Shandong Zhanhua Yonghao pharmaceutical & Tech Co.,Ltd

One in four people living with HIV in the United States is a woman. Women of all ages, races, and ethnicities can get HIV, but some women are more at risk than others.

All women can get HIV, but your risk for getting HIV is higher if you:

Have unprotected sex

Have injected illegal drugs, either now or in the past

Had sex with someone to get money or drugs in return or with someone who has traded sex for money or drugs

Had sex with someone who Has HIV

Has sex with both men and women

Injects drugs

Have another sexually transmitted infection (STI) (PDF, 187 KB)

Had a blood transfusion between 1978 and 1985

Women who inject drugs or share needles

Women who use injection drugs or share needles or syringes and other injection equipment are at high risk for HIV. In fact, sharing needles is the second most common way that HIV is spread. (Sex is the most common way that HIV is spread.) Use of injected drugs also raises your risk for risky behaviors, such as not using a condom during sex. In a study of U.S. cities with high levels of HIV, 72% of women who injected drugs reported having sex without a condom in the past year.5

If you use injection drugs, talk to your doctor about medicine, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), to prevent getting HIV.

Women who have sex with women

Women who have sex only with women might think they are safe from HIV. This type of HIV transmission is rare. If you are a woman and your female partner has HIV, you can get it if you have cuts, bleeding gums, or sores in your mouth and you give oral sex. It is also possible to spread HIV through menstrual blood and shared sex toys.6

As a woman who has sex with women, it is also possible to get HIV if:

You inject or your partner injects drugs with someone who has HIV

You have or your partner has sex with a man who has HIV

You are trying to get pregnant and use semen that has not been tested for HIV or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (PDF, 187 KB)

Lower your risk of getting HIV or passing it to your partner:

Know your HIV status and your partner's HIV status.

Take steps to protect yourself and others from HIV.

Use latex condoms correctly and every time if you have sex with men.

Use dental dams correctly.

Never share sex toys.