The least common activity was insertive rimming (38.1%). Young men were more likely to engage in kissing (p_trend<0.001), receptive rimming (p_trend=0.004) and receptive penile-anal sex (p_trend<0.001) but they were less likely to have insertive penile-anal sex compared with older MSM. With regular partners, the most common activity was kissing (97.4%), followed by touching penises (90.0%) and performing penile-oral sex (88.3%). Age was not associated with most types of sexual activity with regular partners except mutual masturbation and receptive penile-anal sex. Younger men were more likely to masturbate mutually (p_trend=0.028) and engage in receptive penile-anal sex (p_trend=0.011).

Conclusions

The pattern of sexual activities shows age-related differences with casual partners but less so with regular partners in MSM.