Question
How can we have an HIV negative baby?
7 August 2006. Related: All topics, Newly diagnosed, Pregnancy.
The question is this, I have been having unprotected sex with my partner for the past 4 years up until now when I was diagnosed positive. She tested twice negative after my test. Both of us were mystified. Sometime last year she fell pregnant, but miscarried. We have a healthy, negative daughter. We are planning to have a second baby. I discussed this with my doctor and who assured me that it is possible to have a negative baby. He however, advised me that I should start treatment to get my viral load undetectable then try. I told him this could be risky for my partner but he said if I had uprotected sex with her in the past without infecting her how will I infect her now. My CD4 is 360 and was planning to start treatment once about 250. Confused.
Answer
Your email raises several questions.
First of all it may help to look at the i-Base guide to HIV and Pregnancy.
A lot of information here relates to how to safely have an HIV negative baby. Most importantly, if the mother is HIV-negative, and does not become HIV-positive during the pregnancy, the baby will always be HIV-negative.
It is also worth discussing your personal situation in terms of risk of HIV for your wife. Although your partner is negative now, this doesn’t mean that she could not become HIV-positive in the future. She may have a stronger immune system against HIV, but with time, and increasing exposure, it would be very likely that the virus would infect her at some point if you don’t use condoms in the future.
Given that you have not been using condoms for the last four years, then not using condoms in order to conceive a baby, probably is a very low risk for your partner now, but using condoms afterwards is important. The risk could be as low as 1 in 1000 for example for each exposure, but over time then it is more likely that she will become infected.
You could reduce the risk to zero by using a specialist process called ‘sperm-washing’ which is available on the NHS, but this also has a lower chance of successfully conceiving. More information aboujt this is available in the section of the guide on planning a pregnancy.
Whatever you decide is a personal decision that you both have to be both happy with.
In this respect, your doctor is giving you good advice about going on treatment. By going on treatment now, the levels of HIV will be reduced in your semen, and this will make the chance of transmission even lower. And for your own health, there is not much difference between you starting now on when your count falls a little lower. Starting a little earlier may even have benefits for you by reducing the risk of side effects. There is no evidence to suggest that your treatment presents any risk to your wife.
More detailed information about your treatment is included in the i-Base guide Introduction to Combination Therapy.
I hope this information is useful but please get back if there are other questions we can help with.
Hi Sihle,
Even if a person has a CD4 of 350 they should be on medication. This is because its now recommended that everyone who is positive should be on meds, this is regardless of their CD4 count.
Q6 here explains HIV and pregnancy:
http://i-base.info/qa/what-are-the-most-asked-questions
Good day
Just wanted to know what are the possibilities of having an HIV negative baby if both parents are positive and not on treatment yet because both have CD$ above 350.
Hi,
Septrin should not affect your chances of getting pregnant.
You can find lots of information about getting pregnant here:
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/what-to-do-when-one-partner-is-hiv-positive-and-the-other-is-hiv-negative
And general information about HIV and pregnancy here:
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
I’m a HIV positive lady and my husband is negative.My question is how can i get pregnant when i am on septrin and also without affecting my husband.
Hi Bonolo,
The only way to know if your baby is HIV positive is for them to be tested. If you are on treatment it is less likely that your baby will be infected, but it is very important to check this with a blood test. You can read more about testing for babies in our pregnancy guide.
Can you tell me the names of your HIV drugs? AZT is just one drug- HIV treatment needs to be made up of 3 different drugs to be effective.
Hi, im a 30 year old Hiv positive woman on AZT for 7 years and I don’t know my partners status, I fell pregnant and now the baby is born but my worry is whether or not the baby is infected or not.
Please advice
Dear Ramesh
It’s great that you and your wife are looking to the future and planning to have a baby. Many sero-different couples (where one is HIV positive and the other is not), have had and continue to have healthy HIV negative babies. It is possible, therefore, for you and your wife to have a baby without you passing HIV onto her. There are a number of options available to a couple like you. However, these depend on a number of factors including whether you are taking ARVs. For more information on the options available to you, please follow this link to our guide to HIV, pregnancy and women’s health.
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy/man-hiv-positive
Good luck with your future plans.
Hi,
I am a Hiv postive and my wife is hiv neative. we have planned for to have a baby of our own. Please suggest us how to proceed on this and let me know wether we can have a healthy baby without affecting my wife..
Hi Thandeka
It is not clear why some people become infected more easily than others. Part of this may be good or bad luck though. Over time, and more exposure to the risk of HIV, nearly everyone is vulnerable to infection.
In this case, you are lucky that you are still HIV-negative, but using condoms now with your partner will be really important to stay HIV-negative.
I think you can trust in the test results that after tow negative tests you are HIV-negative. This is only true if you have been using condoms since October.
It is good that your husband had an HIV test, and found out he was HIV-positive before he became really sick. Now, using treatment, he should see his CD4 count get stronger, and you can both lead a long life seeing your children grow up.
If you have questions about your husbands treatment, or your own health relating to HIV, please let us know.
I like this one and it gives me hopes. One can have a stronger immune system against HIV and it is true. I am married women (27) with two beautiful babies (6) and (1.3 months).
During my pragnancy, I tested-negative. In October 2007 my husband tested HIV-positive, he is now on ARVs and I tested HIV-negative again and I tested again this February and tested-negative again and again. But I am still scared about the whole situation. How come my husband is positive and i am negative.
1. We were not using condoms before testing or before pregnancy
2. We have our bouncing baby boy (negative) and breastfeeding
3. His CD4 counts are less at 155
My question now is: is there any possibilities that this deases might be hiding somewhere? Am I still in a window period, or i am definetetly negative. That worries me each day and i am not relaxed, off course i will condoms with my husband, but i have the feeling that it might be hiding somewhere. please relieve me.