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Dr Karalyn McDonald

BA, MA, PhD

Team Investigator, COMPASS

Email: K.McDonald@latrobe.edu.au

Telephone: 03 83418522

Karalyn is a health sociologist with an interest in women’s health issues. Her main research focus has been the lived experience of HIV-positive women in Australia. Her PhD was a qualitative study that explored HIV-positive women’s reproductive choices, the impact of an HIV diagnosis on motherhood as well as issues of stigma and disclosure. Her previous research explored gender differences among people living with HIV/AIDS in Australia in relation to treatment uptake and attitudes.

Karalyn joined MCHR in October 2007 and has since worked on MOSAIC (MOtherS’ Advocates In the Community) a cluster randomised trial of mentor mother support and Women's' attitudes and experiences of breastfeeding – does maternal weight make a difference? Currently Karalyn is a team investigator on COMPASS and a Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (www.latrobe.edu.au/arcshs).

MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS

Women's reproductive health, breastfeeding, chronic illness and stigma.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Women's' attitudes and experiences of breastfeeding – does maternal weight make a difference?
Team:	Lisa Amir, Della Forster, Kate Stern, Joanne Rayner, Karalyn McDonald
Funding:	La Trobe Research Grants Scheme
Status:	Focus groups and in-depth interviews in progress

PUBLICATIONS (Selected)

Refereed Journal Articals

McDonald K, Bartos M & Rosenthal D (2000). Australian women living with HIV/AIDS are more sceptical than men about antiretroviral treatments. AIDS Care, 13(1), 15-26.

Bartos, M. & McDonald, K. (2000). HIV as identity, experience or career. AIDS Care, 12(3), 299-306.

McConachy, D. and McDonald, K. (1999). Issues for Primary, Informal, Home-based Carers of People Living with AIDS. Australian Journal of Primary Health Interchange, 5 (1), 30-40.

Book Chapters and other publications

McDonald, K. (2006). Common Threads: Positive women discuss pregnancy, parenting and living with HIV. Melbourne: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University and Positive Women Victoria.

McDonald, K. (2006). The best experience of my life: HIV positive women on pregnancy and birth in Australia. In M. Tankard Reist (Ed.), Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics North Melbourne Spinifex Press.

McDonald K (2002). I was devastated to think I couldn't have a child: The role of motherhood in the lives of HIV-positive women in Australia . In Kirkman, M., Maher, J.M. and Torney Souter, K. (eds) The Fertile Imagination: Narratives of Reproduction. Meridian 18 (2): 123-141.

McDonald, K. (2001). My sperm need washing. In H. Grace Jones & M. Kirkman (Eds.), Sperm wars: The rights and wrongs of reproduction (pp. 274-280). Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

McDonald, K. (2007). Do you tell? … What do you tell? … When do you tell? … How do you tell?: HIV positive mothers, disclosure and stigma. HIV Australia, 5(4).

McDonald, K. (2003) Positive Women: Who are we not researching? HIV Australia, 2 (9), Newtown , NSW.

McDonald, K. (2000) A snapshot of a Complex Uncertainty: Women on health, hope and living with HIV in Australia.. Talkabout, 111, Sydney, NSW.

O’Donnell, D. & McDonald, K. (1997). Informal Carers of PLWHA are deterred from using support services, study reveals. National AIDS Bulletin, 11(5), 9.

HIV Futures Five: Life as women know it. (pdf) 2007 (Thorpe, R., McDonald, K., & Grierson, J.)

The Journey Continues: Women living with HIV/AIDS in Australia. 2005 (McDonald, K., Thorpe, R., & Grierson, J.)

Juggling with HIV: The intricacies of positive women's lives in Australia today. (pdf) 2002. (K. McDonald, S. Misson, J. Grierson)

Antiretroviral treatments: similarities and differences between women and men. (pdf) Papers from the HIV Futures I and II surveys and interviews. April 2002 (K McDonald and M Hurley (eds))

Motherhood and HIV positive women in Australia. Papers from the HIV Futures I and II surveys and interviews. April 2002 (K McDonald and M Hurley (eds))

HIV Futures 3: Positive Australians on Services, Health and Well Being. 2002 (Grierson, J., Misson, S., McDonald, K., Pitts, M. and O’Brien, M.)

HIV Futures II: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Living with HIV, 2002 (Willis, J., McDonald, K., Saunders, M. and Grierson, J.)

HIV Futures II: The Health and Well-being of People with HIV/AIDS in Australia. 2000 (Grierson, J., Bartos, M., de Visser, R. & McDonald, K.)

A Complex uncertainty: Women on health, hope and living with HIV in Australia. (pdf) 2000. (K. McDonald, J. Grierson, R. de Visser & M. Bartos)

HIV Futures II: People with Haemophilia.(pdf) 2000. (K. McDonald & J. Grierson)

A Different Epidemic: HIV-positive Heterosexual Men in the HIV Futures Survey. 1999 (de Visser, R., Grierson, J., Bartos, M., McDonald, K., Ezzy, D. & Rosenthal, D.A.)

Standing on Shifting Sand: Women living with HIV/AIDS in Australia.(pdf) 1998. (K. McDonald, M. Bartos, R. de Visser, D. Ezzy & D. Rosenthal)

HIV Futures Community Report: Health, Relationships, Community and Employment. 1998 Ezzy, D.M., de Visser, R., Bartos, M., McDonald, K., O’Donnell, D. & Rosenthal, D.A.

Under-trained, under-resourced, but always there. The experiences of primary, informal carers of people living with AIDS. 1998 D.McConachy, K. McDonald, R. Wilkins, K. Hammet, I. Grubb, and P. Cristaudo.

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Last Updated: 21 July 2009