I am... a woman
In the early 80's it was commonly believed that AIDS was a gay
disease. As a result, many people assumed that women could not become
HIV-positive. We quickly learned that this was not true. In fact,
today women represent 30% of all new HIV infections in the US with
the majority affecting women who are black or Hispanic. Issues confronting
women, like sexism and racism, can put them at even higher risk
of infection and make it more difficult to get treatment and care.
Get tested!
Knowing your HIV status is very important. If you test negative,
you can take steps to remain negative by
educating yourself about HIV. If you test positive, you can
take steps to prevent
the spread of the virus to your partner(s). Knowing your status
also means that you will be able to make critical and timely decisions
about your treatment
and care and get support to help deal with all the feelings
you may have about knowing your status.
GMHC offers confidential HIV,
Hepatitis C, and Syphilis testing. To find a testing center
outside of New York City, call our hotline
at 1.800.AIDS.NYC.
How GMHC can help
GMHC has services that are specifically designed to help women
who are HIV-positive get the support they need and help women who
are HIV-negative stay that way. To find out more about how GMHC
can assist you, check out our
Women and Family Services section.
Also see our Women
section under HIV/AIDS & Health
for useful information and articles about the ways in which HIV
affects women and families.
Talk to us
Sometimes it is easier to ask questions if you know you will not have to give
your name. If you would like to speak anonymously with a peer counselor, please
call the GMHC Hotline at 212-807-6655
or 1-800-AIDS-NYC (1-800-243-7692). Additional Resources
The Web sites below have information about HIV specifically for
women.
© 2003
Gay Men's Health Crisis
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