Question
I’m positive and my boyfriend is negative – can we have a child?
24 February 2012. Related: All topics, Pregnancy, Sero different couples.
Is there any way to have child? I am HIV positive and my boy friend is HIV negative.
Answer
Many HIV positive women safely have children with HIV negative partners.
Access to treatment dramatically reduces the risk of the baby having HIV. This requires using antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to bring your viral load to undetectable. It is also possible to become pregnant without infecting your boyfriend.
This section of the i-Base pregnancy guide talks about when the woman is positive and her partner is positive.
If you are planning to have a baby talk this over with your doctor or health worker at your clinic. They will be able to give you advice on how to do this safely.
Please take a look at our guide to HIV and pregnancy, which should answer many of your questions.
Please also look at our ‘having a baby FAQs’ Â where many similar questions have already been answered.
Hi Emily,
What country do you live in? In many countries HIV treatment (ART) is recommended at any CD4 count. So you don’t have to wait for your CD4 count to go down.
And the good news is that once you start ART and your CD4 count stays below 50 copies you can stop using condoms.
If you live in South Africa you can get in touch with the Treatment Action Campaign. They might be able to offer help and advice on starting ART.
Im positive his not he found me like that and we love each other we use condom and how can we get children im not in treatment they say my cd4count is too high for it
Hi Cindy,
Please see the above post.
We want a baby nd I’m positive his negative how can we make a baby
Hi Spaminata Jam,
There is no reason why you cannot have a child. Lots of HIV positive women do. However, if you wish to reduce the risk of transmission to either your partner or baby, you must be on treatment. Please see the following guidebook:
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
Hi I’m positive and my boyfrend is negative. Can I have a child? I’m not on treatment.
Hi Lebang, thanks – it sound like you are just luckly to be negative – and you are doing the right things for your health. I can’t explain your partners results, butit is better just to move forward. Using condoms now is important. If your boyfrined starts HIV treatment and get an undetectable viral load, then you could stop using condoms again if this is your choice and you are not worried about pregnancy or other STIs.
Hi. 2 weeks after giving birth my boyfriend told me that he is positive and he tested positive wen i was 8 months. i couldnt believe it and what stressd was that im breastfeeding. i went to test nd i tested negative i have to go again after 3months.im always woundering that when did he get infectected because we have 6 years together nd most ot our time we were not condomising and im negative.