This article examines how biomedical HIV prevention technologies, particularly pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U = U) messaging, intersect with chemsex practices among gay and bisexual men in Amsterdam. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 35 men recruited during three years of ethnographic fieldwork (2016-2019) in Amsterdam's sex clubs and private parties, the study employs Rabinow's concept of biosociality to capture the new forms of collective sexual and social life that become possible when pharmaceutical technologies transform shared understandings of risk. Four interrelated themes were developed: biomedical prevention as a catalyst for chemsex (re)initiation; the collective renegotiation of risk within pharmaceutical horizons; PrEP as chemsex infrastructure merging prevention and pleasure; and the formation of new sexual networks and biosocial communities organised around shared pharmaceutical statuses. Findings revealed that PrEP and U = U have not merely reduced HIV anxiety but have actively reshaped the sexual and social landscape of Amsterdam's gay and bisexual communities, generating new forms of intimacy and belonging. These technologies have opened new possibilities for sexual and social life that have exceeded the scope of biomedical intervention and cannot be adequately understood through behavioural risk models or assemblage-based analyses alone.
Kevin Singh (Tue,) studied this question.