This phenomenological study described the fundamental structure of what it was like for men to tell someone of their HIV-positive status. Nineteen men participated in interviews to describe their experiences of self-disclosing their HIV-positive status to lovers, families, and friends. The data were analyzed first by using the phenomenological approach of Colaizzi. Data were then further analyzed using an approach by Van Manen, in which the lifeworld existentials of spatiality, temporality, and relationality provided an even clearer understanding of the phenomenon. The findings from both analyses revealed that the participants felt emotions such as rejection, denial, and lost tomorrows; as well as, advice on who, how and when to tell. These emotions developed into four themes: Price of Honesty, Telling, Realization, and Isolation. Knowledge of these thoughts and emotions may help nurses to formulate therapeutic interventions in which self-disclosure issues are addressed in other individuals.
