Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug 5:sextrans-2024-056445.
doi: 10.1136/sextrans-2024-056445. Online ahead of print.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake and retention in care in a group of transgender women at high risk of HIV: a French cohort of follow-up

Valentina Isernia  1 , Minerva Cervantes  2 , Marc Digumber  2   3 , Frezzia Peralta  4 , Françoise Louni  3 , André Deprez  2 , Sylvie Le Gac  2   3 , Claire Vandendriessche  4 , Karen Champenois  5 , Aurelie Sautereau  2 , Antoine Bachelard  2 , Bao Phung  2 , Aïda Benalycherif  6 , Roland Landman  2   6 , Laszlo Blanquart  4 , Jade Ghosn  2   5
Affiliations

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake and retention in care in a group of transgender women at high risk of HIV: a French cohort of follow-up

Valentina Isernia et al. Sex Transm Infect. .

Abstract

Introduction: Despite high HIV prevalence rates among trans women (TW), few preventive interventions have targeted this population.

Methods: We described sociodemographic and clinical data from a cohort of TW followed up for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) at the Sexual Health Clinic of Bichat hospital in Paris between 2016 and 2023, via a multidisciplinary community-led PrEP programme.The total number of TW starting PrEP and having ongoing follow-up each year was assessed. We described retention in care at 3, 6 and 12 months and median time of follow-up. Incidence of PrEP discontinuation was calculated using Poisson regression.

Results: Between January 2016 and December 2023, 209 TW have been followed up for PrEP at Bichat Hospital, with a median age of 36 years and mostly originating from South America (79.4%, 166/209). Seventy-four per cent of TW (155/209) were sex workers and 53.6% (112/209) had regular health insurance. Most of TW were on daily PrEP (94.3 %, 197/209).The total number of TW followed-up for PrEP per year increased from 17 in 2016 to 129 in 2023. Median time of follow-up was 10.3 months and incidence of PrEP discontinuations was 58.2 (CI 95% 49.51 to 68.57) per 100 persons-year. Retention in care at 6 and 12 months was, respectively, 62% and 38% for users who started PrEP in 2016 and 81% and 31% for those who started in 2022. Seven per cent of TW (13/190) experienced adverse events, leading to PrEP discontinuation in 10/190 cases. Two cases of HIV seroconversion were reported, both in TW who had stopped PrEP for gastrointestinal intolerance.

Conclusions: Our multidisciplinary reach-out community-led PrEP programme has increased PrEP access among our cohort of TW. Rates of retention in such a prevention programme of care remained poor. More interventions are needed to analyse PrEP barriers and improve retention in care for this specific population.

Keywords: HIV Infections; LATIN AMERICA; Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis; Preventive Health Services; Transgender Persons.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: JG has received honoraria from Gilead and ViiV healthcare outside the submitted work. VI has received honoraria from Gilead and ViiV healthcare outside the submitted work. All other authors have no competing interests to declare. JG is a member of the Editorial Board of STI. All other authors have no competing interest to declare.

LinkOut - more resources