Healthier Scotland. Scottish Government

HIV treatment and living with HIV

How HIV is treated

HIV is treated with a range of drugs that slow the process of the disease. They can prevent the infection causing health problems for many years but you need to keep taking them.

Repeated testing is used to show whether the treatment is working or whether a change in medicines is needed.

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HIV, pregnancy and parenting

Treatments are available that help to keep HIV positive mums healthy during pregnancy and to reduce the risk of passing on the virus to the child.

You might need to change the type of treatment you take and how you take it if you are already taking medicines for HIV and become pregnant.

Your midwife, GP and any HIV support services you are in contact with will advise you on what's best for you and your child and make sure you both get the right treatments.

HIV positive mums should not breastfeed but children of HIV positive mums and dads are not at risk from normal parental contact.

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Avoiding infecting sexual partners

You can still have sex if you are HIV positive, but you must practise safer sex.

This means using a condom for vaginal or anal sex and a dam or condom for oral sex.

Alternatively, you can choose only to engage in types of sex that carry a lower risk of passing on sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

You should practise safer sex even if your partner already has HIV. This is to avoid either of you becoming infected with more than one type of HIV or any other STI.

Read more about better, safer sex

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