Absence of Effect of Menopause Status at Initiation of First-Line Antiretroviral Therapy on Immunologic or Virologic Responses: A Cohort Study from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: e89299

Objective To compare the effectiveness of first-line combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) between premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Methods ART-naive women initiating cART between January 2000/June 2010 at the Instituto de Pesquisa Clinica Evandro Chagas Cohort were studied. Women were defined as postmenopausal after 12 consecutive months of amenorrhea. CD4 cell counts and HIV-1 RNA viral load (VL) measurements were compared between pre- and postmenopausal at 6, 12 and 24 months after cART initiation. Women who modified/discontinued a drug class or died due to an AIDS defining illness were classified as ART-failures. Variables were compared using Wilcoxon test, chi 2 or Fisher's exact test. The odds of cART effectiveness (VL