Although the AIDS epidemic has been ongoing for more than 20 years, surprisingly little is known about the differences in how women and men react when treated with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, both in terms of the drug's usefulness and the side effects they cause. This deficiency is because women were initially entirely excluded from and continue to be underrepresented in ARV trials. One of the primary goals of the Women and HIV Research Program will be to identify the optimum combination anti-retroviral therapy (cART) strategies for women - strategies that optimize the treatment's virological and immunological effect while minimizing toxicity and the negative impact on a woman's quality of life.

Multiple studies as well as anecdotal observation has suggested that women have more adverse reactions than men to antiretroviral therapy, but the subject has been poorly evaluated and requires significant further research. One hypothesis is that drug levels are significantly higher in women than in the historic, largely-male populations in which these drugs were initially tested. This may be due to body weight and may lead to the higher frequency and severity of adverse events associated with the use of these drugs by women. One of the priorities by this research program will be:

• To complete and publish a cross-sectional study of the factors that predict high drug levels in women with full viral suppression and the incidence of adverse events associated with drug treatment
• To complete and publish a randomized clinical trial on the topic of ARV Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in HIV-infected women and the adjustments of doses to decrease adverse events