What is barebacking?

‘Barebacking’ is a term that became popular among gay men in the nineties to describe anal sex without a condom.

At Terrence Higgins Trust we prefer not to use the term as there is disagreement about what ‘barebacking’ means and people understand the term differently.

Depending on whom you ask ‘barebacking’ can be when people make a conscious decision to have sex without condoms, or when it happens by accident or is regretted. To some people it suggests danger and risk of HIV but it can be used to describe the sex between two uninfected people in a monogamous relationship where HIV isn’t present. Some academics describe ‘bareback’ sex as ‘anal intercourse with no condom use including heat- of-the-moment cases’.

Because of the different ways people use the term barebacking, Terrence Higgins Trust tends to use the term ‘unprotected sex’, which can mean any type of penetrative sex where condoms are not used, including vaginal sex.

Whichever term you use, the fact is that condom use is the best way to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes, chlamydia, genital warts, non-specific urethritis and hepatitis A, B and C.

Many STIs have no symptoms, so you can’t tell whether someone has an infection or virus by the way they look.  Although most STIs can be treated some, like HIV and herpes, can’t be cured. 

If you have HIV, there is a small risk that if you have unprotected sex you could become reinfected with a different strain of HIV which could cause problems like resistance to your antiretroviral medicine. 

Whichever term you prefer, using condoms when you have anal or vaginal sex is the best way to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and also stop unwanted pregnancies.

Read more about unprotected sex and the law or on viral load and infectiousness.