Women and AIDs, it’s personal

Think AIDs is only an issue if you shoot up? Or maybe if your a gay male cruising three or four times a night for sex? Think again, and read about Regan Hoffman. You might be surprised:

Regan Hofmann grew up in the tony suburbs of Princeton, N.J. When she went to high school in the 80s, she was terrified of AIDS.

“By the mid-90s, I had never heard of a woman — a heterosexual woman who was not an IV-drug user — having HIV,” Hofmann says. “I perceived myself to be literally at no risk for HIV.”

But in 1996, Regan contracted HIV from her first and only boyfriend after her divorce. She was so embarrassed that she kept it a secret. And because she had health care, she could keep it a secret from her friends. For about eight years, she only told her immediate family.

You can – and should – read the rest of her story at the National Public Radio web site. You can reach Ms. Hofmann’s important story by clicking to it at this link at NPR HERE.

(photo courtesy of ElektraCute’s Photos, used under Creative Commons License)