Sexual Difficulties in People Living with HIV in France—Results from a Large Representative Sample of Outpatients Attending French Hospitals (ANRS-EN12-VESPA)

Abstract

We analysed sexual difficulties in a nationally representative sample of HIV-infected outpatients in France. Analyses were restricted to the 1,812 HIV-treated participants who reported at least one sexual partner during the 12 months prior to the study. The sample included 40.6% homosexual men and 24.4% women; 68.1% had a steady partner and 48.2% reported casual partners. Sexual difficulties were reported by 33.3% of the selected individuals and were more frequent in those with low sexual activity. Immuno-virological outcomes were not associated with sexual difficulties. After multiple adjustment for sexual frequency and antidepressant consumption, it was found that a larger HIV-network, reporting HIV-discrimination from friends and/or sexual partners, suffering from lipodystrophy and reporting very disturbing HIV-related symptoms were all significantly associated with sexual difficulties. HIV and HIV-treatment experience are associated with sexual difficulties. Psychological support focused on HIV-experience should be tested as a possible tool for improving sexual quality of life.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and HIV Testing: Perspectives and Experiences of Women and Men Living with HIV and AIDS

“…This needs to be highlighted more in sexual and reproductive health and treatment adherence services. 34 ''At the time of my diagnosis, I was in a good relationship with someone else and although we had always had protected sex I could no longer have sex with him. I felt dirty, disgusting, used and as far from sexy as humanly possible.…”

Sexual Satisfaction Among Men Living with HIV in Europe

“…Psychological and relational [4] factors play an important role, as well as HIV related stigma [5]. The correlation with HIV disease parameters such as CD4 count or viral load is less clear [4][5][6]. Importantly, the role of antiretroviral medication in the onset of sexual problems remains controversial [7].…”

Stigma, discrimination, and sexual (dis)satisfaction among people living with HIV: results from the “AIDES et toi” survey

“…Therefore, it is not surprising that there exists a relationship between the experience of stigma and discrimination and the psychosocial aspects of PLWHA's quality of life (Pre´au et al, 2007;Subramanian, Gupte, Dorairaj, Periannan, & Mathai, 2009). However, there is a lack of literature regarding sexual satisfaction among PLWHA (Inoue, Yamazaki, Seki, Wakabayashi, & Kihara, 2004;Lambert, Keegan, & Petrak, 2005) and, to our knowledge, its association with the HIV-related stigma and discrimination has been barely studied (Bouhnik et al, 2008). *Corresponding author.…”

“…Based on the large experience that this community-based organization has had with PLWHA as well as on previous works (Bouhnik et al, 2008;Inoue et al, 2004;Siegel, Schrimshaw, & Lekas, 2006), we hypothesized that feeling sexually (dis)satisfied could be related to the experience of stigma and discrimination in sexual settings. Consequently, the present work aims to determine if there is a link between discrimination and stigma, and sexual (dis)satisfaction among PLWHA from the data collected by a community-based survey called ''AIDES et toi.…”