Acknowledging and addressing the gender disparity in pre-exposure prophylaxis use for HIV prevention

Objective: One in four persons living with HIV in the USA is a woman. While the annual HIV diagnoses for 2019 decreased by approximately 9% when compared with 2015, this decrease was seen in men, while the rates remained stable for women. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is one major biomedical tool that could benefit women at risk of HIV. However, women only account for approximately 5% of PrEP users annually. The objective of this study is to identify and address the gender disparity in PrEP use.

Methods: This study used epidemiological data from the AIDSVu database to confirm the presence of a gender disparity in PrEP use across the USA. Cross-sectional data from 2019 showed that PrEP use was significantly higher in men, which suggested the existence of a disparity. The PrEP-to-Need ratio was then used to examine the trends in PrEP use relative to the rate of HIV infections, from 2012 to 2019, and to confirm the existence of the gender disparity in PrEP use.

Key findings: There is a marked gender disparity in PrEP use. This disparity is widening and therefore demands more attention to women at risk of HIV. Some recommendations for addressing the disparity include the following: raising awareness, capacity building for providers, scaling up efforts to better reach women at risk of HIV and additional research to understand the drivers of the disparity.

Conclusions: Policy makers could therefore prioritize the health outcomes of women by promoting research and education aimed at extending PrEP offerings to effectively reach women.