While there is a small amount of literature which considers the impact
of an HIV positive diagnosis on one's life very little of it has cons
idered how HIV affects the Lives of women or how living with HIV affec
ts women's sexuality and relationships. Based on in-depth interviews w
ith 24 women living with HIV/AIDS, utilising a grounded theory approac
h, this paper begins to consider how living with HIV impacts on women'
s sexuality and relationships. The impact of messages that HIV positiv
e women receive and the dominant discourses around HIV/AIDS and 'safe
sex' and heterosexuality present contradictions for women. As a result
, various tensions arise for positive women and their partners in tryi
ng to negotiate sex, safe sex, and condom use in particular. These ten
sions work themselves out in ways which depend in part upon the seroco
ncordance/discordance of the partner(s) and the nature of the relation
ship, that is, casual or on-going. Findings reveal that positive women
are in need of support and counselling which affirms their identity a
s sexual beings, which upholds the expectation that HIV positive women
will and can have a rulfilling sex life, and which recognises that se
x can be a source of pleasure for women as well as for their male part
ners.