Increasing awareness of the power of antiretrovirals (ARVs) to prevent HIV transmission is having a transformative effect on the relationships of mixed-HIV-status couples, aidsmap reports. Publishing her findings in Sociology of Health and Illness, an Australian researcher conducted interviews in 2013 and 2014 with 38 members of 25 mixed-HIV status couples about how the concept of HIV treatment as prevention (TasP) has affected their relationship.

The interviews included 16 gay couples, seven heterosexual couples and two couples including transgender people. Twenty of the 25 HIV-positive partners were taking ARVs, with the remainder about to begin treatment.

About half of the couples engaged in condomless intercourse. The heterosexuals tended to be monogamous and not use condoms, while the gay couples were more inclined to have open relationships and use condoms within their relationship than the other couples.

TasP appeared to have a normalizing and affirming effect on the couples’ relationships, reducing anxiety about transmission as well as HIV-related stigma and fears of entering a couple with someone of a different HIV status.

In interviews the researcher conducted in 2009 she found that individuals in mixed-HIV-status couples were typically wary about the effectiveness of TasP. In the more recent set of interviews she found much greater confidence in ARVs’ ability to prevent transmission of the virus.

How the members of the couples translated their understanding of TasP into their sex lives varied. May of the gay men saw ARVs as an extra layer of protection on top of condom use. Others who had not used condoms before they learned about TasP felt reassured and validated by the notion that ARVs would lower the risk of transmission, while still others felt they could start having sex without a condom after learning new information about TasP.

There was evidence that the HIV-negative partners sometimes pressured their partners to get on treatment.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.