Views and practices of women living with HIV/AIDS on reproduction, sexuality, and rights

Abstract

The article analyzes the views and practices on reproduction, sexuality, and rights of women living with HIV/AIDS (WLWA). This qualitative study was based on interviews at two moments, 2013 and 2018, with seven WLWA seen at HIV/AIDS referral services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study examined the opinions and experiences on motherhood, affective-sexual relations, feminism, and sexual and reproductive rights. The findings reveal the women's naturalized perception of the female body and their accountability on the events in sexual and reproductive life. An association was seen between reproductive right and the right to choose motherhood or the fathers' participation in raising the children. As for sexual rights, the prevailing conception was the woman's (or person's) right to choose in the face of demands, impositions, or violence to have sex, including the context of matrimonial relations. The sociocultural context proved to be more determinant in preventive practices and reproductive trajectory than HIV serology. WLWA displayed the capacity to reshape practices linked to routine care for the family, motherhood, contraceptive choices, and the exercise of sexuality. Yet traditional gender norms appear heavily in their family dynamics, and the reach of these transformations is mediated by the sociocultural and economic context. Thus, lower access to symbolic goods by low-income strata, which characterizes the universe of the women interviewed here, compromises their access to the gains made in sexual freedom and female autonomy.