Can People With Hiv Have Sex

Sex With Someone You Live With

If you live in the same house as asexual partner and you both have no symptoms, then you can continue having sex as normal for your relationship.

However, if you or your partner have any symptoms of COVID-19 a fever, dry cough, tiredness or loss of taste or smell you will need to keep your distance from each other for 14 days to avoid passing the virus on. During this time, you should avoid sex or any kind of physical intimacy, such as kissing and cuddling.

If your partner is having sex with other people who dont live with you, your risk of getting COVID-19 will be higher.

How Can I Make Sure I Dont Give Hiv To Anyone During Sex

If you find out that you have HIV, try to stay calm. People living with HIV can have normal, healthy relationships and sex lives. But its important to take precautions to help your partner stay HIV-free.

There are a few ways that you can avoid giving HIV to other people:

• Always use condoms when you have vaginal and anal sex.

• Start treatment for HIV as soon as possible, and keep taking your HIV medicine. When you take it correctly, HIV treatment can lower or even stop your chances of spreading the virus to your sexual partners .

• Theres a daily pill your partner can take to lower the risk of getting HIV, called PrEP.

• Dont share needles for shooting drugs, piercings, or tattoos.

• Get tested and treated for other STDs besides HIV regularly. Having other STDs makes it easier for you to spread HIV to others.

If you test positive for HIV, its important to tell your sexual partners about it so they can be tested, too. Even if youre really careful to not spread HIV, be honest with your future partners about your status so you can both be informed and help each other stay healthy. Read more about talking with your partners about HIV.

Telling Your Sex Partners

This may be one of the hardest things you have to do. But you need to tell your sex partner that you are living with HIV, whether you have a primary partner such as a spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend, have more than one partner, or are single or casually dating.

What follows are tips for talking to your main partner, other partners, and former partners.

Talking to your main partner

If you are in a relationship, one of the first things you will probably think about after learning that you have HIV is telling your partner or partners. For some couples, a positive HIV test may have been expected. For others, the news will be a surprise that can be difficult.

Your partner may not be prepared to offer you support during a time when you need it. Your partner may be worrying about their own HIV status. On the other hand, if you think you may have contracted HIV from your partner, you are probably dealing with your own feelings.

Unless your partner is known to have HIV infection, they should get an HIV test right away. Don’t assume that the results will come back positive, even if you have been having unprotected sex or sharing needles. Your partner may assume the worst and may blame you for possibly spreading the disease. It is important that you discuss these feelings with each other in an open and honest way, perhaps with a licensed counselor.

Talking to new partners

Talking to former partners

Remember

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How Can You Prevent Getting Or Transmitting Hiv Through Sex

There are several ways to prevent getting or transmitting HIV through anal or vaginal sex.

If you are HIV-negative, you can use HIV prevention medicine known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure prophylaxis to protect yourself. You can also use other HIV prevention methods, below.

If you have HIV, the most important thing you can do to prevent transmission and stay healthy is to take your HIV medicine , every day, exactly as prescribed. People living with HIV who take HIV medicine daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners. Read more about Treatment as Prevention. There also are other options to choose from, below.

If You Dont Know You Or Your Partners Hiv Status

If you are negative and dont know your partners status, it is always better to assume they are HIV positive.

If you dont know your own HIV status, also assume you are HIV positive. This is so you dont put anyone at risk.

Rather than assuming your partners are negative, this will stop you taking risks that you are not happy with.

This will help you feel in control during sex. It should stop you feeling anxious or worried afterwards.

Your HIV status is only as accurate as your last test result. This needs to include any risks you took in the window period before the test. It also needs to include any risks you have taken since.

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New Guidance On Couples Hiv Testing And Counselling

In addition to correct and consistent use of condoms, counsellors may suggest that the HIV-positive partner take antiretroviral drugs, regardless of his or her immune status. Studies show that this can both keep the positive partner healthier for longer, and reduce the risk they will pass the virus to their loved one. This finding prompted WHO to issue new guidance on couples HIV testing and counselling in April 2012 including antiretroviral therapy for treatment and prevention in serodiscordant couples.

In addition to Zambia, which has recommended early ARVs for the positive partner in a serodiscordant couple since 2010, other countriesincluding Canada, China, Kenya and many in western Europecurrently recommend or are considering the use of ARVs to reduce HIV transmission in serodiscordant couples.

Practicing Safe Sex When Both Partners Have Hiv

It’s natural to wonder if safe sex is unnecessary when you and your partner both have HIV. After all, if you don’t have to be concerned about transmitting HIV between each other, that’s one less thing to worry about at a time when your health is already at the forefront of your mind. So what’s the bottom line? Can you take safe sex off your to-do list?

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Will Having Hiv Affect My Pregnancy

Babies can get infected with HIV during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding thats why its recommended that everyone get tested early in pregnancy. If you have HIV, antiretroviral medications greatly lower your chances of giving HIV to your baby. With treatment, less than 2 out of 100 babies born to women with HIV will be infected. Without treatment, about 25 out of 100 babies will be infected.

Testing Positive For Hiv During Pregnancy

HIV testing of women in early pregnancy is now routine in Australia. Testing should be done with your consent and is offered during your first set of antenatal tests.

If you receive a positive test result, be reassured that many people with HIV live a full and active life. The risk of HIV transmission to your child is very low, given appropriate treatment.

Support is available through:

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Sexual Intimacy With An Hiv

When one person contracts HIV, the couples approach to sex, intimacy, and childbearing must change to protect the other.

Sigrid Olsson/Alamy

When one person in a couple is diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, it has a significant effect on the couples romantic relationship theres always a chance that the infected person can transmit HIV to his or her partner.

The most dangerous possibility for HIV transmission occurs when a partner is infected but doesnt know it, says Marilyn Henderson, BSN, RN, the director of the science department at the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin, Texas.

If youre HIV positive, you can help protect your partner from becoming infected while still maintaining a close relationship by putting smart, safer sex practices in place. And with the right precautions, even that most intimate of connections conceiving a child together can safely be accomplished.

Hiv During Pregnancy And Childbirth

Women living with HIV who are on treatment and have a stable undetectable viral load are extremely unlikely to transmit HIV to their baby during pregnancy and childbirth. There is a 1 in 1000 chance of transmitting HIV to the baby during pregnancy and delivery, when a woman is on antiretroviral treatment and has a viral load below 50 copies/ml .

HIV-positive women who are on treatment and have stable undetectable viral load, have a 1-2% chance of transmitting HIV to their baby if they breastfeed for 12 months.

So, although it is unlikely that a woman will transmit HIV to her baby when breastfeeding it is currently advised not to breastfeed.

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At The Time Of His Diagnosis Despite A Strong Bond There Was Too Much Else To Think About To

Negotiating safe sexThe people we talked to were very concerned about protecting their HIV negative partners from HIV. Nevertheless, people disagreed about whether or not condom use was easy to maintain in such relationships: ‘I don’t believe it’s difficult to practise safe sex,’ said one man. ‘I can’t say it was particularly easy, but it’s just something you just have to adapt to something you had to face and overcome,’ said another man. One man claimed, ‘There’s no man who would not like having sex without a condom.’ It was easier for people who had always used condoms for sex to use condoms in relationships – a younger gay man said his generation took condom use for granted. One woman said that whether or not a man uses a condom feels ‘just the same to me.’

For HIV positive people in relationships with HIV negative partners, considerations of HIV could present problems. Thinking about HIV could detract from enjoying sex and relationships: ‘If he’d become positive I think it would have been devastating,’ said one man.

Are Certain Activities Higher Risk

Yep. Penis-in-anus and penis-in-vagina sex are higher risk activities.

Penis-in-anus sex is the riskiest type of sex for contracting or transmitting HIV. The risk is higher for the receptive partner, sometimes referred to as the bottom.

This is because the rectums lining is very thin. Tiny abrasions give infected bodily fluids direct access to the bloodstream.

The risk is slightly lower for the insertive partner, or top, though they can still contract HIV. The virus can enter the body through the urethra, the foreskin , or any open sores or tiny scratches on the penis.

Penis-in-vagina sex isnt as risky as anal, but its still higher risk. Most vagina-having folks who contract HIV do so from penis-in-vagina sex .

A person with a vagina can contract HIV from unprotected sex when the virus enters the body through the mucus membranes lining the vagina and cervix.

The partner with the penis contracts it from blood or vaginal fluid that enters the body through the urethra, foreskin, or small cuts or open sores on the penis.

1 percent .

This involves the mother with HIV taking ART as prescribed all through pregnancy and childbirth, as well as giving the baby HIV medicine for 4 to 6 weeks after birth.

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Have Society’s Attitudes Also Changed

While Bisi’s personal outlook has changed greatly, he believes the rest of the world has a lot of catching up to do.

He lives a very happy and healthy life, but says there’s a long way to go with the conversation around HIV.

“We can’t talk about a world without HIV and AIDS unless we discuss homophobia across the world. In Africa for example, HIV prevalence among gay men is 20% on average. However, it seems people think that the best way to deal with this is to criminalise same sex relationships. Look at places like Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, where there is a correlation between the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people and an increase in HIV infections,” he explains.

“There can also sometimes be a self-righteous approach to sex and sex education, and we’re still having conversations about access to PreP.”

Hiv & Sex In Relationships

Having safe sex in relationships can be complicated by the play of strong emotions. Feelings like trust and closeness can make it difficult to have safe sex’ ‘Because you trust somebody you don’t think to use condoms.’ The views expressed here are of gay and Black African communities that we interviewed in 2005. Several people we talked to believed they became infected with HIV because they trusted their partners and were unaware their partners were infected with HIV or having unsafe sex outside the relationship. Also having safe sex is not always straightforward. For instance, a partner who wants safe sex may have trouble convincing the other.

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How To Prevent The Spread Of Hiv

People living with HIV can use the following to prevent transmitting it to others:

• Pre-exposure prophylaxis : This is a daily pill that contains two antivirals called tenofovir and emtricitabine. When a person takes it daily, PrEP can reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through sex by
• of a recent potential HIV exposure.

What Do I Need To Know About Dating With Hiv

Some people feel like their love lives are over when they find out they have HIV, but its just not true. People with HIV can have fulfilling romantic and sexual relationships. People living with HIV can have relationships with partners who dont have HIV or with partners that are also living with HIV . HIV treatment helps keep you healthy and helps you avoid passing HIV to someone else. If your partner does not have HIV, they can also take a medicine called PrEP that can help protect them from getting HIV through sex.

Its important to tell your sexual partners about your HIV status. That way, you and your partners can make more informed decisions about safer sex, testing, and treatment that are right for the both of you.

Its normal to be worried about how your partners going to react. And theres no way around it: some people might get freaked out. If that happens, try to stay calm and talk about your plan to stay healthy and how they can stay HIV negative. It might help to give your partner a little time and space to process. You could also suggest they talk with your HIV doctor about ways to protect themselves from HIV.

If you tell someone you have HIV and they hurt you, shame you, or make you feel bad, its not ok. You deserve to be with someone who respects and cares about you, and there are plenty of people out there who will.

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Effective Treatments Can Reduce Hiv Transmission

When someone with HIV is on antiretroviral treatment and consistently has very low levels of virus they are not infectious and cannot sexually transmit the virus.

This may be true for sexual transmission during pregnancy, but researchers are still gathering more evidence before they can be confident it is true for transmission during pregnancy, labour and delivery, and during breastfeeding.

New preventative medications Pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis can be taken by HIV-negative people who are at risk of getting HIV.

As long as the HIV-positive partner maintains a stable undetectable viral load and these medications are taken strictly as prescribed, HIV transmission to a negative partner is not possible.

Speak to your treating doctor if you would like to explore these newer prevention drugs.

Ways Hiv Can Be Transmitted

How is HIV passed from one person to another?

Most people who get HIV get it through anal or vaginal sex, or sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment . But there are powerful tools that can help prevent HIV transmission.

Can I get HIV from anal sex?

You can get HIV if you have anal sex with someone who has HIV without using protection .

• Anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for getting or transmitting HIV.
• Being the receptive partner is riskier for getting HIV than being the insertive partner .
• The bottoms risk of getting HIV is very high because the rectums lining is thin and may allow HIV to enter the body during anal sex.
• The top is also at risk because HIV can enter the body through the opening at the tip of the penis , the foreskin if the penis isnt circumcised, or small cuts, scratches, or open sores anywhere on the penis.

Can I get HIV from vaginal sex?

You can get HIV if you have vaginal sex with someone who has HIV without using protection .

Can HIV be transmitted from a mother to her baby?

HIV can be transmitted from a mother to her baby during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. However, it is less common because of advances in HIV prevention and treatment.

Can I get HIV from sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injection equipment?

You are at high risk for getting HIV if you with someone who has HIV. Never share needles or other equipment to inject drugs, hormones, steroids, or silicone.

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Telling Health Professionals About Your Hiv Status

It is important to tell your doctor, obstetrician or midwife about your HIV status as early as you can .

Telling your health team, helps to talk through any concerns you may have and ensure you receive treatment before that suits your needs, and is safe throughout pregnancy and after your baby is born.

Also, if your medical team knows about your HIV status, they can take steps to minimise the risk of accidental transmission during any medical procedures.