Understanding The Challenges HIV/AIDS Poses To Your Sex Life And How To Manage It

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Although the number of HIV/AIDS cases reported has declined in the U.S. in the past decade, it is not a reason to have unprotected sex again. Doing so, with multiple partners, puts everyone at a higher risk of contracting this disease. Since there is still no cure, and most patients with HIV/AIDS have to live with it for years on retroviral medications, you still have to be careful and use condoms. If you do contract HIV/AIDS, it does impact your sex life and your sexual health. Here is how to manage your sex life and this disease once you already have it. 

Take Your Medication Religiously

Skipping taking your medications does not just affect viral counts in your own blood. I can invite health problems that your partners are currently experiencing in your body. Since you cannot fight their contagious illnesses off as well as they can, missing your medication could prove to be nearly fatal. It is not just for their protection and health, but almost entirely for your own that you should be taking your medications religiously. 

Be Completely Honest and up Front With Your Partners

It is scary to think that someone you develop feelings for will refuse you if you tell them that you have this disease. It is even scarier to think that they will refuse to be intimate with you. When people are made aware of your condition, and they are given the choice between being with you and risking contraction of a disease, or not being with you, sometimes those that really love you will surprise you. If, however, you do not tell your partner(s) until after you have had sex that you have HIV/AIDS, you may be received with anger, hate, resentment, fear, and hostility. Be completely honest with your partner(s) upfront and take the risk that he/she will choose to leave. 

Learn About All the Ways You Can Have Sex Without Infecting Someone Else

Besides the continued use of male condoms, there are also female condoms that can work in tandem with male condoms. There are medications that uninfected partners can take to reduce their risk of contracting the disease before the two of you are intimate. There are ways of satisfying each other's sexual needs that do not involve penetration or the exchange of bodily fluids. You can learn about all of this and more when you start seeing a sex therapist for sexual health therapy

 


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