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Hormonal Contraception Does Not Appear to Increase Overall HIV Risk |
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Neither combined oral contraceptives nor the injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) increases a woman's overall risk for acquiring HIV infection, according to a large study led by Family Health International. The study, published in the January 2, 2007 issue of the journal AIDS, is the largest, most comprehensive study to date that compares use of the most commonly prescribed forms of hormonal contraception to risk of infection with HIV. The study results mean that, for now, current international medical guidelines for hormonal contraceptive use remain the same. This is reassuring for women in regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where hormonal contraceptives are the most common form of modern contraception and 60 percent of all adults living with HIV are women. The study enrolled 6,109 HIV-uninfected women from family planning clinics in Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Thailand. Participants received HIV testing quarterly for 15 to 24 months. By the time the study ended, 217 women had become infected with HIV. When all HIV cases were analyzed, researchers found no statistically significant difference in the risk of HIV acquisition between users of combined oral contraceptives or DMPA and women not using these hormonal contraceptives. The study also looked at whether having various other sexually transmitted infections changed hormonal contraceptive users' risk of acquiring HIV. It found that the risk of HIV acquisition was higher among women who were infected with genital herpes than those who were not. This is consistent with many other published studies. Among women who were not infected with genital herpes, hormonal contraceptive users had a higher risk of HIV acquisition. Researchers said this finding was unexpected and has no clear biological mechanism. They noted that further research is needed to confirm and explain this finding. Read more about this study. Source
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