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.
I’m 30 and I’m looking for someone in the same situation.
Hi Gerald. So long as the mother uses HIV treatment during and after pregnancy, the baby is likely to be negative. See question 6 at this link for more info:
http://i-base.info/qa/what-are-the-most-asked-questions
If am HIV positive and i also marry a my fellow positive person, what will be the status of the children?
Pls see the links at this answer
http://i-base.info/qa/11844
hlw,i a from south east asia .i had unprotected sex with a girl i don’t know a thing about. i am so worried about being infected to hiv that i have come here to ask for a suggestion and counsel. plzz counsel me through this
Hi Trust
I am sorry but i-base doesn’t have ways for people to contact each other. For safety reasons this is why I haven’t included your phone number. South Africa has a lot of HIV support organsisations and this might be a good place to start to meeting other people.
I m a 29 year old in SA and I m HIV positive I m looking for a girlfriend who’s in the same condition with me so that well understand each other about our situation.
Hi D
Do you know your girlfriend’s CD4 count? This is important in order to know how likely these symptoms are linked to HIV.
As you know, the lower the CD4 count the more important to start treatment. HIV treatnent is sometimes enough to make these symptom go awy, but a doctor needs to decide this.
It sound like you are already doing all you can by being there to support her. You can talk about your experience with treatment ect.
Sometimes it takes a time to come to terms with finding out you are HIV positive. Just being there through this is good. It might be that she will change he mind with more time.
Please show her this post if you think it might help.
I edited your name to “D” in case she is worried about this being online – so that everything is anonymous.
I’m a man with HI n my galfrnd tested positive earlier but is not taking any medication as she keep telling me she’s not ready yet n at the same time experiencing sign of hiv symptoms like headache, diarrhoea, fatigue n vaginal yeast also short tempered. I try 2 explain 2 her how important it is 2 start takin medication as early bt refuse n fight me. What must I do 2 help.
There is no reason that you can’t have kids.
You can find lots of information here:
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/what-to-do-when-one-partner-is-hiv-positive-and-the-other-is-hiv-negative