Will The Pregnancy Affect My Medication
Its possible that your pregnancy will make your HIV medication less effective, depending on what your medication is. When youre pregnant, your body may become more efficient at clearing out the medication from the bloodstream. Your doctor can help you adjust your dosage to make sure that you and your baby are protected.
Other Ways Hiv May Affect Your Life
- you will not be able to donate blood or organs
- you will not be able to join the armed forces
- you may have difficulty getting life insurance to cover a mortgage loan but life insurance is not compulsory when taking out a mortgage unless it’s an endowment mortgage, and there are now specialist life insurance policies for people with HIV
Medicine Sf Clinic’s Process Ends Risk For Mom And Baby
Deon was in jail when he tested positive for HIV.
He knew that his long-term girlfriend was HIV-positive, and they hadn’t taken many precautions to keep him safe. So he wasn’t surprised by the diagnosis, but the news was still crushing.
“I was devastated,” said Deon, 32, a San Francisco resident who asked that his last name not be used. “I didn’t know if I was going to live. I didn’t know if my social life was basically over. I didn’t know how I was ever going to have a family.”
Nearly five years later, Deon has a new girlfriend. And this month, she will give birth to their first child – a girl who, like her mother, is not infected with HIV. Deon, whose infection is so well controlled that the virus is undetectable in his blood, will have his family.
“She’s due Feb. 20,” Deon said. “I can’t wait.”
Deon and his girlfriend, Caroline, 24, are both being treated at San Francisco General Hospital‘s Ward 86 HIV/AIDS clinic, through a new program thought to be the first of its kind in the country that caters to straight men who are HIV positive and want to have a family.
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Ok So It Works For Moms But Hiv
Wrong again! Knowledge and treatment of HIV have made it increasingly possible for men living with HIV to safely father biological children. to assist HIV-negative women in having babies with HIV-positive men. Recently, the FDA even that, with the guidance of an HIV expert physician, may protect an HIV-negative mom-to-be while she and her positive babydaddy attempt to conceive more naturally. With sperm washing, surrogacy and reproductive technologies, !
How Common Is Mother
In the UK all pregnant women are offered an HIV test, because transmission can now be easily prevented.
Once its known that the mother-to-be is living with HIV, shell be put on treatment right away. The doctors will instruct her on how to protect the baby during pregnancy, delivery and once the baby is born. Shell also be advised not to breast feed and the baby will be given a course of HIV treatment.
Thanks to those strategies theres now less than 1% chance of the baby having HIV. This falls to 0.1% if the mother is on treatment with an undetectable viral load. Back when those interventions were not known and commonly used, the risk of transmission was 30-45%.
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Reducing Transmission Risk During Labour
You have a choice about how to have your baby, although your doctor will advise about options for labour depending on your health and other factors.
The safest way to deliver your baby whether by vaginal or caesarean delivery depends on how much HIV is in your blood. In general, a vaginal delivery is preferred for both your safety and your babys safety if the risk of transmission of HIV is low.
If you have a high level of the virus in your blood, a caesarean section is recommended.
You can also have a planned caesarean if thats your wish.
How Is Hiv Transmitted From Mother To Child During Pregnancy
If you are a pregnant woman living with HIV there are a number of ways that HIV might be passed on to your baby. HIV in your blood could pass into your babys body. This is most likely to happen in the last few weeks of pregnancy, during labour, or delivery. Breastfeeding your baby can also transmit HIV, because HIV is in your breastmilk.
There is a 15 to 45% chance of passing HIV on to your baby if neither of you take HIV treatment.
However, taking the correct treatment during your pregnancy and while you breastfeed can virtually eliminate this risk.
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In What Circumstances Is Mother
There are complex reasons why children may be at a greater risk of HIV infection in poorer countries. Some may not have very good medical facilities, or it might be hard to offer people good medical care.
Some mothers-to-be dont find out about their HIV while theyre pregnant or breastfeeding. Others might find it hard to cope or have no way of accessing the medical help that they need.
Sometimes its just not possible to prevent HIV being transmitted from a mother to her baby.
What Can I Do Before Getting Pregnant To Lower My Risk Of Passing Hiv To My Baby
If you plan to become pregnant, talk to your doctor right away. Your doctor can talk with you about how HIV can affect your health during pregnancy and your unborn baby’s health. Your doctor can work with you to prepare for a healthy pregnancy before you start trying to become pregnant.
Everyone living with HIV should take HIV medicines to stay healthy. If you are thinking about becoming pregnant and are not taking HIV treatment, it is important that you begin, because this will lower your chances of passing the virus to your baby when you become pregnant.
There are ways for you to get pregnant that will limit your partner’s risk of HIV infection. You can ask your doctor about ways to get pregnant and still protect your partner.
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Can Hiv Be Prevented
To reduce the risk of getting HIV, people who are sexually active should:
- use a condom every time they have sex
- get tested for HIV and make sure all partners do too
- reduce their number of sexual partners
- get tested and treated for STDs having an STD increases the risk of HIV infection
- consider taking a medicine every day if they are at very high risk of getting infected
For everyone:
- Do not inject drugs or share any kind of needle.
- Do not share razors or other personal objects that may touch blood.
- Do not touch anyone else’s blood from a cut or sore.
Viral Suppression Of Partner Living With Hiv
One of the best things that the male partner living with HIV can do is to take HIV drugs regularly and maintain an undetectable viral load even when he has no symptoms and a relatively healthy immune system.
Recent studies of serodifferent or serodiscordant couples, both gay and heterosexual , showed that taking HIV drugs and having an undetectable viral load reduces to zero the risk that a partner living with HIV will sexually transmit HIV to a partner who is not living with HIV. Please see our fact sheet on Undetectable Equals Untransmittable for more information on this exciting development.
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Arizona Lawmaker Proposes Two Anti
The laws would have potential to inflict considerable harm on Transgender Arizonans and the medical professionals who treat them
FLAGSTAFF, Az. Two proposed laws would have potential to inflict considerable harm on young Transgender Arizonans and the medical professionals who treat them LGBTQ+ activists say.
The author of both proposed measures is Republican state Senator Wendy Rogers , an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and a member of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia organization whose members took part in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This past Fall in October 2021, Rogers spoke at a QAnon-linked political conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Rogers first measure, Senate Bill 1045 would prohibit medical procedures that affirm the gender identity of children and teens who are transgender. The law would ban medical professionals in Arizona from performing gender affirming surgeries on Trans minors and also would forbid prescribing testosterone to Trans male youth or estrogen to Trans female youth who are under 18. Any Health professional found guilty would be convicted as a Class 4 felony offender, with a prison sentence of one to three years.
Rogers has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ animus. In October she expressed her extreme displeasure over a new comic book storyline debuted by DC Comics-Warner Brothers Media on National Coming Out Day.
How Do People Get Hiv
Most young children who have HIV got it before they were born or shortly after birth.
Older people can get HIV through:
- sex
- sharing needles for injecting drugs or tattooing
- getting stuck with a needle with an infected persons blood on it
HIV is NOT spread through:
- pee, poop, spit, throw-up, or sweat
- coughing or sneezing
- sharing eating utensils or drinking glasses
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Check For Stis And Analyze Semen
Treating any sexually transmitted infections or diseases before trying to get pregnant is a great first step to lower your chances of passing HIV between partners. Certain STIs can increase the chances of acquiring HIV. However, if the partner living with HIV has an undetectable viral load, the HIV-negative partner will still be protected from acquiring HIV, even if someone in the couple has an STI.
The US Department of Health and Human Services also recommends semen analysis for men living with HIV before trying to get pregnant. Men living with HIV may have fertility problems more often than HIV-negative men. Making sure his sperm is fertile before you start trying to get pregnant can help you and your partner choose the best method for getting pregnant.
Analyzing semen for fertility is a simple procedure that requires a semen sample. However, it can sometimes be difficult to find a facility willing to analyze the semen of a man living with HIV . In the US, this analysis is usually not covered by insurance.
Barriers To Hiv Testing For Young People
The World Health Organization 2013 guidelines for HTC for adolescents highlight the programmatic barriers currently preventing adolescents from accessing HIV testing, and what can be done to overcome them.101
In many countries, the age of consent for testing for HIV is high at around 18 to 21, leaving people younger than this having to obtain parental consent. This is much more likely to result in a young person not getting an HIV test when discussions with parents around sexual relations and HIV are necessary. For many orphaned young people, parental consent is not an option and so they are denied access.102 Age of consent laws to HIV testing should be removed.
HTC services must be open at appropriate times , and be at appropriate venues where young people feel safe enough to go alone.103 Healthcare workers must be trained to meet the needs of young people, in order that they do not face stigma, judgement, or a breech in confidentiality. Young people need extra support to transfer to treatment if they test positive, as they may otherwise get lost in the treatment cascade.104
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Barriers To Hiv Testing For Infants And Children
The most commonly available virological HIV tests for infants require complex laboratory instruments and highly specialised personnel, making it difficult for caregivers in rural areas to provide consistent and timely results.55
In many rural, inaccessible areas, HIV testing is simply unavailable. Instead, healthcare professionals must use clinical diagnosis to ascertain a childs HIV-positive status. Unfortunately this results in a lot of infections going undetected.56
A number of portable point-of-care testing systems have been developed in response to this challenge. As of 2016 there were three on the market that can be run from battery packs or main electricity and are rugged enough for use in mobile laboratories. Because they are small and portable, and because they can be operated by trained non-laboratory personnel, point-of-care technologies are likely to increase access to early infant diagnosis and reduce loss to follow-up. An evaluation of the first commercially available point-of-care and near-patient testing, conducted in multiple African countries, suggests that these tests are as accurate as laboratory testing.57
Facts About Hiv/aids Everyone Should Know
Learning the truth about HIV and AIDS can help prevent transmission and save lives beginning with your own.
Shutterstock
Contracting the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is no longer seen as a death sentence in developed countries, which have the resources to treat it. Still, millions of people around the world contract HIV and die of the last stage of the viruss infection: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , an estimated 1.1 million Americans over the age of 13 were living with HIV at the end of 2014.
There are a lot of reasons why people need to know about HIV/AIDS, from determining whether they are at risk themselves to even how to speak sensitively to someone who has the disease, says Steven Santiago, MD, the chief medical officer of Care Resource, a nonprofit HIV/AIDS organization in South Florida. Here are 10 facts that you should know.
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What Can I Do To Lower My Risk Of Passing Hiv To My Baby
Thanks to more HIV testing and new medicines, the number of children infected with HIV during pregnancy, labor and childbirth, and breastfeeding has decreased by 90% since the mid-1990s.1
The steps below can lower the risk of giving HIV to your baby:
Step 1
Step 1
Tell your doctor you want to get pregnant. Your doctor can help you decide if you need to change your treatments to lower your viral load, to help you get pregnant without passing HIV to your partner, and to prevent you from passing the virus to your baby. He or she will also help you get as healthy as possible before you get pregnant to improve your chances of a healthy pregnancy and baby. Don’t stop using condoms for STI prevention and another method of birth control for pregnancy prevention until your doctor says you are healthy enough to start trying.
Step 2
Step 2
Get prenatal care. Prenatal care is the care you receive from your doctor while you are pregnant. You need to work closely with your doctor throughout your pregnancy to monitor your treatment, your health, and your baby’s health.
Step 3
Step 3
Start HIV treatment. You can start treatment before pregnancy to lower the risk of passing HIV to your baby. If you are already on treatment, do not stop, but do see your doctor right away. Some HIV drugs should not be used while you’re pregnant. For other drugs, you may need a different dosage.
Step 4
Step 4
Step 5
Step 5
Step 6
Step 6
Step 7
Step 7
Low Hiv And Sexual Health Knowledge
If young people are able to access comprehensive sexuality education before becoming sexually active they are more likely to make informed decisions about their sexuality and approach relationships with more self-confidence. CSE is also known to increase adolescent girls condom use, increase voluntary HIV testing among young women and reduce adolescent pregnancy, especially when linked with non-school-based, youth-friendly SRHR services, provided in a stigma-free environment.80
In 2015, UNAIDS and the African Union included age-appropriate CSE as one of five key recommendations for improving the HIV response. In the same year, many countries in Asia and the Pacific, West Africa and Europe were revising their policies and approaches to scale up CSE.81
However, many young people do not receive adequate HIV and sex education.82 For example, in population-based surveys conducted across East and Southern Africa between 2011 to 2016, just 36% of young women had comprehensive and correct knowledge about HIV and 30% of young men.83 In West and Central Africa, this figures stands at just 24%.84
Opportunities to obtain knowledge about HIV, AIDS and sexual health are extremely limited for young people not in school.85 Youth clubs have the potential to provide HIV knowledge, but their small, localised reach means their impact is limited on a large scale.86
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Access To Antiretroviral Treatment For Children
It is vital that infants and young children who are living with HIV receive HIV treatment as early as possible, and are followed up with consistent monitoring, as they have significantly worse treatment outcomes than adults. Without treatment, half will die by their second birthday.
Given the strong evidence of benefit, WHO recommends treatment for all children and prioritises it for the youngest infants and those with compromised immune function.59
Despite this recommendation, low rates of HIV testing in infants prevent those who need it getting prompt access to HIV treatment. Children are, as a result, less likely than adults to receive treatment: only 43% were receiving treatment in 2016 compared to 54% of adults.60
Reducing Hiv Transmission Risk During Pregnancy
For HIV-positive women, ways to reduce the risk of transmission include:
- Taking antiretroviral medications before conception to reduce your viral load . The lower the viral load, the lower the risk of transmission to your unborn baby.
- Start antiretroviral HIV treatment as soon as you are diagnosed with HIV .
Being on treatment and having a low, or undetectable, viral load improves your immune system and health throughout pregnancy.
HIV-positive pregnancy today, with specialised care, is the same as HIV-negative pregnancy. Pregnancy does not make HIV progress any faster.
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