Purpose: We attempt to increase our understanding of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) shedding in semen.
Materials and methods: We followed 16 seropositive men for up to 27 months by HIV cocultivation, with a subset evaluated using the polymerase chain reaction.
Results: The proportion with at least 1 HIV positive semen culture increased from 3 of 16 subjects (19%) at visit 1 to 10 (63%) by visit 5. Overall, HIV was cultured from 25 of 114 specimens (22%). Shedding was intermittent for each of the 10 men with at least 1 positive culture and seminal shedding patterns were highly variable.
Conclusions: By culture and polymerase chain reaction, HIV is shed intermittently in the semen. If cultures are performed often enough most seropositive men shed HIV in the semen.