June 27, 2023 – How does HIV have an effect on menopause?
HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, impacts the physique’s immune system and may result in AIDS if it goes untreated. HIV has been referred to as a “graying” illness, as these 50 or older make up nearly half of infections in the US.
Amongst ladies newly identified with HIV, 19% have been ages 45 to 54, and 17% have been 55 and older, in accordance with the CDC. Researchers are actually analyzing the connection between HIV and menopause – and the virus’s influence on a lady’s well being could be vital.
“Research have proven that early menopause might happen 5 years earlier in ladies with HIV than ladies with out HIV,” mentioned Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, a professor of medication on the College of California, San Francisco, and director of the Ward 86 HIV Clinic at San Francisco Common Hospital/UCSF. “The explanations for this embrace continual an infection, decrease estrogen ranges, continual stress response, immunodeficiency, metabolic adjustments that may happen with HIV corresponding to weight adjustments or insulin resistance, or continual treatment use.”
There are a variety of well being implications for ladies who enter menopause sooner, together with a better danger for osteoporosis as a result of their bones aren’t as dense.
“HIV is a well-studied danger issue for osteoporosis,” mentioned Anna Hachfeld, MD, MSCi, a senior doctor within the Division of Infectious Ailments at Bern College Hospital in Switzerland, and co-lead creator of a latest research wanting on the well being implications of early menopause and HIV. “Folks residing with HIV have on the whole extra non-HIV associated danger components corresponding to smoking or alcohol use. Like HIV, menopause is a danger issue for osteoporosis – that is seemingly mediated by way of hormonal adjustments.”
However there’s rather a lot you are able to do to remain wholesome. A brand new Canadian research discovered that HIV-positive ladies who’ve entry to good well being care undergo menopause at comparable ages to ladies who’re HIV-negative, as an illustration. Right here’s the data you must work greatest along with your physician, get reduction from menopausal signs, and maintain treating HIV successfully and safely.
How Do Older Ladies Contract HIV?
HIV is transmitted in the identical methods to everybody – by way of sure physique fluids, specifically blood, vaginal fluid, or semen. The Mayo Clinic explains that HIV is unfold by way of sexual contact and thru contaminated blood that enters your physique. HIV can be unfold by way of breastfeeding or throughout childbirth.
It is really simpler for an older ladies than different individuals to grow to be contaminated with HIV by way of intercourse, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies Workplace on Ladies’s Well being. It’s because after menopause, lack of lubrication within the vagina raises the chance for tiny cuts, by way of which the virus could be transmitted. To guard your self and others, it’s essential to make use of condoms when you will have intercourse, and to get examined for HIV for those who don’t know your standing.
What Are the Signs of HIV?
HIV.gov explains that though some individuals with HIV don’t have any indicators in any respect, others can have flu-like signs, together with:
- Fever and chills
- A pores and skin rash
- Evening sweats
- Achy muscle mass
- Feeling drained
- A sore throat
- Lymph node swelling
- Ulcers in your mouth
What Are the Signs of Menopause?
Some signs of menopause embrace:
- Vaginal infections
- Irregular bleeding, like skipped intervals or a change in move
- Urinary issues
- Sexual issues
- Sizzling flashes
- Evening sweats
- Disrupted sleep
- Low temper
- Despair
- Anxiousness
- Hassle concentrating or remembering issues
- Joint and muscle pains
- Complications
Do Ladies with HIV Have Totally different Signs of Menopause?
Briefly: Sure.
“Research have proven that ladies with HIV have a larger prevalence of menopausal signs than ladies with out HIV even at comparable ages. In one giant research, the commonest signs of menopause amongst ladies with HIV have been joint ache, scorching flashes, exhaustion, and sleep disturbances,” Gandhi mentioned.
In case you’re HIV-positive, you might also discover that your intervals don’t change steadily – they could simply cease altogether out of the blue.
“Ladies with HIV are thrice extra more likely to have absent intervals, in comparison with these with out HIV,” mentioned Anna M. Powell, MD MS, an assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics and co-director of the Johns Hopkins HIV Ladies’s Well being Program at Johns Hopkins Medication in Baltimore.
It’s doable, although, {that a} lack of menstruation really has to do with one other well being situation. A College of British Columbia evaluation discovered that in quite a few research, HIV-positive ladies reached menopause on common between 46 and 50 years outdated. Among the many ladies who reached early menopause, a excessive share had main ovarian insufficiency (POI), which may additionally trigger intervals to cease. (Whereas POI shouldn’t be a situation particularly linked to HIV, each situations do hyperlink to osteoporosis.)
In case you cease having intervals, it is a good suggestion to ask your physician to check you for the reason for your amenorrhea, the medical time period for missed intervals. Your physician can do a biochemical affirmation of menopause so you may then deal with any troublesome signs you’re having with the appropriate remedy.
What Well being Adjustments Ought to You Make to Handle Each Menopause and HIV?
It’s vital to focus in your general well being at the moment. British researchers who handled HIV-positive ladies throughout their menopause transition discovered that these sufferers had a excessive charge of different situations throughout menopause, which speaks to the necessity for ladies to handle HIV at this stage of their lives. Additionally, a multi-university analysis group discovered that menopause is linked to immune activation in ladies with HIV. This occurs by way of dysfunction within the intestine microbiome and may make ladies extra more likely to have HIV issues corresponding to coronary heart illness and most cancers.
Ensuring you’re consuming a balanced weight loss plan is an effective way to chop your danger for each of these ailments. Additionally, new analysis exhibits that HIV-positive ladies usually shed some pounds as a substitute of gaining it at menopause. This can be on account of a response to antiretroviral remedy (ART), which makes use of commonplace HIV medication. It is key that whilst you take your HIV treatment, you additionally get sufficient energy.
Consuming alcohol will not be best for you when you’ve got HIV– particularly extreme alcohol use. It’s vital to debate whether or not you may or ought to drink alcohol along with your physician.
Altering your treatment shouldn’t be one thing to fret about, almost certainly.
“Until somebody is on an older antiretroviral routine containing sure protease inhibitors like fosamprenavir, or sure NNRTIs [non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors] like efavirenz, HIV medicines don’t have to be adjusted,” mentioned Powell.
To stop osteoporosis, ask your physician about upping your calcium consumption – a vitamin D complement could also be best for you.
You almost certainly can take hormone alternative remedy for a quick interval for those who and your physician really feel that’s a good selection for symptom reduction.
“Menopausal signs are undertreated and HRT is under-utilized in ladies with HIV,” Powell mentioned.
Make the wholesome selections which might be best for you – you may really feel higher than ever.
“Protected and efficient therapies for menopause can be found,” Powell mentioned. “With the appearance of extra tolerable and protected ART regimens, ladies with HIV live nicely into their post-menopausal years.”
