Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Couples with Mixed HIV Status: Beyond Positive/Negative

This edited volume presents a detailed portrait of couples living with mixed HIV status, where one partner is HIV-positive and the other negative. Readers will come to understand the various and complex ways in which these mixed-status, or serodiscordant couples build a life together within the shadow of HIV-related stigma. Spanning the globe, coverage explores serodiscordance as a negotiated practice and process, inseparable from the social context in which it is situated. The book shows how couples draw on diverse and sometimes contradictory cultural discourses of medicine, romance, and "normality" to make sense of and manage their mixed HIV status and any perceived risks, not uncommonly in ways that depart from prevailing HIV prevention messages. Throughout, compelling personal stories accompany the empirical research, sharing the firsthand experiences of men and women in serodiscordant relationships. Bringing together research from diverse disciplines and geographical regions, this book contributes important insights for future HIV health promotion as well as offers new knowledge to scholarship on the cultural intersections of illness and intimacy. It will appeal to a broad audience working across the fields of HIV, health, gender, sexuality, development, and human rights.

Contenu

Foreword: Emeritus Professor Susan Kippax.- Preface and Acknowledgments.- Contributors.- Abbreviations.- Introduction: Making "Difference": New Perspectives on HIV Serodiscordance; Asha Persson & Shana D. Hughes.- PART I Biomedicine, Change & Diversity: Conceptualising Serodiscordance : The Science Made Me Do it! A Journey toward Reimagining Myself as Non-infectious: Serodiscordant Sexuality in the Age of TasP: Pluto Savage.- "PrEP Makes My Relationship Even More Normal:" The Discursive Production of Hope in the Context of HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis among Young Adults with Partners Living with HIV Infection in California: Kimberley Koester, Xavier A Erguera & Janet Myers.- Seeking Sero-harmony: Changing Conceptualisations of Sero-difference and Sero-status in Australia: John Rule & Sean Slavin.- Situating Serodiscordance: Living in Relationships with Mixed HIV Status in Different Local, Historical and Biomedical Realities: Angela Kelly-Hanku.- HIV Serodiscordant Couples and the Discourse of Normality: Reconciling Biomedical and Social Meanings in Porto Alegre, Brazil: Shana D. Hughes.- Exploring the Relational Complexity of Serodiscordance: Negotiating Violence, Temporality and Diaspora: Annette-Carina van der Zaag & Ulla McKnight.- PART II Stigma, Culture & Gender: Contextualising Serodiscordance: Conversations with two African American and Indian women: Sunshine after the Rain & Red Reminds Me: Stacy Jennings, USA.- Be the Change You Want to See: Jyoti Dhawale-Surve, Mumbai.- Intimacy, Support and Social Connectivity: Experiences of HIV Serodiscordant Relationships among Black African People Living in England: Adam Bourne, John Owuor & Catherine Dodds.- Stigma, Sex and Family Life: Serodiscordance in Henan Province, China: Kumi Smith, Huixin Liu, Junjue Wang, Wensheng He, Gail E. Henderson, William C. Miller & Ning Wang.- Reconciling Serodiscordance: Lived Experiences of Mixed HIV Status Relationships in Ethiopia: Yordanos M. Tiruneh, Yemane Berhane & Ira B. Wilson.- Dialectics of Gender and Health: The Case of HIV Serodiscordance in Uganda: Robert Wyrod.- Planning to be a Parent in HIV Sero-Different Relationships in Ireland: A critical Gender Analysis: Carmel Kelly & Maria Lohan.- Serodiscordance and Gender Dynamics in Indian Culture: Sangeeta Sharma Dhaor.- PART III Love, Risk & Relationships: Negotiating Serodiscordance: Treatment as Prevention: A Love Story: Caroline Watson.- Relationships between Serodiscordant Gay Male Couples in Lima, Peru: Sero-Disclosure and Living with Serodiscordance: Kelika Konda, Clara Sandoval & Lizzete Najarro.- "HIV-Positivity and HIV-Negativity - Two Sides of the Same Coin": Narratives of Greek HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Gay Men on HIV and Intimate Relationships: Valantis Papathanasiou .- "Because we're so in Love": The Experiences of HIV-negative and HIV-positive Partners in Serodiscordant Relationships in Vietnam: Khuat Thi Hai Oanh, Sally Cameron, & Lan Nguyen.- Negotiating "Sero-Imbalances" within HIV Serodiscordant Relationships in Canada: A Pilot Inquiry: Amrita Daftary, Joshua Mendelsohn & Liviana Calzavara.- Pills, Providers and Partners: Exploring Trust among Serodiscordant Couples in Australia: Christy Newman, Asha Persson & Jeanne Ellard.