Are recommendations the same for men and women?

Very few differences have been seen in responses to HIV treatment between women and men.

One of these is that at the same CD4 count, women can have a slightly lower viral load than men. Some studies also show that women have a higher risk of becoming ill than men at the same CD4 count.

This may be a reason for women to start treatment earlier than men.

Having lived with HIV since July 1996, it never dawned on me that I had never come to terms with my diagnosis. For all those years I was in survival mode, and I had survived.

I always advocated for treatment and have been on treatment, including through two pregnancies, though I never had symptoms and never had a CD4 count less than 460. So when for the first time I had persisent painful lumps in my neck, you can guess what happened!

I realised that, yes, the HIV test in 1996 was not wrong, and yes, after 13 years of claiming to be HIV-positive, I actually am HIV-positive!

I kept saying to myself “it is true, I am HIV-positive!” How do you come to terms with something you have known and lived with for so long?

The mind is very complex. I think the child in me had wished this nasty thing away for so long – ackowldeging yet not acknowledging.

— Faith, Luton