Clinical Chats: a Podcast for Sexual and Reproductive Health Professionals · Clinical Training Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health

HIV, Pregnancy, and Reproductive Justice

August 31, 2023·29 min·10 clips

Katherine Atchison opens the final installment of the reproductive justice series by centering HIV, pregnancy, and support for patients who want to become pregnant. She is joined by Dominica Seidman, an obstetrician-gynecologist and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of pregnancy care, prevention, and HIV. The conversation starts with the basic clinical question of how to talk about pregnancy when HIV is part of the picture. It then moves into ways to support conception while reducing HIV risk. One option discussed is reproductive endocrinology and infertility care with sperm washing. That approach is described as highly effective. It is also expensive. The episode keeps coming back to the reality that cost shapes which paths are available to which patients. A major thread is routine prenatal care. Seidman explains that patients receiving HIV medicines can generally receive standard pregnancy care with a midwife, nurse practitioner, family physician, obstetrician, or other provider they trust. The key condition is communication with the HIV clinician. When communication becomes difficult, she points listeners toward guidelines and a national hotline as practical backstops. She does not frame these pregnancies as inherently high risk for patients who are already in care and taking medicine. That distinction matters. It gives clinicians a clearer way to discuss risk without overmedicalizing pregnancy. The conversation also revisits a common misconception about breastfeeding for people living with HIV, treating it as a topic that needs current guidance and careful counseling. Throughout, the tone stays steady and implementation-focused. The interview keeps pulling policy and public health language back into clinic-level decisions about what to ask, document, explain, and coordinate. That makes the episode useful beyond a single specialty. Title X staff, sexual and reproductive health clinicians, obstetric teams, and HIV providers all have something concrete to take from it. The result is a serious training conversation about pregnancy, access, and reproductive justice. It is grounded in care that tries to be both clinically sound and respectful of patient choice.

As heard by us

A practical look at HIV, pregnancy, and reproductive justice.

Clinical Chats closes its reproductive justice series with a tight discussion of HIV, pregnancy, and how clinicians can support patients who want to become pregnant while living with HIV. The conversation stays practical.

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Why you'd press play

Clear guidance on HIV, pregnancy, and reproductive justice for patients who want to conceive, from a clinic-facing angle.

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