Fertility clinic for parents-to-be with HIV
December 2, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Women's Health
If you have HIV and need the services of a fertility clinic to help conceive, chances are you’ll find it a very difficult road. Most fertility services won’t take on HIV-positive women. Men who are HIV-positive and want to become dads can take advantage of a technology to "wash" the sperm so it’s separated from the semen. This prevents the woman from becoming infected with virus. But again, good luck trying to find a place that will do it.
According to the Globe and Mail’s article, HIV+ and looking to conceive, surveys were sent to 28 fertility clinic across Canada and 20 responsed. Although more than half said that they do provide some services to men and women who are HIV-positive, but they are more the basic options: "only 30 per cent offered sperm washing for HIV-positive men, and only 20 per cent offered in vitro fertilization for HIV-positive women." Ontario was the only province that was a bit more open to providing complex services.
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Tags: pregnancy blog, HIV positive women pregnant, HIV positive men becoming fathers, HIV positive, fertility clinics
