Sex, life and the female condom: some views of HIV positive women.

This article offers some insights into the experiences of HIV positive women with the female condom, drawing on my own personal experience and responses of 18 members of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS to an e-mail survey conducted in 2005. Major barriers reported to female condom use were cost and sporadic or very limited access. All respondents talked about needing to negotiate the use of female condoms with their male sex partners. Most felt more in control and more confident during sex when using the female condom than with the male condom or unprotected sex. Concerns about female condoms appear to be common, especially among women who have never used one; those who had used the female condom for long periods of time said good things about it. Women reclaiming our bodies is a central part of the joy and the challenge of promoting the female condom. For HIV positive women and girls, using a condom is more than protection against pregnancy, but a matter of life and death greater than the risks pregnancy can bring. Female condoms could make a critically important contribution to protecting HIV positive women's sexuality and continued sexual activity, as a fundamental part of our sexual and reproductive rights, if only they were more widely available and affordable.