If you are living with HIV, you may be wondering whether you can ever date or get married. The answer is: “Yes!”
It’s true that the issue of having a sexual relationship with a partner can cause anxiety when you are living with HIV. But you have to remember—“living with HIV” means just that: Living! Having HIV does not prevent you from dating or marrying—it just may require a little more responsibility and trust from you and your partner.
HIV-positive men are living long and healthier lives while managing HIV as a chronic illness. Although research has extensively documented the experiences of illness of people living with HIV, dating, marriage, and fatherhood among heterosexual Latino men has not been examined. To address this gap, this study used a qualitative study design to examine patterns and strategies for dating, marriage, and parenthood among 24 HIV-positive heterosexual Puerto Rican men living in Boston.
The findings in the study indicate that an HIV diagnosis does not necessarily deter men from having an active sexual life, marrying, or having children. In fact, for some of the men, engaging in these social and life-changing events is part of moving on and normalizing life with HIV; these men planned for, achieved, and interpreted these events in the context of establishing normalcy with HIV.
Although the HIV diagnosis discouraged some men from engaging in sexual relations, getting married, or having children, others fulfilled these desires with strategies aimed to reconciling their HIV status in their personal life, including dating other hiv positive singles only.
Additional important themes identified in this study include the decision to disclose HIV status to new sexual partners as well as the decision to accept the risk of HIV transmission to a child or partner in order to fulfill desires of fatherhood. Understanding the personal struggles, decision-making patterns, and needs of HIV-positive heterosexual men can aid in designing interventions that support healthy living with HIV.
I thought my love life died the day I was diagnosed, but I was wrong. Dating as a positive person is difficult, to say the least. But I met a great guy through online hiv dating site and we are still together years later. As I am glad to help out fellow romantics, I will share with you some things I learned along my travels of the online dating world.
Getting ready to go out with someone new, my friends were preparing for their dates by buying new outfits and getting dressed up, but I was home taking meds, feeling crappy and stressing over how to disclose.
It is lonely, scary and stressful trying to date as a positive woman. You might be asking yourself why disclose if it is so stressful? Well the answer is simple: if you ever plan to have an honest relationship with another person, you have to disclose. This is something that affects them too. Lives are at risk if you are not honest about your health status. If you don’t disclose, you could be legally charged with an offence. Sad but true.
You need to practice safer sex and talk about what is safe for both of you. You can still have a happy, healthy love life but you need to talk about what you are both comfortable with, and what is safe for both of you as a couple. When the heat of the moment takes over people rarely think of these things until it is too late.
I tried to date HIV-negative men but found that eventually HIV always became an issue, so I chose to try something new: on-line dating. This is not for everyone, and certainly not fool proof. I met some wonderful people and got a lot of support from HIV positive dating sites, but I also met a lot of idiots who were just looking for sex or someone to belittle. They had the foolish impression that they were better than I was because they were not HIV-positive.
I did meet some lovely friends and finally met a great guy that I ended up falling in love with.You can find popular hiv dating websites here. Your best defense is a good offense so here are some tips to help make the experience good. Have fun but be careful!