{"id":5272,"date":"2025-02-12T16:24:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T16:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.savinglivesuk.com\/?p=5272"},"modified":"2025-02-12T16:24:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T16:24:38","slug":"women-and-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondpositive.org\/sluktest\/women-and-prep\/","title":{"rendered":"PrEP – what is it, and why aren’t more women on it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Purpose
\nIf you are a woman living in the Birmingham Area\u00a0 and are interested in taking part in the\u00a0Purpose 5 Trial,<\/b>\u00a0please contact the Research team at Birmingham Heartlands HIV service \u00a0at<\/span> \u00a0coreresearchteambhh@uhb.nhs.uk<\/a><\/h3>\n

Or call 0121 424 2847\u00a0<\/i><\/b>to see if the study is right for you.<\/span><\/h3>\n

To qualify, you must be a sexually active woman over the age of 18 years who is not currently taking PrEP and have had unprotected sexual intercourse with at least 2 different sexual partners in the last 6 months<\/i><\/span><\/h4>\n

You can learn \u00a0more about the purpose 5 study here: <\/i><\/span>PURPOSE Trials for Lenacapavir<\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n


\nPrEP – what is it, and why aren’t more women on it?<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why is PrEP uptake so low in women, and what can be done to change that? Niamh is a HIV Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Birmingham, and wanted to share her thoughts this HIV Testing Week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Niamh Fleming-Kie\u0142b – HIV Clinical Nurse Specialist – Birmingham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My name is Niamh, and I work as a HIV CNS in Birmingham. Recently, I conducted a small experiment among my friends and peers.<\/p>\n

One evening I sent a text to 20 women asking \u201cDid you know that women can access PrEP to reduce their risk of acquiring HIV?\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Only three out of the twenty women were aware that women can use PrEP<\/a> and that they are able to access it. One friend even remarked, “I always worried about pregnancy and STIs, but HIV never occurred to me”.<\/em><\/p>\n

So why is this important and what is PrEP?\u00a0PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is taken by people who are HIV negative but at risk of exposure to HIV.\u00a0It is\u00a0a pill containing two drugs that, when taken correctly, reduces your risk of getting HIV.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the UK Health Secretary announced that PrEP would be available for free on the NHS\u2014 this was a key turning point in achieving the government’s target to end new HIV cases by 2030.\u00a0But, whilst this is a fantastic step forward in reducing HIV transmission, the uptake, education, and lack of access for women remain low.<\/p>\n

Women are less likely to use PrEP than men, even though they are at similar risk of acquiring HIV.\u00a0This is a significant public health issue that needs to be addressed. Reasons for the disparity include:\u00a0difficulty identifying women at highest HIV risk, low self-perception of HIV risk, low PrEP knowledge, as well as structural and individual barriers to PrEP initiation.<\/p>\n

Women only represented 2.9% of attendees at specialist sexual health services who initiated or continued use of PrEP in England in 2022 – and in 2019, the overall prevalence rate for PrEP use among women was only 12 per 100,000. This is a jarring comparison to 75.4% of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men who accessed and used PrEP during the same period.<\/p>\n

We need to change the narrative of who, and who isn\u2019t, a \u201clow transmission risk\u201d. Women have sex. Women are equally at risk of acquiring HIV.<\/p>\n

The key to breaking the cycle is improving our relationship and Sex Education (RSE) in schools. Women and young girls are told repeatedly from a young age “don’t get pregnant”<\/em>, but wider sexual health and HIV education\u2014 including PrEP and PEP<\/a>\u2014 should be a key component of those ongoing conversations and teachings.<\/p>\n

Women, we have the tools to protect you from HIV, protect your family from HIV, and be part of the generation that stops HIV. Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n

For more information about PrEP for women, check out this page from our friends at Team Prepster: https:\/\/prepster.info\/prep4women<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a woman living in the Birmingham Area\u00a0 and are interested in taking part in the\u00a0Purpose 5 Trial,\u00a0please contact the Research team at Birmingham Heartlands HIV service \u00a0at \u00a0coreresearchteambhh@uhb.nhs.uk Or call 0121 424 2847\u00a0to see if the study is right for you. To qualify, you must be a sexually active woman over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[509,10,513],"tags":[506,507,508,471,311,312,87,294,510,511,315,67,512,316,514,112,113,97,515,318,516,321,223,224],"class_list":["post-5272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiv","category-news","category-prevention","tag-506","tag-blog","tag-cns","tag-education","tag-february","tag-ftc","tag-hiv","tag-hiv-testing-week","tag-niamh","tag-nurse","tag-pre-exposure-prophylaxis","tag-prep","tag-prepster","tag-prevention","tag-rse","tag-saving-lives","tag-savinglivesuk","tag-sexual-health","tag-sre","tag-tdf","tag-testing-week","tag-truvada","tag-woman","tag-women"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t