Clinical encounters for gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) provide an opportunity to offer HIV testing and preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to transgender women (TGW) and transgender men (TGM) in the U.S., researchers report. “It is important to identify transgender persons to monitor their receipt of HIV prevention services,” the authors conclude. “Clinical guidelines and resources have been developed by CDC to guide health care providers in providing PrEP, including for transgender persons. The health and well-being of transgender persons can be increased with holistic service models that include HIV prevention and other prevention services in addition to GAHT.”
The retrospective analysis of secondary data used the Merative MarketScan commercial databases from 2014 to 2021 to identify people with transgender-related diagnoses and prescriptions for feminizing or masculinizing GAHT. “A substantially increasing trend was observed in the prevalence of transgender-related diagnosis codes from 2014 to 2021 and in the proportion of persons who used GAHT. The increases were driven by persons aged 18 to 34 years. In 2021, among 10,613 TGW with a test for or a diagnosis of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the previous 12 months, 61.1% had an HIV test; among those, 20.2% were prescribed PrEP. Among 4,184 TGM with STI risk, 48.3% had an HIV test; among those, 10.2% were prescribed PrEP. The prevalence of TGW and TGM who had a test for or a diagnosis of an STI, had an HIV test, and were prescribed PrEP increased substantially from 2014 to 2021.”