Meta-analyses of fertility desires of people living with HIV

Before the era of HIV, wishing to have a biological child and preserving the continuity of their family to the future generation is perhaps a common thought of all and this is also expected to be same in these days in the majority of individuals who are sero-negative for HIV. However, several studies have shown that the fertility desire of people living with HIV was found to be significantly reduced [1–4]. A national survey in Cameroon revealed that women’s fertility desire was about 55% and the main factor independently associated with this desire was having good physical health [5]. In other African countries, the fertility desires were 15% in Malawi [6], 18% in Uganda [7], 41% in Ethiopia [4] and 63% in Nigeria [8]. One of US studies also showed that the majority of HIV positive women did not have desires to be pregnant [9].

On the other hand, the fertility desire of HIV-infected individuals were reported as increasing because of increasing hope of living longer with ART, resumption of a healthy life, and the overall physical and mental well-being. A multivariate analysis from Uganda showed that the fertility desire of HIV-infected individuals had significantly increased with ART [10]. In Canada, the proportion of fertility desire among HIV positive women increased from about 26% in 2007 [11] to 69% in 2009 [12]. Since majorities of HIV positive women are in the reproductive age, a decade back the fertility desire was also predicted that many will continue to have desire for children [13]. This is because; parenthood, particularly among married couples, is an important component of their social status. As noted by two qualitative studies (South Africa and Zimbabwe), the availability of ART and prevention of perinatal HIV transmission has also positively affected childbearing desires [14, 15].

Several non-comparative studies have also shown the independent association of other factors with fertility desire in HIV-infected population. A partner’s desire for a child was one of the strongest predictors for women’s fertility desire [16]. In another study, being younger age, having fewer living children and higher quality of life were individually associated with fertility desire [17].

In general, a systematic review including twenty nine studies has also outlined the presence of many more factors that are related to fertility desires [18]. However, by design, it was not a quantitative or pooled analysis to more powerfully estimate the true effect size. Furthermore, from previously published primary studies, it was noted that the association of fertility desire with ART, age, sex, education level, and number of children were inconsistent. Thus, the objective of this pooled analysis was to demonstrate the strength of association of these variables with fertility desire.

These meta-analyses demonstrated that the fertility desire was highest among young and childless people living with HIV but was not associated with ART or educational level. ART is known to improve the overall well-being of HIV-infected persons [38] and many speculated that better physical health and cognitive improvements gained due to ART can improve their positive attitude towards childbearing. Similarly, a better educated people are expected to have better awareness about preventive methods of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and as a result, their fertility desire is anticipated to be higher than the less educated individuals.

However, as these meta-analyses showed, neither their better education attainment nor being on ART was found to have an influence on their fertility desire. Rather, fertility desire was strongly associated with being young or childless, which both were likely to be interlinked one with the other and this kind of reflection is probably the reflection of the majority of human being in the fertile age regardless of HIV infection. In another study not included in this meta-analysis, being young or having few or no child was also an independent predictor for high fertility desire [16]. To the contrary, in another study, being young or single was reported to be inversely associated with fertility desire [39]. These reports showed how inconsistent the fertility desire behavior of the study participants was, which is calling for further in-depth investigation.

In general, it is a known fact that identifying the factors behind the fertility desires has paramount importance for both policy makers and health care providers. Specifically, although these meta-analyses did not demonstrate the associations of fertility desire with ART, as majority of HIV positive people are in the fertile age and living longer with ART [40, 41], the authors speculate that their fertility desire is going to increase as the duration of ART advances. Unlike the previous times when high HIV prevalence in many Sub-Saharan African countries was associated with about 20%-40% reduction in fertility [42], we are observing that these days the number of pregnancies among HIV positive women is increasing, which can be taken as a proxy indicator of increasing fertility desire among people living with HIV. However, as previous studies pointed out, the fertility issue does not seem given much emphasis in the package of HIV patients follow up and care [15, 22].

This is despite the fact that fertility desires of people living with HIV are serious concerns for the patients themselves, for authors in the field and health care providers [14, 15, 40, 43]. This is because; from the perspective of preventing HIV transmission and socioeconomic consequences, the implication of fertility desire is multifaceted. Because of its unprotected nature of the sexual practice, there is a high chance of HIV horizontal transmission to HIV-negative and/or positive individuals (a different HIV strain, probably even resistant ones). Secondly, if the fertility desire becomes successful and pregnancy occurs, there is high concern and increased risk of HIV vertical transmission to the coming baby during pregnancy and breastfeeding [4, 40]. Thirdly, HIV infection is known to increase the risk of orphaning.

Therefore, understanding the epidemiology of fertility desires of people living with HIV helps clinicians aware of their clients demand ahead of time and gets prepared to plan and implement the preventive modalities for both horizontal and vertical HIV transmission. This is to mean that letting the couples know the potential health risks to themselves and their babies help them make an informed decision, which is also the recommendation of other authors [15, 44]. When the fertility desire comes into practice, safer pregnancies practice such as making low preconception viral load using ART and instituting the principles of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) during pregnancy are proven to be the best protective methods of HIV vertical transmission [44].

These meta-analyses are not without limitations. Firstly, the duration of ART was not taken into consideration. It is known that as the duration of therapy increases, the general well-being of ART patients improves [10, 38] and as a result may have more fertility desire, which should be an area of investigation. The reduction in vertical HIV transmission due to ART and safe delivery is also likely to increase the desire for having a biological child. The finding of about 2-fold and 3-fold increment in fertility desires in Brazil [28] and Canada [12], respectively, is another evidence to speculate the probable increment in fertility desire in the years to come.

Secondly, it is difficult to make conclusions on fertility desires taking only four variables (ART, age, sex, education and number of children) as determinants. There are other variables like culture, religion, marriage, income, partner influence, and like, which we were not able to make analyses because of either lack of or unfitness of data for meta-analyses. A systematic review by Nattabi et al. in 2009 also concluded that fertility desires are influenced by a myriad of factors (demographic, health-related, stigma associated, psychosocial and cultural) [18]. Thirdly, because of the sensitiveness of the fertility issue for some society, the respondents may not express their genuine desire. It was reported that most HIV positive women had not discussed their fertility desires with health care providers due to fear of anticipated negative reactions and few attempted found that the environment was unsupportive for open discussion [15, 20, 22, 28]. Fourthly, these meta-analyses included studies mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa and few from developed countries. Thus, the findings of this analysis are unlikely to be representative of the countries where the included studies done.

Although the fertility desire among childless and the young group was very strong, in general, we realized that quite a significant segment of HIV-infected people has desires for fertility. The reviewed literature also identified a gap in addressing fertility issue in the routine care for HIV positive people. Therefore, including fertility issue as integral part of HIV patient care and counseling can help several of them in their reproductive decision making. Such counseling needs to focus on letting HIV positive people know the risks and methods of prevention while anticipating a pregnancy.