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Published in: AIDS and Behavior 3/2011

01-04-2011 | Original Paper

HIV Prevalence, Risk Behavior, Hormone Use and Surgical History Among Transgender Persons in Thailand

Authors: Thomas E. Guadamuz, Wipas Wimonsate, Anchalee Varangrat, Praphan Phanuphak, Rapeepun Jommaroeng, Janet M. McNicholl, Philip A. Mock, Jordan W. Tappero, Frits van Griensven

Published in: AIDS and Behavior | Issue 3/2011

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Abstract

While Male-to-female transgender persons (TG) are believed to often engage in sex work and have high HIV infection risk, little is known about demographics, surgical and hormone use history, risk behaviors and HIV prevalence. Between March and October 2005, 474 TG from Bangkok, Chiangmai, and Phuket were surveyed using venue-day-time sampling. Of 474 participants, overall HIV prevalence was 13.5%. Most participants had completed at least secondary or vocational education (79.2%), gender self-identified as female (89.0%), had received money, gifts or valuables for sex (60.8%), and reported hormone use (88.6%). Surgical history was taken from 325 participants. Of these, 68.6% reported some form of surgery and 11.1% had undergone penile-vaginal reconstructive surgery. In multivariate analysis, being recruited from a park/street; older age, anal sex role identification as “versatile” and anal sex debut before age 13 were independently associated with HIV prevalence. The development, implementation and evaluation of culturally appropriate sexual health interventions for Thai TG is urgently needed.
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Metadata
Title
HIV Prevalence, Risk Behavior, Hormone Use and Surgical History Among Transgender Persons in Thailand
Authors
Thomas E. Guadamuz
Wipas Wimonsate
Anchalee Varangrat
Praphan Phanuphak
Rapeepun Jommaroeng
Janet M. McNicholl
Philip A. Mock
Jordan W. Tappero
Frits van Griensven
Publication date
01-04-2011
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
AIDS and Behavior / Issue 3/2011
Print ISSN: 1090-7165
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3254
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-010-9850-5

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