Transgender Women’s Experiences Using a Home HIV-Testing Kit for Partner-Testing
Open accessAbstract
HIV partner-testing (PT) may represent a unique and empowering HIV prevention strategy for groups that face structural and institutional barriers to HIV testing and care, including transgender women. We report on in-depth interviews (IDIs) with N = 10 transgender women who used HIV self-test kits for three months to screen potential sexual partners in a randomized controlled trial (iSUM; "I'll Show You Mine") that took place in New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Participants were assigned to intervention (supplied with 10 self-test kits immediately) or control groups (received 6 test kits after 3 months). We conducted IDIs with the first N = 10 transgender women to enroll in the intervention group after three months in the study (after participants used kits with partners) to understand their experiences. Themes discussed in IDIs included: partners' reaction to HIV testing, participants' reactions to partners' test results or refusal to test, partners' own reaction to their test results, and decision-making around test use. Data were independently analyzed by two coders. Overwhelmingly, participants' experiences with PT was positive. Participants reported kits were convenient and acceptable to most partners. Transgender women felt that PT could pose additional risk for them; one woman experienced violence related to kit use. Furthermore, the availability of kits appeared to encourage participants and their partners to think about their HIV status and, in some cases, modify sexual behavior. Work suggests that HIV PT could be a viable risk-reduction strategy for transgender women.
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Observational studies suggested that harm related to self-testing was rare overall, but indicated some users felt pressure to test themselves and/or experienced arguments with a partner following syphilis self-testing or dual HIV/syphilis self-testing.
“Observational studies also suggested that harm related to self-testing was rare overall, but they did indicate that some users felt pressure to test themselves and/or experienced arguments with a partner following syphilis self-testing or dual HIV/syphilis self-testing (62, 69, 75).”
From Updated recommendations for the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Treponema pallidum (syphilis) and new recommendations on syphilis testing and partner services (2024) · cites this paper as [75]
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- Authors
- Rael, C. T., Giguere, R., Lopez-Rios, J., Lentz, C., Balán, I. C., Sheinfil, A., Dolezal, C., Brown, W., Frasca, T., Torres, C. C., Crespo, R., Iribarren, S., Leu, C.-S., Febo, I., & Carballo-Diéguez, A.
- Affiliations
- New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
- Syracuse University (US)
- San Francisco General Hospital (US)
- University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus (PR)
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rael, Christine Tagliaferri
- ORCID
- Venue
- AIDS and Behavior
- Published
- 2020-03-19
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 2732-2741
- ISSN
- 1090-7165 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3254
- PMC
- PMC7725406
- OpenAlex
- W3011354963
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 0.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- AIDS and Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 AI113127)
- National Institute of Mental Health (K01 MH115785, P30 MH43520)
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K12 HS026383)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Keywords
- transgender women, HIV self-testing, HIV prevention, sexual risk reduction, violence risk, sexual behavior change
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Mass Screening, New York City, Puerto Rico, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reagent Kits, Diagnostic, Self Care, Serologic Tests, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Partners, AIDS Serodiagnosis, HIV Infections, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Qualitative Research, Young Adult, Transgender Persons
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