OBJECTIVE: To investigate the vulnerabilities that favor HIV infection by female adolescents and young adults and to determine the difficulties faced by this population following diagnosis. METHODS: For this qualitative study we interviewed HIV-seropositive young or adolescent women diagnosed as adolescents and receiving treatment at the time of the interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and entirely transcribed. The data obtained were analyzed through intensive reading, classification of themes, and hermeneutic dialectic analysis in dialogue with the literature. RESULTS: Twenty-three women diagnosed between 11 and 19 years of age were interviewed. Twenty-one participants had acquired Aids via sexual transmission and one from blood. Transmission mode was unknown in one case. The interviews revealed the following vulnerability situations: disbelief in the possibility of contamination, young age at sexual initiation (below the Brazilian national average), not using a condom, having promiscuous partners or partners who used injectable drugs, and submitting to violence. The main problems faced after the diagnosis were prejudice, discrimination, need to take medication daily, and concerns associated with the desire of becoming a mother. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing the feminization of Aids entails enhancing the debate regarding sexuality and the dilemmas faced by adolescents to establish an open and unprejudiced dialogue that is not biased by norms, in addition to providing guidance about sexually transmitted diseases, with free and uncomplicated distribution of condoms.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the vulnerabilities that favor HIV infection by female adolescents and young adults and to determine the difficulties faced by this population following diagnosis. METHODS: For this qualitative study we interviewed HIV-seropositive young or adolescent women diagnosed as adolescents and receiving treatment at the time of the interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and entirely transcribed. The data obtained were analyzed through intensive reading, classification of themes, and hermeneutic dialectic analysis in dialogue with the literature. RESULTS: Twenty-three women diagnosed between 11 and 19 years of age were interviewed. Twenty-one participants had acquired Aids via sexual transmission and one from blood. Transmission mode was unknown in one case. The interviews revealed the following vulnerability situations: disbelief in the possibility of contamination, young age at sexual initiation (below the Brazilian national average), not using a condom, having promiscuous partners or partners who used injectable drugs, and submitting to violence. The main problems faced after the diagnosis were prejudice, discrimination, need to take medication daily, and concerns associated with the desire of becoming a mother. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing the feminization of Aids entails enhancing the debate regarding sexuality and the dilemmas faced by adolescents to establish an open and unprejudiced dialogue that is not biased by norms, in addition to providing guidance about sexually transmitted diseases, with free and uncomplicated distribution of condoms.