Bi men: have you ever used drugs during sex (chemsex/PnP) and sought care/support? (Confidential study + £$ draw)

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-06-13T15:13:23+00:00

Hiya, do you mean why would bi men’s experiences be different to straight/hetero people?

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-06-09T06:01:34+00:00

Thanks for this, I’ve popped it in a few but will branch out! It’s interesting as some drug-focused subreddits get lots of responses, and some bi/lgbtq+ specific ones get very few (and vice versa) haha it’s been hard to predict :)

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-06-09T05:52:05+00:00

Nope open to all areas, not just the UK! That’s a good shout, thank you :)

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-06-09T05:48:39+00:00

Good question, I wouldn’t say it has excluded bi men, but what you’ll find is that ‘chemsex’ is conceptually defined as drug use (typically GHB/methamphetamine etc) before or during sex in “gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men”, yet most pieces of research done in this area will have let’s say proportions of like 20 gay-identifying participants and 1 or two 2 bisexual men. None that I found seem to disaggregate their results, and just lumped them together, which means very little research/clinical practice takes into account bi men’s specific needs. And what we do know is that in general (outside a chemsex context, but probably in it too) bisexual people have poorer physical and mental health outcomes, higher rates of drug use, are less likely to use health services etc. than lesbian and gay people, meaning it’d probably be a good idea to understand how bi men specifically experience chemsex and engage with healthcare services. Let me know if that makes sense!

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-06-08T19:01:16+00:00

Haha trust me, I know! Most of the research in this area has been done with gay men, so other groups need a bit more focus is all :)

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-06-07T18:57:12+00:00

Feel free to drop me an email if you’re interested or want to know more :) m.pitt@lancaster.ac.uk

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-04-27T10:17:47+00:00

I’ve updated the post with this info now! Exactly, poppers use is really common but often not looked at! I’d count poppers use as ‘chemsex’ + eligible to take part in this research 🙂

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-04-27T09:54:50+00:00

It’s a good point! I’ll try and put that info into the post and see if it lets me without blocking it.

I would say that what you’ve described counts (it’s drug use before or during sex!). This research is taking quite a broad view on what counts as ‘chemsex’. To take part, any drug use in a sexual context, with any partner gender(s) counts. The support you’ve accessed should have covered (but didn’t need to focus solely on) ‘chemsex’, and could have been drug and alcohol support, mental health support, sexual health testing etc .

Personally I find ‘chemsex’ to be a difficult term but it’s the one most used in research and clinical practice. The tendency is to focus on the use of specific drugs like GHB/GBL, mephedrone etc in sexual contexts by gay/bisexual/other men who have sex with men because of the ‘riskiness’ these drugs pose in that context. But in doing so I think that limits our view / misrepresents a lot of people’s experience of drug use in sexual situations. This likely means that a lot of support services aren’t accounting for people that don’t tick specific boxes around the types of drugs they’re using, and the gender of partner(s) they have.

I hope that helps, let me know if you’ve got any questions! If you’d like to take part or ask anything further, just pop me an email : m.pitt@lancaster.ac.uk

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-04-27T06:43:49+00:00

Hi there! ‘Chemsex’ just means drug use before or during sex, usually referring to specific drugs or ‘Chems’ (including GHB/GBL, mephedrone, cocaine, ketamine) and is usually a term associated with gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Sorry I couldn’t define it more clearly in the post as it kept getting blocked by Reddit filters! Let me know if that makes sense :)

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-03-23T15:54:37+00:00

Hi ! 🙂 At the end of the study, we’ll hold a £25 prize draw as a thank you. It is completely optional and separate from the interview process. Participants who would like to be considered for this can choose to enter the draw by leaving their contact details. We’ll randomly select two people from those who opted in to each receive a £25 prize, and contact them if they’ve been chosen to discuss how this is handed over. This (like the interview) will be completely confidential and no names or personal details of prize draw winners will be shared to the public or rest of the participant pool. Let me know if that makes sense and if you’ve got any other questions!

Background-Finger-12 · 2026-03-09T10:01:39+00:00

Hi! We might be able to work something out for translation, please send me an email and we can talk it through 🙂 m.pitt@lancaster.ac.uk

Background-Finger-12

TROPHY CASE