This post originally appeared on and can be read in its entirety at The Well Project.

The Women’s Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI), a program of The Well Project, convened Fall WRI Virtual 2021: Research at the Intersection of HIV and Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health: Best Practices, Gaps, and Barriers on October 7-8, 2021. The meeting sought to comprehensively examine the intersection of HIV and women’s sexual and reproductive health, a relatively underexplored area of HIV research. (Click here or below to view the Issue Brief.)

  

Highlights from the meeting include:

  • Research and policy around this topic must be grounded in its historical context, including the ways in which women have been marginalized and Black people (Black women in particular) and other people of color have been abused by the medical establishment.
  • Despite playing a fundamental role in women’s health and well-being, sexual and reproductive health remains disconnected from HIV prevention, care, research, and policy, which has contributed to failures in reaching and serving women.
  • Appropriate, relevant, and holistic sexual and reproductive health care for women living with and vulnerable to HIV must acknowledge and address women’s lives in all of their complexities (including race, socioeconomics, gender identity, motherhood/care provision, geography, etc.).
    • It must also measure women’s HIV treatment success more broadly than viral suppression; acknowledge and address sexual pleasure and desire; and reframe “risk,” to facilitate healthy decision-making.

While the meeting elicited a number of important recommendations, on an overarching level, the group again asserted the need to consider any recommendations around the health of women living with and vulnerable within the full context of their lives. This is particularly true in developing holistic sexual and reproductive health care for women living with and vulnerable to HIV.

View the Fall WRI Virtual 2021 Issue Brief: Interrogating the Intersection of HIV and Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health

The Well Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique and comprehensive focus on women and girls. Visit their website, https://www.thewellproject.org/, to access fact sheets (English and Spanish), blogs, and advocacy tools, and to join a global community of women living with HIV.