Women's and men's reasons for giving in to sexual intercourse without a condom even though they wanted to use one

Abstract

We explored men's and women's reasons for engaging in sexual intercourse without a condom, even though they wanted to use a condom. We explored the differences and similarities between the reasons men and women give for consenting to such intercourse. We examined situations in which individuals wanted to use a condom, and their partner refused or complained about using one, and they ended up either using a condom or having sexual intercourse without a condom. We focused on the role of power in these decisions. We analyzed both quantitative (participants' ratings of their and their partner's power) and qualitative data (participants' descriptions of their feelings, thoughts and behaviors in the situations).