Pinel AC; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1992 Jul 19-24; 8: C381 (abstract no. PoC 4831).
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
OBJECTIVES: To better understand sexual behavior, contraceptive use, maternity and abortion in HIV-positive women. METHODS: Individual in-depth interviews, and 3 focus groups, with 65 HIV-positive women, 15 of whom had been pregnant at least once after infection. The age range was 16-39 years, all had been infected through heterosexual intercourse, and none had developed AIDS. I.V. drug users and prostitutes were excluded. The sample was chosen from cities of high incidence of HIV in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. RESULTS: There was a marked difference between partners of I.V. drug users and hemophiliacs when compared to those of hetero/bisexual partners, the former many times expressing the desire of becoming infected as a "proof of love". Sexual activity was seldom abolished after infection but level of information concerning AIDS and contraception was not enough to determine preventive behavior. Maternity was not automatically discarded after serologic confirmation; as a matter of fact, many women who had not considered motherhood seriously before HIV infection began to do so afterwards. Substance abuse, depression and lack of emotional support seemed to be more relevant factors in determining what could be considered as inadequate attitudes towards preventive sex and maternity, than socio-economic background and schooling. CONCLUSIONS: Gender role behavior that stresses maternity and symbiotic linkage to men as indivisible components of womanhood and self-esteem have a strong influence over sexual and reproductive behavior.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Behavior
- Bisexuality
- Brazil
- Coitus
- Contraception
- Female
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Hemophilia A
- Humans
- Male
- Pregnancy
- Reproductive Behavior
- Sexual Behavior
Other ID:
UI: 102200214
From Meeting Abstracts