Question
I am a HIV positive man – can I ever have a child?
17 February 2011. Related: All topics, Pregnancy.
Might be a stupid question, but just asking. I am a HIV positive male. Will I ever be able to become father to a healthy child? Will I be able to have a baby using natural conception? Is my sperm defective? :-(
Answer
Thank you for your question.
Being HIV positive should not stop you having children. It is possible to have HIV negative children and to conceive naturally without infecting the mother of this child, if she is also negative. You would have to be stable on HIV treatment with an undetectable viral load. Both partners should be without STIs and unprotected sex should happen when the woman is ovulating. This will increase the chances of the woman getting pregnant without becoming positive herself.
Many discordant couples (where one person is positive and the other negative) are managing to conceive naturally and have negative children whilst not infecting each other. For more information on how to do this please follow this link
You may also find it useful to read the Swiss Statement . This describes the transmission risk for someone on stable HIV treatment as “negligible” and “similar to risks of daily life”. It is impossible to put a percentage risk on this.
When you decide you are ready for a child you should contact your doctor and speak to them about it.
If you are HIV positive, from 2011, in Argentina they wash your sperm in Public Hospitals, if the man is HIV positive and the woman is negative, and the treatments are free of charge in Buenos Aires Province, but you have to be an argentine nationalized which is not so difficult. Medicine in Argentina is for free because its ruled in their Constitution, which also is open to the free inmigration.
Good luck!!!
You can only know your HIV status by taking a test. Any symptoms should be shown to a doctor.
I have sore troat ,icting under my foot aand palm am diagonis with candida is posible am hiv positive
Hi Bongiwe,
Is your boyfriend also HIV positive? If he is positive the only risk from not using condoms would be if you were worried about other sexually transmitted infections. This assumes that you are your partner are likely to have the same type of HIV, and neither of you have drug resistance.
I’m hiv positive and am pregnant I’m not sure if sleeping with my boyfriend without protection will make the risk of my baby being infected high
Dear Astrarter
It is good that you love your girlfriend and are planning to have a baby.
It is possible for a sero different couple like you (where one is HIV negative and the other is positive), to have a baby naturally. However, this is dependant on a number of factors including whether your girlfriend is taking ARVs (antiretroviral treatment for HIV) and what her viral load is. Taking ARVs and having an undetectable viral load dramatically reduces the risk of passing on HIV to the negative partner and the baby. Please follow this link to our guide to the Swiss statement which explains in more detail, conditions that need to be present, in order for a sero-different couple to conceive naturally.
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/swiss-statement
You may also find it useful to read our guide to HIV, pregnancy and women’s health. The guide gives more information about other conception options available to you and also answers a lot of general questions you and your girlfriend may have around HIV and pregnancy.
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/woman-hiv-positive
Good luck with your future plans.
I am a 30yrs old man, l am HIV Negative and am in love with a HIV positive girl, l want to marry her but am scared of being infected and l want to have children naturally. what is the possibilty ? please help me out. Thanks
It is possible for you and your husband to have children and for both you and them to remain HIV negative. For more information please follow these links here and here.
Thank you very much. It was my inner feeling. Thank you for your previous well wishes for me and this one as well.
I will try concentrating on my health to increase my CD4 and decrease my viral load. When I am ready for a child, I will definitely adopt a child and give all my best to the child.
Please pray for people like me & hope the best medicine or cure will keep coming.
Hi
I am a 37 year old HIV negative woman married to an HIV positive man. I want my own child. Is this possible to have a child without contracting HIV? Where can I get the assistance especially in South Africa?