We showed gay and bisexual men prototypes of future HIV prevention products. Here's what they said.

At one point we only had a pill that prevents HIV. Now we also have a long-acting shot. They work really well. Yet, not enough people take it — especially in the South, where the burden is heaviest.

So our team asked a different question: what if the problem isn't just getting people to a pill or a shot, but the options themselves? What would people actually want to use?

We sat down (virtually) with 98 Black, Latino, and White gay and bisexual men across the South — some already on PrEP, some who knew about it but hadn't started — and walked them through six products in the pipeline: a once-a-week pill, on-demand pills you take around sex, a long-acting shot, a skin implant, and two rectal products (a douche and a suppository). Interviews plus focus groups where guys ranked the options.

The weekly pill won, and honestly it's not hard to see why. It's the smallest change from daily life — one pill a week, no clinic visit, no procedure. Familiar won.

But here's the interesting split: among men already on PrEP, the long-acting shot had real pull in the focus groups. Once you're already bought into prevention, "set it and forget it" starts looking good.

And the losers? The douche and the suppository, by a mile. People didn't love prevention tied to the sex act itself — and several guys flagged a sharp concern: a product that only protects receptive partners leaves gaps.

Nobody asked for one perfect product. What they wanted was options. That's the takeaway I keep coming back to: the next era of HIV prevention isn't a single breakthrough. It's a menu — and our job is to help each person find what fits their actual life, not hand everyone the same thing.

The paper: Denson, D. J., Stanley, A., Randall, L., Tesfaye, C. L., Glusberg, D., Cardo, J., & Frew, P. M. (2025). Understanding preferences for visualized new and future HIV prevention products among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in the Southern United States: A mixed-methods study. Journal of Homosexuality, 72(7), 1268–1286. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2024.2373803