Body Composition Changes Over the Menopausal Transition in Women With and Without Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Women are at risk for weight gain during the transition to menopause, but few have examined the contribution of menopause to weight gain in women with human immunodeficiency virus (WWH).

From 2000 to 2013, participants (621 WWH; 218 without HIV [WWOH]) from the Women's Interagency HIV Study were categorized by menopausal phase using serial measures of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). Multivariable linear mixed models examined the association of menopausal phase with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) trajectory, stratified by HIV status.

In models controlled for chronologic age, the estimated effects (95% confidence interval) of menopausal phase on annual rate of BMI change across early perimenopause, late perimenopause, and menopause, respectively, compared to premenopause were -0.55% (-.80 to -.30), -0.29% (-.61 to .03), and -0.67% (-1.12 to -.20) in WWH, whereas estimated effects were 0.43% (-.01 to .87) and 0.15% (-.42 to .71) across early and late perimenopause, respectively, and -0.40% (-1.24 to .45) across menopause in WWOH. The estimated effects on rate of WC change were negative across early perimenopause (-0.21% [-.44 to .03]) and menopause (-0.12% [-.5 to .26]) and positive across late perimenopause (0.18% [-.10 to .45]) in WWH, and positive across all 3 menopausal phases in WWOH, but these effects were not statistically significant.

In WWH, the menopausal transition was associated with BMI and WC trajectories that were mostly in a negative direction and opposite from WWOH after adjusting for age, suggesting that HIV blunts weight gain during the menopausal transition.