Telling ex-partners

Telling your  past sexual contacts that you have HIV may also be something that you wish to think about. Different people with HIV make different decisions about this and there are likely to be a lot of factors that you need to think about.These issues can include what your relationship was like with them and the kind of sex you had (did it involve a risk of HIV?).

You don't have to contact your ex-partners yourself. Staff at your HIV clinic can contact your ex-partners and sexual contacts without giving any of your details away if you'd like them to.

But if you would prefer to tell an ex-partner(s) yourself spend sometime thinking about why you want to do this, how you are going to do this and how they (and you) might react. Getting the support and advice of those you trust may be helpful, as might talking to someone at your clinic or on a confidential helpline like THT Direct 0845 12 21 200.

This content was checked for accuracy at the time it was written. It may have been superseded by more recent developments. NAM recommends checking whether this is the most current information when making decisions that may affect your health.