Hur är det att leva med HIV i Sverige idag?

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to depict the situation of people with a HIV-diagnosis in Sweden today. In my study, based on 6 biographies from HIV-positive people, 3 of these from men who has sexual contacts with other men and 3 from heterosexual women, I used qualitative content analysis to read the stories and find important themes. To find these themes I used my research questions. They were as follows: ”Is stigma present in the stories?” and if that is the case “How does the HIV-positive individual deal with the stigma that a HIV-diagnosis involves?” I took inspiration from the theory of stigma and Månsson and Hiltes (1990) study about homosexuality and HIV in Sweden during 1980. I found three themes which I choose to name “openness and secrecy”, “the stereotype and me” and “sexuality”. I found that stigma is present in the biographies but to different extent. In general the men thought that it was easier to be open about their diagnosis than the women did. The women, most commonly, only shared it with a few chosen ones. The stereotype that surrounds HIV is built on the picture of a person that is weakened from the disease - that they are dirty and persons of weak character. The men had a determination of showing themselves on the contrary to this stereotype. The women had a hard time with the stereotype and were not sure how to handle it. The women did not talk a lot about what they thought about how sex and sexuality affected their lives. However, one of the women said that she did not want a new relationship and that she did not want to have sex at all any longer. The men had an easier time dealing with their sexuality. The fact that Sweden has a law that demands that a person with a sexually-transmitted disease must tell their new partner of this before participating in a sexual act is contributing to the stigma.