Do men and women differ in their HIV outcomes?

Numerous studies have explored gender-related differences in HIV outcomes, and a meta-analysis of heroic scale (over 100 studies in the final evidence synthesis) recently combined these results.1 Their main finding was that men with HIV experience greater mortality (risk ratio (RR) for all-cause mortality 1.23, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.29) and faster disease progression (RR 1.11, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.21) compared to women. The large number of studies in the analysis allowed detailed exploration of factors that may explain the heterogeneity between cohorts. This can explain why a higher mortality in men is not familiar to many clinicians from their daily practice. It appeared that the gender-related difference in risk of death was largely confined to low-income and middle-income countries, patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and those younger than 50 years old. In high-income countries, patients older than …