Why are women at risk?

Most HIV+ women have been infected with HIV through heterosexual sex. Physically, women are more susceptible than men to HIV infection through heterosexual sex, and this fact alone means that special attention must be paid to protecting them if they are not to be disproportionately affected by the epidemic.

Information drawn from different studies shows that during heterosexual sex, women are about twice as likely to become infected with HIV from men as men are from women. This is a major reason why women have caught up so rapidly with men when it comes to figures for the numbers of HIV+ people.

It seems very possible that, unless something is done to prevent it happening, women will soon come to overtake men in these statistics.

This may already be happening - data from the CDC in America shows that among teens, girls accounted for more than half of new HIV infections reported in 2001. Globally, women make up 60% of the 15 - 24 year olds who are HIV+.

Young women and the risk for HIV

The young were once considered relatively safe from HIV/AIDS. Today, more than half of all new infections strike people under the age of 25. Girls are hit harder and younger than boys. Infant and child death rates have risen sharply, and 14 million children are now orphans because of the disease.

The world's two billion children and adolescents are at the center of the HIV/AIDS crisis. And yet they are the ones who offer the greatest hope for defeating the epidemic.

Everything about female condoms

The female condom is a polyurethane sheath or pouch about 17 cm in length. It is worn by a woman during sex. It entirely lines the vagina and it helps to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV.

At each end of the condom there is a flexible ring. At the closed end of the sheath, the flexible ring is inserted into the vagina to hold the female condom in place. At the other open end of the sheath, the ring stays outside the vulva at the entrance to the vagina. This ring acts as a guide during penetration and it also stops the sheath bunching up inside the vagina.

There is silicone-based lubricant on the inside of the condom, but additional lubrication can be used. The condom does not contain spermicide. The female should not be used at the same time as a latex male condom because the friction between the two condoms may cause the condoms to break.

The female condom has been available in Europe since 1992 and it was approved in 1993 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is available in many countries, at least in limited quantities, throughout the world. The female condom carries various brand names in different countries including, FC Female Condom, Reality, Femidom, Dominique, Femy, Myfemy, Protectiv' and Care.

Benefits:

To find more information about female condoms, visit www.avert.org

HIV/AIDS and childbearing

Another way in which the HIV/AIDS epidemic spreads is through childbirth. UNAIDS/WHO data says that at the end of 2004 there were an estimated 2.2 million children (under 15 years) who were living with HIV, many of whom were infected with HIV at birth. A large number of these children will not live to adulthood. There are drugs which can reduce the chances of a child becoming infected with HIV at birth from about 40% to around 2%, but in many parts of the world these drugs are unavailable. A mother who is HIV+ can pass on the infection to her child through her breast milk, but again, suitable substitutes for breast milk, and the education to understand their importance and how to use them are not being supplied to women in many countries.

Increasingly, governments are beginning to make an effort to supply the drugs needed to prevent mother-to-child transmission from occurring, which is a positive step, but whilst it is very important that the child's life is saved, the mother must not be forgotten. UNAIDS estimates that there are 15 million AIDS orphans in the world, and a great deal of money, planning and energy is being put into finding the best ways to care for them. The best way to ensure the well being of children affected by HIV/AIDS is simply to ensure the well being of their families, something that unfortunately sometimes doesn't receive the prioritisation it deserves.

The focus on preventing HIV transmission to babies is an important and necessary one, but it can lead to a narrowed perspective. It's equally important to help women who don't have children as well as those who do. Often, especially in resource-poor countries, many women live in areas where there is little or no medical infrastructure, and where they come into contact with HIV testing and care services only through antenatal care. This is inadequate, as it excludes women who are not pregnant. There is a clear need for HIV testing to be more inclusive.

Women and rape

In many countries - especially less socially stable regions - there is a greater likelihood of women's first sex being forced or in some way coerced. Rape can be a devastating experience for any woman, and can also carry the risk of HIV infection. Sexual violence against women is more common in some parts of the world than in others. South Africa, for example, has one of the highest rates of sexual violence, coupled with a huge HIV prevalence. In some parts of Africa there is a belief that having sex with a virgin can 'cure' HIV infection - leading to the rape of young women and children by HIV+ men.

I'm a 31 year old heterosexual female that contracted AIDS as the result of rape. I repressed the events surrounding the attack until I had undergone hypnotherapy . . . It had been nearly two years since the rape and I had been HIV positive without knowing it. Enya

AIDS is also increasingly being used as a weapon in war and a tool of 'ethnic cleansing'. In parts of the world where there is a very poor security situation - Uganda, for example, and the Sudan, and Zimbabwe - there are growing numbers of reports of women being raped with the intention of deliberately infecting them with HIV. HIV infection is a weapon which can still have devastating effects long after a war is over.

Women and prostitution

Another way in which women's lack of economic power enables their sexual exploitation is via prostitution. Poverty is the most common cause of prostitution, but whatever it's cause, female sex workers are in a very high-risk group. Women who desperately need money to care for their children, many of them widowed by AIDS, are not in a position to insist that their customers wear condoms. This means that they are not only at risk of becoming infected with HIV, but that if they are already HIV+, they can pass the virus on to their customers. Often, these customers take AIDS home to their families.

Prostitutes are, in many countries, both frowned on socially and criminalised. It is very difficult for these women to access the healthcare services they need in order to stay healthy if they risk arrest or punishment when their profession is known. This stigmatization increases the vulnerability of a group that is already at considerable risk. .

Women/Drug Abuse/HIV

Drug use is a social problem afflicting women just as much as men. The typical junkie is imagined to be a man, but in fact many injecting drug users are women. Anyone who becomes addicted to injected drugs is liable to sexual exploitation and vulnerable to infection from injecting equipment. Many female partners of male needle users are also infected with HIV, transmitted to him by dirty needles

Female Homosexuality and HIV/AIDS

Lesbians/bisexual women are not at high risk of contracting HIV through woman-to-woman sex. However, like many women:

However, there are cetain facts that homosexual women should know about HIV/AIDS: