Question
Can I have unprotected sex with my positive partner without being infected?
10 January 2012. Related: All topics, HIV transmission, Newly diagnosed.
I am 28 years old and I recently tested negative. My girlfried is pregnant, her results come back positive. How is this likely? Should I continue having unprotected sex with her? I am confused.
Answer
I’m very sorry to hear about your girlfriend’s situation and and I can understand that you might be feeling slightly confused. There are many couples who are in similar situation as both of you and this link below will explain most of your queries.
Is your girlfriend on treatment at the moment? Is she receiving any prenatal care from her local hospital? She also might want to consider getting support from her local support group or a counsellor, which can help her to come to terms living with HIV. She will be able to gain and share experiences with others who are in the similar situation as her, rather than having to deal with it in isolation.
You too might want to consider getting support for yourself, this will help you to understand living with HIV and also give additional support to your girlfriend.
If you do continue to have unprotected sex, then the chance of you being infected increases. So far you have been very lucky. It is advisable that you use protection (condom) during sex in order to minimise the chance of being infected.
Please take a look at this link for more information on sero-different couples.
Hi Presh,
If your viral load is now less than 50, your partner won’t be at risk. Please see here for more info:
http://i-base.info/htb/32308
It been 2 months I founded out that am HIV positive and I States my mads same time my cd4 was 560 and viral lord was 156 what I wanna know is that if I have sex with my boyfriend with out condom what will happened to me??
For more information on HIV transmission, including the impact of treatment and viral load, please see the i-Base Guide to HIV testing and sexual transmission.
I am male & HIV positive with CD4 count of 428 & undetectable viral load. My question is if CD4 count can increase to a normal level of an HIV negative person (500 & above) is it possible to have sex without a condom & still not infect my partner? A colleague told me that her friend is married & pregnant (her husband is HIV positive with the CD4 of more from 500 & this couple have done so many tests together with the female continue to get negative results.