I’m doing some research on HIV and aging, a wonderful term that one wouldn’t have expected even five years ago. I was talking a few weeks ago with several HIV+ women about their experiences. The conversation turned to symptoms: sleeplessness, night sweats, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating. These are typical symptoms pos people experience. But many women will deal with these symptoms during perimenopause regardless of HIV status. So the question for pos women becomes, are these symptoms HIV-related or perimenopause related? Or both? And when should you check in with your doctor?

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I do love Dr. Robert Frascino, aka Dr. Bob.

Dr. Bob is sex-positive, HIV positive and out about it, wonderfully frank and funny as he educates people on The Body about HIV transmission and prevention. His writing makes people feel comfortable to ask what can be deemed strange but true questions.

The ongoing theme in these questions is fear and the ongoing answer is to educate yourself, directly delivered by the good Doctor. HIV is not as readily transmitted as herpes or human papillomavirus (HPV), but it’s good to know the transmission “formula” when making sexual decisions, particularly with a partner whose HIV status is unknown to you.  Dr. Bob offers encouragement around testing when he thinks it’s applicable and encouragement to learn more about HIV for future liaisons.

He also catches amazing fly balls. One section he writes lists the questions as “I’m Positive I’m Positive.” People throw him anger and accusations of stupidity. It is the Internet after all, where anonymity can prompt people to, shall we say, abandon their manners.  There was the poster who’d been seen by multiple HIV specialists who all confirmed he was not infected with HIV, yet accused Dr. Bob et al. of incompetence, and insisted he should have access to HIV meds. This poster isn’t the only one with great fear.  

Dr. Bob’s messages are clear: know your risks. Know your status. Get care when needed. HIV is a fearful disease to be sure. But the fear it creates can be bigger than the risk of getting it. Dr. Bob tries to keep it all level. And living with HIV himself, he’s aware of the wonder of life. Gotta love him.

- Janet

This week, we got a message from the folks at hivdating.ca – an online dating service for people living with HIV in Canada.  They were asking us to advertise by providing a link on our site.  We can’t do that, but I thought hey, now there’s a great topic for a blog post!  Dating is pretty universally accepted as “difficult”, because of the pressure to impress.  We all have things about ourselves that we would rather not share, but whether you’re hoping to hook up or looking for true love, you will undoubtedly need to share some of them.  HIV and STIs are definitely on the must-share list.  Long term romantic relationships depend on trust, and as soon as sex is on the agenda, there is a legal obligation to disclose HIV status.  The thought of disclosure and possible rejection is enough to turn anybody off of dating, but it shouldn’t be that way.

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It was great to be at the Canadian Association for HIV Research conference in Saskatoon earlier this month. Lots of interesting stuff unrolled at CAHR, but one plenary session in particular lit me up. It looked backwards at the origins of HIV and forwards at what we can do to bring an end to AIDS. 

Friday morning was bright and sunny in Saskatoon, but a dark hotel room housed a crowd to hear Doctors Mike Worobey and Mark Tyndall. Worobey’s work is dedicated to exploring the origins of HIV, a puzzle that hasn’t been solved, nor its findings fully agreed upon. Understanding how HIV has evolved could lead to new developments- perhaps a vaccine (although Worobey admitted he isn’t hopeful for that, given HIV’s mutation rate), or at least microbicide options. Tyndall cast his eyes forward, stressing the power we do and don’t have to limit the spread of HIV.

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Understanding the complexities of HIV transmission is an ongoing study. Why, for example, does a group of female sex workers who have unprotected sex on a regular basis avoid infection? There’s something about their immunity that offers them protection, but what is it? This is just one line of research on the risk factors and scenarios that lead to transmission. The more understanding we have, the more potential to improve on existing prevention tools and develop more options. A new finding can add another piece to the puzzle.

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Next week is Prevention of Violence Against Women Week (April 19th to 26th, 2010), so naturally we at Positive Women’s Network decided to blog about it.  The rates of violence against women in BC and Canada are discouraging to say the least.  For some of these statistics, visit The Violence Stops Here.  I’ve been surfing the web looking for events and activities around the province and I want to highlight a few.  Of course, this is just a snippet of what’s going on, but it’s encouraging to see so many groups organizing and hosting amazing initiatives to raise awareness and get people mobilized against gendered violence.

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When I started in this work 16 years ago, there were few treatments and little hope. But people are resourceful thinkers, and alternatives to medicine were hot. Meditation groups, yoga, and the power of positive thinking were just a few things that were embraced. Having a life threatening illness that often meant a rapid death with little help from Western medicine challenged people to get their minds around these different approaches. For some it meant getting clean from drugs or alcohol, for others it meant looking at unhealthy relationships and deciding to leave them. Through these changes, there were people who came to the notion that “HIV was the best thing that ever happened to me.”  But there were also those who didn’t reap the perceived benefits of learning they had HIV.

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Just back from a conference in Montreal, I’m a little tired, sweetly full of things to follow up on, and amused by the fact that because of the damp, it feels colder here than it did “back East.” The Canadian AIDS Society Leading Together 2010 conference attracted people from all across the country to share knowledge, network and band together to discuss the challenges faced by PHAs.

How to grab the energy of what happened? The great passion with which people address the homophobia, the serophobia, sexism, discrimination and even the glorious advances in treatment that spell better, longer lives for PHAs was revealed in posters, workshops, plenaries, and displays.

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A recent headline about humanpapillomavirus (HPV) made me glad, because it underlines the importance of talking about all kinds of safer sex. Researchers are finding HPV DNA in various tumours where the cancer is found in mucosal tissue, such as the nasal cavities or the throat. The connection between oral sex and HPV that leads to these cancers can be used as another argument in favour of the HPV vaccine, which has been controversial. I support parents’ rights to make decisions about what vaccines their kids receive, but am also for illuminating the prevalence of HPV.   

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Right around the time this post goes online, the Olympic torch will be running by my house.  I’ll be standing on the corner with my camera and pretending that’s not my dog barking in the window, driven insane by all the “trespassers”.    I don’t know what these two weeks will hold for me and my family, but for many people – especially athletes and visitors – the Olympics will be one big party.  If you’re not somebody who regularly participates in international sporting events, you might not know that there’s an awful lot of hanky-panky and partying that goes on.

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