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Aged 36-40

Interview 17

Interview 17

Age at Interview: 39
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 34
Background: A gay man born in France who immigrated to the UK 19 years ago, and is in a long-term relationship. He was diagnosed following a period of poor health.

Brief outline:He took time to work out who to disclose to and to make treatment decisions (he currently takes Combivir and efavirenz). He initially suffered mental health side-effects (e.g. trouble sleeping, irratibility) but now has few problems with medication.

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At the time of his diagnosis, despite a strong bond there was too much else to think about to consider reviving sex in their relationship.
Print Well at the time (of HIV diagnosis) it (sex) was obviously, it was kind of out of, out of the question really. And we had anyway more or less given up sex at the time. But I mean since then, since then pretty much we, we, we, we have given up sex, com, completely. I think mostly because of the risk involved. Which in a way it was quite… it's quite ironic because we, we were in a way, our relationship, our relationship was maturing in something more honest, closer. And perhaps was getting to a stage where we probably would have been able to have a… a bit of a revival in this respect. But it's… it's… certainly in the first few months after my diagnosis there was too much going on to kind of think about that. Too much going… too much going on… Too much ri… too much risk to think about, too many things to adjust to… in our own, in our relationship, to kind of… add this additional layer of, of complication in a way. I still do have a sex life. It is… I suppose what you would describe as, sort of one night stands or anonymous encounters.

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