Being born with HIV is a very hard situation to deal with. When it comes to your love life, it may scare people away (mostly because they aren’t as informed as they could be about HIV). One woman tells her story of how when she was 19 years old she had to tell the person that she was dating that she was born with the virus.
Christina Rodriguez was about to go on a date and reconnect with someone she had a crush on all through high school. They had just started talking again after two years. She was nervous and excited at the same time. She had gone through, in her head, just how she was going to tell him that she had HIV but wasn’t sure how to get the words out. They had a great date, and then went back to his home to hang out for a while. While they were sitting in his room she decided that it was time to tell him. She brought out the note cards that she had thoughtfully written out so that she wouldn’t miss anything.
She began to tell him how her father had died of AIDS after contracting HIV, possibly from a drug needle. She told him that her mother didn’t know and ended up contracting HIV as well. And then when Christina was born they tested her and it came back positive. She stopped speaking and was terrified of what his reaction would be. He asked if he could hug her. He then asked her questions such as whether she had AIDS to which she answered no, she has HIV which can cause AIDS. He asked if she was angry at her father and she told him that she was not because at the time that he was alive there wasn’t much in the way of support or treatment for the disease. She also explained that a c0ndom always needed to be worn during sex to prevent her partner from contracting the virus.
Christina has been dating this man for two and a half years now. It hasn’t been without struggles. If she wants to have children a lot of research needs to be done because they need to be safe about it and find ways to lessen the chance that the child will be born with the virus. Her boyfriend gets tested regularly and she stays strict with her medication.
