Objective: To understand the gender characteristics, HIV/AIDS related knowledge awareness and behaviors of transgender women.
Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among the transgender women recruited through snowball sampling in Jinan in 2014, and descriptive epidemiologic analysis was conducted on the survey results.
Results: A total of 55 transgender women were surveyed, all of them were male physically and female psychologically. Serious gender conflict occurred in 27 subjects (49.1%), and very serious gender conflict occurred in 8 subjects (14.5%). Thirty subjects dressed up as a man in social life, accounting for 54.5%; 25 subjects dressed up as a women in social life, accounting for 45.5%. The average awareness rate of HIV/AIDS related knowledge was 57.9%(22/38). The awareness of knowledge about AIDS associated behaviors, such as multi sex partner and anal sex, was poor. For the lovers or sexual partners, 58.2% of the subjects (32/55) would choose males and 50.9% of the subjects (28/55) had chosen males, and for the sex partner at latest sex, 63.6%(35/55) of the subjects had chosen males. Up to 56.3% of the subjects had sex with casual sexual partners (net friends and partners of one-night stand) at latest sex behavior. Among the subjects surveyed, 18(32.7%) never used condoms; 29(52.7%) used condoms occasionally; 4(7.3%) used condoms frequently and 4(7.3%) used condoms at each sex.
Conclusions: AIDS associated high risk behaviors were common among the transgender women, such as unprotected anal sex, multiple sexual partners, frequent sex and poor condom use. It is necessary to conduct the study of the HIV infection prevention in transgender women.