Question:

I am in a relationship with someone who has the AIDS virus...we are both female. I've heard a lot of different opinions about how you can contract the AIDS virus and what to do to prevent it. I would like to know the chances I have of contracting it from her and would like to know what the best ways are for me to prevent this from ever happening. We are careful about respecting each other's menstrual cycles, but we do not use any sort of protection...is that necessary?

Answer provided by:

Lisa Capaldini, M.D.
Internal Medicine

You're right that there isn't a lot of data to answer your good questions. Here's what we do know: HIV is transmissible from cervical secretions and blood. So to practice safe sex, you need to prevent contact with your partner's genital secretions (use a dental dam for oral sex, a finger cot or glove for vaginal pernetration ) and blood (again, using a dental dam or finger cot). While your risk of exposure is highest when your partner is menstruating, there IS risk (from geneital secretions) of exposure to HIV when she is NOT menstruating. To my knowledge, there are no cases of proven transmission SEXUALLY between women -- there are cases of transmission between female partners, but the cases I'm aware involved both sexual exposure and sharing needles and/or heterosexual exposure as well. But since we KNOW there is HIV in genital fluids and blood, the precautions I outlined make sense.
Good luck and stay safe!

051119
ASKD051106

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