Sexual abstinence among people living with HIV/AIDS

Key take-home messages

• Diagnosis of HIV infection can have far-reaching implications: people’s sexual interest, the pleasure they derive from sex, their sense of attractiveness or appeal as a sexual partner may change considerably irrespective of their age, sex, race, sexual orientation, housing status, drug use, or underlying diseases such as hemophilia.
• Risk perception evolves with time and experience, and the fear of infecting partners. This lack of libido may continue to affect sexual relationships well after the initial “settling down” period. However, many people living with HIV later recover satisfactory sexual lives with their HIV-positive or negative partners.
• In many HIV-positive patients sexual desire decreases because of fatigue, generalized wasting, muscle aches, pains, paraesthesia, and depression. Medications such as protease inhibitors have been found to have an adverse effect on desire and arousal.
• Among older adults (aged 50 and more) celibacy is more prevalent following diagnosis with HIV. Women report celibacy more than men. In general, older adults may have difficulty resuming healthy sexual relationships following diagnosis with HIV/AIDS.
• Among HIV-positive adolescents with hemophilia, abstinence can be intentional and marked by a series of decisions and behaviors that are influenced by peer group norms and personal values.
• Injection drug users (IDUs) are more likely to be abstinent when they have lower CD4 level (below 200), HIV-related medical symptoms, and lower neuropsychological memory test. In female IDUs, depressive mood is also associated with abstinence.
• Although HAART use has been linked to sexual functioning of HIV-positive men, HIV-positive women describe highly similar experiences of diminished sexual activity, a loss of sexual interest, and decreased feelings of attractiveness both before and after the advent of HAART.

• Determinants of Health
  • Housing
• Population(s)
  • Men who have sex with men
  • Women
  • Children or Youth (less than 18 years old)
  • People who use drugs
  • Heterosexual men
  • General HIV+ population
• Engagement and Care Cascade
  • Treatment
• Mental Health
  • Depression