Merchant SF; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).
Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. WePpD2077.
Lakshya Trust., Vadodara, India
Issues: Reaching out to the female partners of MSM through a comprehensive STD, HIV/AIDS service package. Women are the first among the vulnerable populations in the context of HIV/AIDS awareness programmes globally especially so in India. The institution of marriage is "sacred" with many unwritten rules marginalizing the farer sex where patriarchy rules. Every child born and brought up in this culture is strongly expected to marry heterosexually. Women married to MSM stand vulnerable in the context of accessibility of STD- HIV services due to the various issues revolving around confidentiality, masculinity, patriarchy and power dynamics which needs to be skillfully addressed. Description: a study with a sample size of 100 female partners of MSM shows that 90per milleof these women where unaware of their husbands sexual orientation, awareness level about condom usage and its positive implications is very low. Out of total 100 sample size of females 20per mille of them suffered from different STI's (syphilis, herpes and gonorrhea) a few of them (7per mille) have tried out home remedies but in vain. Counseling in these cases is a tight ropewalk between confidentiality and information sharing, as confronting the sexual orientation of husband to his wife would directly wreck the institution of marriage and on the other end for the women it is an issue of basic human right to be rightfully informed to seek better health choices. Approaching the women by merging the STD-HIV programmes with RTI and RCH programmes has yield fruitful results in creating a positive health seeking behavior. Lessons learned: developing safe spaces for negotiation of condom usage within the parameters of marriage where by enabling the women to have informed and right choices. Services designed for these women should incorporate child and family well being. Recommendations: Introduction of multipronged female health care programmes with the existing HIV-AIDS awareness programmes can be a possible key to reach out to female partners of MSM.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Child
- Communication
- Condoms
- Confidentiality
- Counseling
- Female
- HIV
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Health
- Health Services
- Humans
- India
- Research
- Sexual Behavior
- organization & administration
Other ID:
UI: 102284857
From Meeting Abstracts