“The chemistry between us just became weird”: Affective-sexual relationships of young men living with HIV/AIDS and with undetectable viral load

Abstract

In this article, we discuss narratives on affective-sexual relationships of young men living with HIV/AIDS, with undetectable viral load and possibility of not transmitting HIV. We conducted ten semi-structured interviews with men who have sex with men, aged between 18 and 30 years old, followed at a specialized health service in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in 2017. In these narratives, the undetectable condition appears as an important [bio]identity change, and its maintenance as an ongoing responsibility to themselves and others. Despite biomedical advances, the ‘undetectable equals Untransmittable’ (U= U) campaign and new interactive possibilities open up in this scenario, the stigma of HIV as well as a notion of dangerous/risky bodies persist, supported by discourses of fear and guilt for a possible virus transmission.