Abstract
This qualitative study aimed to explore the meanings attributed to HIV and the experimentation of positive changes after diagnosis (post-traumatic growth) in gay men from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fourteen individual, in-depth interviews were thematically analyzed by assigning codes to fragments of transcripts and organizing them along with themes. The mean age of participants was 41.29 years, with a mean of 8.42 years since diagnosis, three of them diagnosed in the last year. Most participants reported positive changes attributed to their HIV diagnosis, organized into three themes: a) changes in their philosophy of life, b) changes in their relations with others, and c) changes in self-perception. Some of these include greater appreciation for life and their own health, increments in healthier behaviors, strengthening of the social support network, and awareness of their coping skills. Such changes seem to be associated with the attribution of more positive meanings to HIV. The identification of post-traumatic growth can guide psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions in gay men living with HIV because it functions as a resource to cope with stigma and is associated with greater adherence to HIV care.
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