This million-dollar question took center stage at the recently concluded International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)-Plus-10 conference in London between reproductive health experts and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Promise Mthembu, a young woman from South Africa living with HIV/AIDS affirms the need for reproductive health services to support young girls on issues around sexuality: "Sexual pleasure is a right even for those who are HIV/AIDS positive."

Mthembu is disturbed that when a young woman discloses her positive status, it is taken for granted that she has ceased to be sexually active. The situation is worse when she desires to have a baby: "When she is found to be pregnant, she can expect to be asked: 'How did you get pregnant in the first place?' she adds.

She argues that there should be no separation between HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services because people need the right information to decide their future, given that more than 90 percent of adult HIV infections especially in Africa occur through heterosexual transmission. 

Mthembu takes issue with the fact that HIV-positive women lack access to knowledge about their status, and they face obstacles in preventing and terminating unwanted pregnancy. Many lack access to prevent mother to child (PMTC) transmission and they are normally stigmatized and discriminated against when seeking reproductive health care. 

According to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, of the 14,000 daily new HIV/AIDS infections, a half are women of whom half are between 15-24 years of age. 

"Young people should be supported to have access to information, contraceptives and health care," said Obaid. 

She added that it was not right to tell young people that it was their right to prevent HIV/AIDS if they were not supported with the correct tools. 

Obaid, was speaking during the ICPD-Plus-10 meeting organized by the civil society and international partners and donors in London to identify the successes and failures of the Programme of Action (PoA) that was adopted a decade ago at the ICPD conference in Cairo, Egypt. 

Research undertaken by the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) on sexual and reproductive health for women living AIDS in French-speaking Africa reveals that positive women's sexual and reproductive health is not a priority in national and international policies in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the 12 countries studied.