Ecological momentary assessment of HIV versus reproductive health symptoms in women of differing reproductive stages living with HIV

Objective:
To what extent menopause is related to symptom burden in women living with HIV (WLWH) is unclear, as a specific reproductive health analysis has seldom been undertaken, in part due to an inadequate assessment of reproductive status. The purpose of this study was to document and compare symptom frequency and attribution over 46 days and examine differences by reproductive status with a sample of 75 WLWH.
Methods:
We conducted an ecological momentary assessment using text messaging to follow 75 women confirmed for menopause stage with hormone profiles for 46 days. Participants were asked to respond to the following open-ended questions via a text message 3× weekly: (1) Did you have your period today? (Yes/No) (2) What were your top three menstrual/menopausal symptoms today? (3) What were your top three HIV-related symptoms today?
Results:
A total of 73 women (mean± SD age = 51 ± 8 y, range= 24-67 y) completed the study (10 pre-, 20 peri-, and 43 postmenopause). The majority of volunteers were black non-Hispanic (74%), nonsmokers (61%), with some high school (68%) and reporting

Source: Menopause - December 1, 2019 Category: OBGYN Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research