Background Gender-based violence (GBV) has generated practitioners’ and researchers’ interest since the surge of the women’s movement few decades ago in the Philippines. Meanwhile, HIV-AIDS gained similar attention with the disclosure of the first ever case of the country in mid-80s. Only recently, however, has the intersectionality of these two phenomena been looked into by the research community elsewhere and has yet to be systematically studied locally. This research, therefore, attempts to map out the lived experiences of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) who have undergone gender-based violence (GBV) and looks into the consequent psychosocial and mental health issues.

Methods We used qualitative design to describe and understand the participants’ gender-based violence (GBV) experiences relative to their becoming HIV-positives. Data was generated by a partner health non-government organization (NGO), the Action for Health Initiatives, (Achieve, Inc.), by recruiting 24 participants from the highly vulnerable groups of HIV positives, namely: entertainers/sex workers; men having sex with men (MSM); overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and injecting drug users (IDUs) who were initially part of a survey done on a related study.

Using focus group discussion and in depth interviews, the participants were asked about the gender-based violence that they experienced early in life, about their experience with the Human Immuno-Deficiency virus (HIV), and about the psychosocial impact of these in their lives. In agreement with the partner NGO, the authors did the thematic analysis on the accounts generated.

Results Thematic analysis reveals that the participants experienced various forms of gender-based violence, e.g., sexual, emotional/psychological, economic, verbal, physical; and expressions of stigma and discrimination, which in turn, led to manifestations of psychosocial and mental health issues like trauma, depression, internalized homophobia, greater health risks and risk-taking behaviors, among others.

Conclusion Worth considering is the possibility that the consequent risk-taking and self-injurious tendencies played a role in their eventual contraction of HIV.

Disclosure No significant relationships.