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Planning to Be a Parent in HIV Sero-Different Relationships: A Critical Gender Analysis

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Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Couples with Mixed HIV Status: Beyond Positive/Negative

Part of the book series: Social Aspects of HIV ((SHIV,volume 2))

Abstract

Drawing on 18 in-depth interviews with four men and six women living in HIV sero-different heterosexual relationships, we explore how traditional ethno-gender scripts are negotiated and challenged as couples make decisions about their sexual relationships and, more specifically, reproductive decisions, including having unprotected sex in order to conceive “naturally”. The findings open up a traditionally underexplored area of HIV positive men’s lives in particular, revealing gender similarities and differences in the men’s and women’s reproductive choices and the ways they made sense of their choices within the context of their individual sero-different relationship. In terms of gender similarities, the desire for children, the social importance of parenthood and the desire to protect one’s partner and family post-diagnosis were evident in both men’s and women’s accounts. The findings also demonstrate gender differences in how the men and women renegotiated love, sexual risk taking and intimacy following HIV diagnosis. A further difference was the way in which a sero-positive status added to men’s lack of power and agency when it came to reproductive decision-making discussions within their relationship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Treatment as Prevention (TasP) is a prevention intervention aimed at bringing forward the time when treatment is given to people with diagnosed HIV infection in order to prevent onward transmission of HIV to sexual partners and ultimately to reduce HIV within the population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Carmel Kelly & Maria Lohan

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  1. Carmel Kelly
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  2. Maria Lohan
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Correspondence to Carmel Kelly .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Asha Persson

  2. Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA

    Shana D. Hughes

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Kelly, C., Lohan, M. (2017). Planning to Be a Parent in HIV Sero-Different Relationships: A Critical Gender Analysis. In: Persson, A., Hughes, S. (eds) Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Couples with Mixed HIV Status: Beyond Positive/Negative. Social Aspects of HIV, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42725-6_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42725-6_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42723-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42725-6

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