This article aims at deepening the understanding and at promoting reflection on the psychological suffering of HIV-infected women. As a basis for this work I took my previous experience as a trainee and my current experience as a professional at institutions that take care of patients with clinical infectious conditions - among them, the infection due to HIV. Texts on psychoanalysis were my cornerstone, as well as current studies on the issue of HIV and on the meaning of the real and symbolic death. The social representation on the epidemic and its effects on subjectiveness have also been considered. I underscored the patients' psychological illness expressed through melancholic suffering - the last regarded - as related to the unconscious aspects of sexuality - brought up by the confrontation with the diagnosis, with the subject of death and with the subjective patterns of contemporary society.
HIV infection; Psychological illness; Melancholy; Women's sexuality