• Question: can you haver ivf if you had aids or got aids?

    Asked by xfinestx to Claire, Greg, Jane, Jo, Vicki on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Jane Cleal

      Jane Cleal answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Yes, both women and men with HIV can have ivf treatment and the babies don’t get hiv because no blood/bodily fluid has been transfered to the baby. The people at the clinic have to be very careful and use seperate equipment to the other patients. This makes it more expensive. There are very few people with hiv that have ivf treatment at the moment. If it is just the man with hiv they tend to use a donar sperm instead so it is safer for the mum.

    • Photo: Vicki Onions

      Vicki Onions answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hi xfinestx
      Thats a fab question – unfortunately i don’t know the answer to that, and i wouldn’t like to lead you wrong – i suspect one of the other scientists will know tho’ (fingers crossed)
      Sorry 🙁

    • Photo: Claire O'Donnell

      Claire O'Donnell answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Yes you can but the lab that does all the work with the eggs and sperm has to have special facilities. usually you have the treatment when your HIV treatment is working well. If it is just the man who is HIV positive then his sperm can be washed to try to remove any trace of virus. It’s hard to prove that all the virus has gone but there is no recorded case of HIV being transferred after sperm washing. It’s a relatively new technique so the numbers of people who’ve had it done are too small as yet to be sure it’s 100% safe.
      PS They don’t use Persil though:)

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