Biographies and contexts: specificities of the sexual initiation of young women living with HIV infected by vertical transmission

Abstract The article discusses the specificities of the sexual initiation (SI) of young women living with HIV infected by vertical transmission (VT). The empirical data comes from a transversal study, with probabilistic sampling, carried out in the city of São Paulo from 2013 to 2014. The age average of the first sexual intercourse of the 18-24-year-old women was compared among the three groups: those infected by VT, those infected by other means and those who have not been infected by HIV/Aids. The postponement of the first sexual intercourse is associated with having a religious practice, a secondary school, not having ever used drugs and having the first sexual intercourse with younger or up to two years older partners. HIV infection confers complexity to the processes of socialization for sexuality and, consequently, transition into adult life. The results indicate that different routes of HIV infection are associated with peculiar ways of experiencing sexuality.