Introduction South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic, with 8.2 million people living with the virus. It has a high HIV prevalence of 13.7% and 230,000 new infections in 2020. It is estimated that HIV serodiscordant couples contribute up to 60% of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there have been no specific programmes/activities to deliberately cater for couples in HIV serodiscordant relationships. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychosocial support provided for HIV serodiscordant couples both in health care settings and in the community. Methods An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) design was utilised for this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with thirteen HIV serodiscordant couples. Data collection was guided by an interview guide. All audio-recorded interview data were transcribed verbatim into written text. Data analysis was conducted using an interpretative phenomenological analysis framework. A third person-an expert in qualitative research, acted as an independent co-coder and conducted the open coding of each transcript. Findings The findings indicated that HIV serodiscordant couples received psychosocial support from their partners, family, and health care workers. This support was emotional, or in the form of counselling, reminders on taking medication, financial and household chores. The support provided by health care providers proved to be deficient and did not address the diverse needs of this group. Conclusion Psychosocial support plays a critical role in enhancing the quality of life of HIV serodiscordant couples. Therefore, client centred, and tailor-made interventions should be made available to this special with diverse needs group.

Background: Serodiscordant refers to a couple where one has human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the other partner is HIV negative. HIV-serodiscordancy often results in diverse psychological and emotional challenges. Evidence demonstrates that the dynamics of living in an HIV-serodiscordant relationship are often stressful. This study explored the psychosocial- and disclosure-related challenges faced by couples in HIV-serodiscordant relationships in South Africa. Methods: An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) design was followed. A total of 13 HIV-serodiscordant partners were purposively sampled. Data were collected through individual face-to-face interviews and analysed using the IPA framework. Results: The findings indicated that HIV-serodiscordant couples experienced diverse psychosocial challenges such as shock, sadness, hurt, denial and disbelief. Participants also experienced challenges such as selective disclosure and fear of further disclosure. Conclusions: The findings have implications for public health and are critical in programming and designing couple-based HIV care interventions. Couples in HIV-serodiscordant relationships would benefit more from differentiated, client-centred psychosocial support. To contribute to the HIV epidemic control and reduction of new HIV infections, specific interventions such as couples counselling, disclosure counselling, support groups, health education and safer conception risk reduction strategies need to be implemented.