The term “discordant couples” is used to refer to spouses or partners in whom one is infected with HIV and the other is healthy. Having received a positive result during an examination for the presence of HIV infection, a person considers it impossible to enter into a further marriage with a chosen one who does not have such problems. Having experienced shock, protesting against such injustice or falling into deep depression, an HIV-positive person chooses a soul mate only from such an environment.
But life goes on its own, it cannot be enclosed in predefined frameworks and schemes. What was previously considered unimaginable, today is already becoming part of the life path of an infected person, and his healthy chosen one marries him. Discordant couples experience a huge number of difficulties and problems on their life paths. For an infected partner, there is always a fear of losing a beloved half, in addition, the issue of procreation and the birth of healthy offspring is almost the main thing in difficult relationships.
Married couples feel misunderstanding on the part of relatives and friends, sometimes they are isolated in their loneliness. Each of us understands that such unions need constant support, their experience is valuable to our society. They absolutely need help in establishing full-fledged relationships, obtaining information about behavior to reduce the risk of infection of a loved one and getting pleasure from sexual relations without the risk of transmission of the disease.
Knowledge of the presence of HIV in the body
If a person is healthy, but his contacts are associated with a risk of infection, then by changing his behavior in accordance with the rules, he will avoid infection in future periods. Living in a discordant couple with knowledge of the status of a partner or your own will allow you to agree on safe sexual contact and help conceive healthy offspring. Pregnant carriers of the virus, bearing in mind their status, can endure and give birth to an HIV-negative child.
The life of an infected person is fraught with many difficulties, and, knowing about his illness, he protects surrounding relatives and relatives from infection by means of protective measures. The earlier the diagnosis is made, the sooner treatment begins, and there is a greater chance of maintaining your health.
The period after detection of infection
The period of adaptation after diagnosis is extremely difficult for an infected person. At this time, pain or other disorders associated with the development of the virus appear. There is a whole range of emotions that range from worries about life, fear of leaving young children in the event of a fatal outcome to the hope of recovery. Some people show a will to live by fighting a disease and wanting to end it.
Attitude towards infection is manifested in the way discordant couples live. Some are distinguished by adequate behavior, in accordance with the state in which they are, others are dismissive of the existing situation, underestimating the seriousness of the situation. There are spouses who reject all thoughts of the future, others, on the contrary, overestimate their condition, their actions and behavior become a real phobia. Psychological assistance to such partners consists in developing a stable attitude and searching for positive emotions in every moment of the life path that discordant couples go through.
The main stages of behavior in the adaptation period
Emotions even in a healthy person are not stable. Speaking about HIV-infected people , several acute stages of experiences should be noted:
- at the initial stage, a shock state often occurs that goes into the stage of disbelief and denial, the patient refuses to accept the test results, he seems stunned, shocked, such a state of mind, despite the severity of manifestation, is considered as a protective period for gathering strength and accepting sad reality;
- an angry mood strikes a person later, when he realizes that the disease has interfered in his relationship and completely changed them, life in a couple becomes difficult or impossible, as an infected person blames his spouse or partner for everything;
- sooner or later, righteous indignation and anger are replaced by a desire to benefit from their condition, life frames are narrowed, and the person sees HIV infection as a certain deal, the partner begins to negotiate certain concessions, referring to a deplorable state;
- realizing that indulgences on the part of relatives and partners do not bring tangible results, and life does not change for the better and forces are becoming less and less, a person falls into a depressed state, sometimes this is caused by a feeling of own guilt for today's result, which he did not foresee in past frivolous actions;
- a sense of acceptance of reality comes after humility and reassurance about the expectation of the coming fatal consequences, a person morally feels doomed and subordinate to an inevitable sentence, sometimes destroys these discordant couples, the patient cannot get infected a second time, he goes into himself and renounces from the present.
Patient actions to develop a positive attitude
The period of comprehensive depression is reduced if the patient follows the rules of everyday behavior developed by psychologists. These tips are advisory, they will not restore health, but will allow you to overcome despondency, detachment, return to an ordinary way of life and create single people discordant couples. What is this, the doctor tells the patient, and the patient gradually begins to believe in the possibility of a healthy continuation of his kind.
At the stage of combating the depressive state, it is not recommended to set overwhelming tasks and far-reaching goals, to overestimate the requirements for oneself. Big things are divided into several easy stages, the realization that today a person has fulfilled the intended, leads him into a benevolent mood. HIV infection in discordant couples cannot be seen as an impending danger. Critical attitude to self, self-flagellation does not improve the state of mind, but small pleasures, favorite food, watching an interesting show will make the desire to live more poignant.
To reduce the negative impact, you should avoid all kinds of stresses, not communicate with unpleasant interlocutors, identify morally critical situations and try to avoid them by any means. Each morning begins with physical activity, charging to relieve muscle and nervous tension, practicing walks in nature or in the park, as many discordant couples do. The risk of infection for others is not significant, and this will bring positive emotions to the patient.
It is also important to observe the regime of the day to reduce experiences, which are not compiled according to a strict principle. It is reasonable to include food intake in time, sleep, periods of wakefulness, entertainment, simple duties and communication with understanding friends. It is recommended to exclude from the diet strong drinks or psychotropic substances that relieve emotional distress for a while, but in general, the situation over time can get out of control.
Even healthy people who hold emotions in themselves are more likely to be depressed, so locking up on your grief is not the best way, you need to cultivate a positive attitude in your thoughts. Living in a discordant couple means that a person should not underestimate self-esteem, no matter what position he is in, one should look at the world objectively and try to do as much good as possible.
Discordant Family Replenishment Planning
Discordant couples belong to a special category of couples observed at the AIDS Center . What it is? Many spouses, if only one partner has a virus, are faced with the problem of having healthy offspring. Many of them, held in the social and material terms of the couple, are in dire need of obtaining information to support their loved one.
If a woman is infected in the family, then there are many opportunities to conceive and give birth to a healthy child without the risk of a man getting the virus. At the Center, the spouses consult with infectious disease doctors, epidemiologists, gynecologists, use the advice received in practice and become happy parents. Modern scientific methods for studying perinatal transmission of the virus make it possible to obtain healthy offspring from an HIV-infected mother in 98-99%.
Discordant couples in which a man is infected, thanks to modern drugs prescribed to the partner before conception, also have the opportunity to get a healthy baby. Life gives an assessment of such a victory, every uninfected baby born in such a family is our future generation, and another preserved unit of society. There is a danger of mother virus transmission from an infected partner, but modern science in this regard also provides couples with the latest achievements. Medicine offers reproductive technologies, in particular ICSI, IVF, and discordant couples. Recent studies have shown that HIV infection does not interfere with such procedures.
Consultations are held at the Center on an ongoing free basis. Examples of treatment of discordant parents indicate a high degree of patient confidence in the clinic’s specialists, the usefulness of the work done in terms of providing the necessary information for the needy patients. Recent years are characterized by an increase in converted pairs by three or more times.
Common problems of conception
Statistics show that to make a child and become happy parents discordant couples can now. Pregnancy, such an impossible one in recent years, is becoming real without the risk of transmitting the virus to a newborn baby. If the family is determined to get a healthy baby, then modern methods of preventive measures will help her in this. Complications arise only if tips and modern methods are ignored, this leads to the risk of infection of the second partner, more often women.
Conception is an unprotected sexual intercourse, because of this, an uninfected partner risks becoming infected. If we are talking about a couple in which a woman is healthy, then during sexual contact the risk of transmitting the virus to the future fetus is much higher than if the partner is infected, and the man has negative test results.
Today, a discordant couple wishes to be happy. HIV infection is not a sentence, as scientists are working on creating a tool designed to reduce the risk of infection precisely during sexual intercourse.
The rules of conception in a discordant couple with an infected woman
With unprotected sexual contact, the risk of getting the virus is less in a man than in a woman, but it is not possible to completely eliminate the infection of the partner. To prevent transmission, it is most rational to use the method of fertilization at home. For this, a special device is sold in the pharmacy that allows you to enter a single semen directly into the female vagina for fertilization. All the smallest details of the procedure are described in the instructions of the device or are given in consultation with a doctor.
It is this method that is used during ovulation in a woman, which a discordant couple should remember. HIV infection will recede if this time is correctly determined. To do this, contact a gynecologist or buy a test in a pharmacy. There is an unwarranted opinion that the method affects the health of the unborn child, but such a statement is far from reality, as evidenced by the ubiquitous statistics.
Fertilization tips paired with an infected partner
In this case, the problems of conception exist on a much larger scale. To reduce the risk of infection of a woman, specialists have developed a method for sperm purification. But this method is used only in foreign clinics. Without this procedure, the risk of transmission of the virus to the partner exists and remains real, therefore discordant couples deal with it differently. The risk of infection is ignored, some turn to special institutions for the adoption of children, others use the method of artificial insemination from an uninfected donor.
An effective method according to statistics is to reduce the virus in the semen exactly at the time of conception. The partner is taking antiretroviral medicines that reduce the burden of infection to a certain level. This method does not give a full guarantee and cannot protect discordant couples. The sperm HIV virus load does not always correspond to the same indicator in the blood, but the method nevertheless reduces the risk of transmission of the virus by many times.
The next way to prevent risk is the use by a woman immediately after the end of sexual intercourse of antiretroviral drugs. This reduction in infection is rarely used, as doctors are concerned about the negative effects of drugs on the future fetus. To reduce the possibility of infection at the time of conception, partners should not have other diseases of the genitourinary sphere. For example, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and other infectious lesions to some extent contribute to the penetration of the virus through the threshold barrier.
Reducing the risk of transmitting the virus to the baby during pregnancy and lactation
The doctor of the infectious diseases department in the early stages of gestation develops an individual protection program individually for each future HIV-infected mother. The complex includes taking ARV therapeutic drugs, which are prescribed after a thorough study of a woman’s health and studying the effect of medicines on a future baby. An HIV-positive pregnant woman must be especially attentive to her health, think about a full-fledged future for her child, so her main task is to impeccably follow the doctor’s instructions.
The safest method of childbirth is considered to be a cesarean section, however, after a number of tests and tests, the doctor allows you to conduct a normal birth, if the indicators are normal. During the period of feeding after childbirth, the baby is prescribed gentle antiviral therapy, but the woman will have to refuse breast-feeding, as this increases the risk of contracting a baby many times over. In this case, discordant couples resort to eating ready-made milk mixtures and preparations, who try to preserve the health of the baby during therapy to prevent transmission of the virus.
Nutrition for HIV-infected patients
Eating natural and quality products helps the body at any stage to fight the virus, as it adds strength and enhances immune defense. The main rule of compiling a diet is the inclusion of high-calorie foods and high-quality protein foods. If the patient has previously eaten according to this scheme, then he will not have to revise the principles of eating food.
Good nutrition is followed by many discordant couples. This is what it means in terms of cooking and quantity of food:
- meals are distributed evenly throughout the day, their number is at least four times;
- natural foods in the form of grated cheese, homemade butter, sour cream are necessarily present in the diet, use home-made mayonnaise;
- water in the diet is replaced by juices, compotes, milk, kefir, if the body responds well to dairy products;
- be sure to introduce high-quality chocolate, cream, dairy ice cream into the diet;
- consume at least three full servings of protein meals per day, for example, one chicken ham or two eggs, two pieces of cheese or a plate of peeled nuts, for example.
In addition to the required products, food consists of cereals (not instant cooking), potatoes, bread. To enhance intestinal motility, include raw and boiled vegetables, fruits or juice from them. In order not to aggravate the painful condition, you should be responsible for washing vegetables and fruits before eating. It is not recommended to use semi-finished products of dubious origin, sausages, fast food.
Basic rules for being in the open sun
Photosensitivity means a transition to a state where even a small amount of sunlight triggers an undesirable reaction of the skin.Often photosensitivity occurs after a visit to the solarium. When buying sunblock, pay special attention to the composition of the cream, as some components cause complications:
- oily components based on sandalwood, cedar, lemon, bergamot juice;
- in the manufacture of cosmetics and sunscreens, harmful 6-methylcoumarin is used, which is undesirable for exposure to the skin of HIV-positive people.
Photosensitivity of the skin in infected patients is caused by some medications, the virus itself may also be the cause. Many patients suffer from sensitivity to sun exposure. Associated hepatitis C disease exacerbates this harmful effect. To protect against light exposure, it is recommended to wear hats with wide brim, cover the surface of the body with tight clothing and not use the services of artificial ultraviolet radiation. Creams with a protection factor of at least 50 are used against tanning.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the detection of HIV infection in the body does not mean an immediate cessation of life. After a disappointing diagnosis, life continues in a discordant couple and relationships with a loved one, for young spouses there is a real opportunity to become full-fledged parents. Many people, after establishing the status of an infected person, begin to lead a healthy lifestyle, and subsequently a terrible infection recedes for a while, allowing many wonderful things to be done.