Oral testimonies: the other face of the HIV story.

Women's needs are different from men's; the research and services related to HIV/AIDS have been focused in men's needs. The implication of this approach is that it has had very serious consequences for women who live with HIV/AIDS. It has resulted in health professionals failing to understand the emergence of the symptoms, the complications, the necessary treatments, and the complex patterns of progression of the disease. Oral testimonies are an alternative methodology for the development of theoretical and intervention models that incorporate issues pertaining to the life-styles and world-view of women with HIV and other socially alienated people. Through the testimonies of three women living with HIV the author discusses concepts such as social stigma, family, spirituality, and human solidarity and denounces the oppression, exclusion and dehumanization experiences that these brave women have experienced as a result of living with this condition.