Let’s Talk About HIV & Pregnancy

Transcript:

I’m Dr. Charlene Flash and I’m your HIV doctor.

First, people with HIV can have babies. And, yes, they can have babies that don’t have HIV as well.

This is an important dialogue to have with your provider, because the first thing I would do is…work with that woman to say, “First, let’s get your HIV under perfect control.”

And so, the space of having your HIV in perfect control is to achieve a level where…the virus circulating in each drop of your blood is now at an undetectable level.

Once it’s at an undetectable level, your chance of transmitting HIV to someone else, whether a sexual partner or to your as yet unborn child, becomes nil.

So, those are the things that I talk to when I’m talking to men and women about pregnancy intentions.