Dr. I have been poz for 6 years with my partner who is neg. for 20 yrs (since just out of highschool). I look great, feel great, (good labs)and I think part it is due unconditional love I share with my other half. Looking forward to the next 20 yrs. Has anyone done any studies on the longevity of poz people in serodiscordant realtionships versus poz to poz or single.

Thank you for this site.

I am not aware of any studies designed to specifically evaluate this phenomenon. And actually this would be a difficult thing to study - to tease apart all of the factors that can contribute to health and longevity among people living with HIV. However your hypothesis is a sound one. There have been studies that have shown that people in long-term relationships often have better physical and mental health than people who are single. However, some studies have mixed findings on this and often there are interesting gender differences. That is, men tend to suffer more from being single than woman do, or to say this another way, men (in general) may have more to gain from being in a relationship than do woman.

So whether or not your relationship is a direct result of your partner's love, you should be grateful for the relationship you have and the love that you share, and you should celebrate your unconditional love for each other. At the very least it is something that contributes to your quality of life and overall well-being, even if you cannot definitively say it contributes directly to your longevity.