Women With HIV Face Sex Negativity, Shaming and Multiple Obstacles to Comprehensive Care, Survey Finds

Many doctors fail to tell women living with HIV that having an undetectable viral load dramatically reduces their risk of transmitting HIV, according to a new report released Thursday.

The study, conducted by the advocacy group Positive Women’s Network-USA (PWN-USA), found that out of 180 women surveyed, 38% were not told by their doctors that HIV viral load suppression can minimize the risk of HIV transmission. This is despite a growing body of research showing that effective antiretroviral therapy, pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) and reproductive health advancements “have made having sex and building families safer, easier and less expensive” for women living with HIV, states the report, which was released on National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

“They’re not teaching treatment as prevention,” said PWN-USA board member Evany Turk, one of the study’s researchers.

Researchers also discovered that women 44 years old or younger living with HIV did not receive adequate sexual and reproductive healthcare. Of those respondents of reproductive age, only 40% said their doctors had asked in the past year if they needed birth control, while only about 39% said they were asked if they wanted to get pregnant.

These statistics haven’t changed much over the last three years. A sexual and reproductive healthcare study conducted by PWN-USA in 2013 found that 46% of women said their doctors didn’t tell them about the link between viral load suppression and transmission risk. And 48% of women said their doctors never asked if they had or wanted to have children.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
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The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
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