HIV sensitisation campaigns often aim to empower people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) to enable them to cope with their illness by getting on with normal life as best as they can. However, contained within these messages are implicit assumptions about the needs of PLWHA. This research found that in Jamaica PLWHA's reproductive health needs are considered to be met largely by condoms. However, PLWHA respondents in this study expressed desires to have children and felt that their right to this was being denied. As such, dominant HIV sensitisation messages fail to respond to Jamaican PLWHA's own perceptions of their needs. This information is of importance, as the focus of the international HIV response moves away from simply preventing new infections to supporting those who have already been infected through locally appropriate interventions. As part of this, local perceptions need to be acknowledged ‘up-stream’ in HIV programming.