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Does HIV-seropositive status in women affect the age of menopause and the incidence of amenorrhea? To find out, investigators used data from 1139 HIV-seropositive and 292 HIV-seronegative women enrolled in a prospective multicenter study of the natural history of HIV infection in women. Most of the women were black and aged 16 to 39 (range, 16–55).
Ovarian failure was defined as serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels greater than 25 IU/L and prolonged amenorrhea for 12 or more months. Prolonged amenorrhea was significantly more common in HIV-positive than in HIV-negative women (10.5% vs. 5.5%). More than half of the HIV-seropositive women with amenorrhea did not have elevated FSH levels consistent with ovarian failure, versus only o…