Monika Kowatsch

Globally, over half (53 per cent) of the people living with HIV are women and girls. Yet despite effective treatments that have increased life expectancy, women living with HIV in Canada have a life expectancy seven years shorter than men living with HIV and five to 10 years shorter than women without HIV. Women living with HIV can experience a disproportionate number of age-related conditions. Although the reasons for this remain unclear, women living with HIV tend to experience decreases in sex hormone levels earlier in life. Given that these hormones are protective to health, lower levels may contribute to earlier and higher risk of concurrent conditions. Addressing this health disparity and understanding the aging experiences of women living with HIV are research priorities identified by the women living with HIV that we consulted and continue to work with as part of our study.

The British Columbia CARMA-CHIWOS collaboration (BCC3, CTN 335) integrates two established Canadian research cohorts of women living with HIV; CARMA (Children and Women: AntiRetroviral therapy and Markers of Aging), and CHIWOS (Canadian HIV WOmen’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study), in a holistic cell-to-society approach. The CIHR-funded study is a community-based research study focused on women’s health across their lifespan, based at the Oak Tree clinic and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. It uses biological specimens, clinical data and extensive psycho-social determinants of health data collection to address key questions regarding the health of women living with HIV that could not be accomplished elsewhere.