RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Sexual experiences of married HIV positive women in Osogbo, southwest Nigeria: role of inappropriate status disclosure Daniel Adebode Adekanle 1 , Samuel Anu Olowookere 2* , Ayobami David Adewole 3 , Najemdeen Ajao Adeleke 4 , Emmanuel Akintunde Abioye-Kuteyi 2 and Macellina Yinyinade Ijadunola 2 Abstract Background: Worldwide heterosexual sex is the most common mode of HIV transmission, with the marital heterosexual route becoming a major contributor in sub-Sahara Africa. This study examined the role of inappropriate HIV status disclosure, after diagnosis, on marital sexual experiences of HIV positive women. Methods: The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. An interviewer administered questionnaire that elicited information about HIV status disclosure to partners, sexual experiences, condom use and parity was administered to 122 married women living with HIV/AIDS. Participants were referred from peripheral health centres to receive comprehensive HIV care at the State Specialist Hospital, Osogbo, Nigeria. Results: Mean age (SD) of respondents was 33.8 (8.9) years. Only 23.8% of partners had HIV screening, with 3.3% being HIV positive. A majority (62%) of respondents reported experiencing marital sex deprivation since their partners became aware of their HIV status. There was a reported rejection (74.3%) of condom use by partners during sexual intercourse. Fear of becoming infected (85.7%) and blaming the women for their positive status (85.7%) were the main reasons the respondents gave for being sexually deprived by their partners. Conclusion: Inappropriate status disclosure due to poor HIV counseling and testing (HCT) practices resulted in sexual deprivation of married HIV positive women. Adequate training and retraining of health care workers on HCT and HIV status disclosure will reduce experience of sexual deprivation among married HIV positive women. Keywords: Health care workers, Nulliparity, Marital sex deprivation, HIV positive women, Nigeria Background The sub-Sahara African region is home to most people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (PLWHA), with Nigeria having the third highest population worldwide, after South Africa and India [1,2]. Since 1986, when the first Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno- deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) case was reported in Nigeria, the disease has spread to every Nigerian commu- nity [3-5]. Although HIV/AIDS affects all age groups in Nigeria, it occurs mostly among the sexually active popula- tion aged 20 to 29 years [4,6,7]. The most common mode of transmission of HIV/ AIDS in Nigeria is unprotected heterosexual intercourse [5-8]. Marital sex is becoming a major route of HIV transmission due to the high sexual activity among cou- ples who desire to have children but have never had HIV counseling and testing [9,10] and poor condom use among couples [11,12]. Other modes of transmission in- clude blood and blood products, injecting drug use and mother to child transmission during pregnancy, labour and breast feeding [2,4,8]. Worldwide, most HIV positive women experience stigma and discrimination from their family members. Studies have shown that HIV positive women are fre- quently referred to as ‘vectors’ , ‘diseased’ and ‘prostitutes’ while most HIV positive men are spared this highly stig- matising treatment [13,14]. HIV/AIDS stigma commonly * Correspondence: sanuolowookere@yahoo.com 2 Department of Community Health, College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © 2015 Adekanle et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Adekanle et al. BMC Women's Health (2015) 15:6 DOI 10.1186/s12905-015-0164-7