Health, enhancement and lifestyle: the use of the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among gay men, trans women and travestis

Abstract

The article has analyzed the meanings of the use of PrEP among gay man, trans women, and travestis in Rio de Janeiro, based on research on the biomedicalization of the response to AIDS. The analysis and interpretation of the field diary entries and interviews allowed us to describe how the use of this HIV prevention technology occurs simultaneously with other biomedical resources, aesthetics, dietary interventions, and physical exercises. We argue that such self-care is shaped according to the expectations of gender and class and the health ideals of their users. The results of the study allow us to discuss the boundaries between health, lifestyle, and enhancement. It is concluded that PrEP seems to produce a singularization in the forms of self-production, via biomedical and aesthetic-cosmetic enhancement, in a synergistic encounter between different technologies; perceived both in the routine use of the drug and in the management of its effects. For most of the people interviewed, PrEP is coupled with a previous self-care, which indicates the social location of its users in terms of class and gender and the reflexive way from which they describe their health and themselves.

Keywords: Prophylaxis pre-exposure to HIV (PrEP); Biomedicalization; Modes of subjectification; Gender technologies; Sexual and Gender Minorities