Background and Aims:
Professional gay sadomasochism is a sexual practice involving for-fee role playing with infliction of pain to achieve sexual pleasure -- all provided by experienced dominating partner (DP). We qualitatively examined coping strategies that prevent submissive sadomasochists (SP) from experiencing long- term negative psychological trauma associated with participating in painful sex.
Methods:
We studied 320 gay sadomasochists (172 dominant, DP; 148 submissive, SP) who have been part of kink culture for at least 2 years. Eligible participants were recruited online for mixed methods study, involving qualitative analysis and administration of surveys.
Results:
There are three themes characterizing similarities between Polish and American professional gay sadomasochists: consent, sexually transmitted disease prevention (STDs), pro-DP culture, psychological pleasure. Consent uniformly ensures the safety of SPs; 28% report having tried extreme kink, when consent to specific behaviors was verbalized and provided in writing. STD transmission is minimized thanks to participating in pre-meeting video-interview
screening, conducted by DP; during this e-interview, the DP reviews past history of sexual behaviors of the SP and provides safety guidelines before meeting in person for kink session. Pro-DP, in exchange for money, provide safe sexual environment for SP, including guiding SP to psychosexual health resources, if they experience some physical trauma during consensual kink sex. By promoting proper communication and safety features, professional DPs
provide SPs with customized psychosexual support that minimizes risk of long-term psychological trauma associated with rough sex.
Conclusions:
SPs practicing rough BDSM are better off hiring professional DPs, if they want to minimize risk of long-term psychosexual trauma

04 - GAY BDSM: A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF PSYCHIATRIC WELLNESS OF POLISH AND AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL GAY SADOMASOCHIST