Saunas

Advice: wear a condom, or, alternatively, don't go.

If I was you, I'd stay away from then. The largest group if Irish people that have HIV/aids are homosexual men. So i would urge restraint.

If I was you I would explore other alternatives. Why put so much at risk?

ANXIOUS wrote: »

The largest group if Irish people that have HIV/aids are homosexual men.

Lol. No, actually.

If you wanna go to the Boilerhouse, then go. Once you've experienced it, you can decide whether its the kind of thing youre into or not.

Use protection though. My friend is a nurse in the STI clinic in St James's and said that in the past year or so, bigger numbers of gay men are being diagnosed with HIV and many of them are saying that they were visitors to the Boilerhouse. Probably worth bearing that in mind.

No pun here but
the bottom line is play with fire and you'll get burnt .

Boards is a great magazine to flick past and ask questions. If your thinking about going to these places then your filling a need, in which you don't understand yet.
First of all asked why? Try and deal with it and talk to a confidential line for support. You wouldn't be asking questions about it if you didn't fear what you were getting into.

Don't jump into deep water if you want to explore an urge thats been building up inside. Stop and think about who you are and take the steps that need to be inserted. If not chances are you'll get burnt and inflict your pain onto other unsuspecting guys and jump out quickly, then occasionally dip in when you think it's chilled, ending up in a double mess and it will eat at you. (depending on your personality)

Don't cheat, double life styles catch up quickly. Don't contribute to disease and get tested no matter what way you want to go.

I know my above post my be a downer but common sense sometimes is the best cure, and hey i'm guilty of having a night without thought, but if your planing on a weekend with ………. then question your life, health and just come out. it might just save you.

ANXIOUS wrote: »

Yes I have a few that you may like, my orginal statement was based if percent if population. I'm on my itouch so can't really link and quote properly.

QUOTE =Health Protection Surveillance Centre New infections among men having sex with men rose a staggering 42.3% in the twelve months between 2008-09.

[Population of ireland est. 4,459,300 / number of gay men in ireland 3.5% (seen 7% qouted somewhere before so just divided by 2 for gay men) = 156,075.5 people]

So if we simply divide the numbers the percentage of population of men who sleep with men that caught hiv/aids was 0.08% only in 2009. Compare this to the percent of the rest of the population = 0.005.

[Population 4,459,300 - 156,075.5= 4,303,224.5 / (395-138=257) -> 257/4,303,224.5 * 100= 0.005

As you can see it is a significant difference, and shows that men who sllep with men are at a higher risk of catching hiv/aids.

I would bring your figures up a little bit for the % of the population who are gay - probably closer to 10% on average based on the more recent anonymous research (the figures which suggest 2-8% are often coming from face to face interviews where people cannot speak truthfully re sexuality).

Looking at 49%(census IIRC) of the population being Male = 2,185,057 and 14% (US Figures for Males, Clapp et al, 2003) of them being gay = 305,908 = 0.04% of the Gay population.....

This leaves 4,153,395 people. Now that percentage of the rest of the population goes up to 0.006.

In this perhaps we should consider that hetrosexual men by mere virtue of the actual physical elements of their sex lives they are less likely to catch HIV/AIDS so perhaps the above figure of 4,153,395 shouldnt include all hetrosexual men either....

Obviously I totally agree that the Boilerhouse isnt advisable but we can skew statistics to make things look worse (or better) than they are, and I think Anxious your figures are skewed slightly. Furthermore your Original statement was that the largest group of people with HIV/AIDS are homsoexual men- the figures you gave are for those who caught it last year.

BuffyBot wrote: »

It does annoy me the downright tut-tutting to hysteria that seems to go on here at the merest mention of places like the Boilerhouse on this forum.

OP, by all means go. What's sauce for the goose is not always sauce for the gander. Take sensible precautions, have fun and if you like it great. If you don't, well that's great too. The only person who can, and should make such descions is you.

Sorry I didnt answer the OPs question.

An acquaintance attends regularly. It suits him as he likes older "silver daddy" types, and likes doing stuff in view of others. He doesnt ask people about HIV status routinely, but on the one occasion he did, the guy was positive.

If you'd prefer a younger guy (under 40) then its rare that youd find it there. They have an U25s night on Tuesdays and a sometimes foreign students go then.

He also wouldnt go weekends as its a bit crowded and if your drunk you may find yourself in a position where someone else may assume your consent - he had an experience where one guy stood in front of him and another behind him and attempted to force participation, and another where an old guy cornered him and shoved poppers in his face (although normally this would have suited him, the sheer forcefulness of the scenario was too much). He also described some older fruitcakes who attend.

Finally I did state above if you really feel the need to go and then find yourself in a position where you want to get involved then at least try be selective by maybe getting a lie of the land first, and perhaps engage in safer activities. And of course use protection in activities where same is recommended.

Im not going to link to it but maybe find its website and become acquainted with it first, and maybe PM someone who has been.

ANXIOUS wrote: »

Yeah i those figures were the only ones i could find, if you take 10% of the population to be gay you need to divide that in two.

Yeah i clarifired my original statement to make it percent of population.

What ever about the stats what is evident is that, gay peopel have a much higher chance of catching aids. This is something that needs to be sorted asap.

*hands ANXIOUS a condom* There now, sorted

lst wrote: »

Sorry I didnt answer the OPs question.

An acquaintance attends regularly. It suits him as he likes older "silver daddy" types, and likes doing stuff in view of others. He doesnt ask people about HIV status routinely, but on the one occasion he did, the guy was positive.

Are you actually serious? Would the HIV positve person not make it known to all their sexual partners? Just think if the condom split or something, surely to god they should have a choice if they want to take that risk.

STIs is completely off topic - if you want to discuss it start a new thread

ANXIOUS wrote: »

Are you actually serious? Would the HIV positve person not make it known to all their sexual partners? Just think if the condom split or something, surely to god they should have a choice if they want to take that risk.

I think they already made the choice by walking into said establishment.

Aard wrote: »

It'd be impossible for a straight guy to find a casual fuck so readily

*ahem* Coppers

rainbow kirby wrote: »

*ahem* Coppers

Lol that is such a silly myth. Its no different to any other place in dublin other than the fact it is 3 men to every girl due to said myth. Opens late though!

OP I don't have any experience of this kind of place but I don't think you should go alone, not the first time anyway. Have you any mates who'd be interested?

I'm not suggesting something bad will happen to you but I felt nervous going into a lap-dancing club once and that was with 4 other guys! If you go with a mate you can relax and have a laugh before meeting others.

Get extra strong condoms, if one broke you'd be terrified waiting the 3 months before you could tested. And I'm not pontificating I'd do the same if there was a straight equivalent of the boilerhouse.

stephen_n wrote: »

Interestingly you have probably hit on a fact there that is pertinent to the boiler-house. Men who have sex with men are not always gay men and usually that term is specifically refers to men who don't identify as being gay but who have sex with men. This would also further skew the figures beyond the 10% mark oh those who actually identify as being gay. There are apparently alot of these type of men who use the boiler-house.

I see where you are coming from but, I don't think it'd still raise the percentage to 10.

I'm going to look into this in some detail.