A secondary gendered analysis of interviews with Latina cisgender women indicated for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis

ABSTRACT

HIV infections disproportionately impact Latinx populations in the United States, yet oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake is low. This study was a secondary gendered analysis of interviews with Latina cisgender women (n = 20) recruited from an urban safety net hospital inNew York City between August 2019 and October 2022. All women were indicated for PrEP by the provider. In-depth interviews were conducted with participants in English and Spanish and asked about social determinants of health, sexual partnerships and behaviors, and PrEP-specific enablers and barriers. Secondary thematic content analysis was conducted to identify gender-related factors influencing PrEP uptake. The following themes emerged from the data:structural factors (e.g., employment), partner-related factors, low sexual health knowledge, and resilience and empowerment. Partner-related factors were the most salient; partner infidelity served as reasons for initiating PrEP. Despite being constrained by low power in relationships, women made empowered choices to initiate PrEP and protect themselves. Findings indicated that the impact of gender inequity was an important factor in Latina women’s PrEP decision making, pointing to a need to address partner-driven HIV risk, imbalance of power in relationships, and gender norms.

KEYWORDS:

• PrEP
• Latina
• cisgender women
• gender norms
• gender equity

SDG KEYWORDS:

• SDG 5: Gender equality

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants in this study for their time and insights. This study is supported by the Gilead Sciences, Inc. (IN-US-276-5456) and the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant 1R01HL160324.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the New York City Health + Hospitals Bellevue.

Consent to participate

All participants provided informed consent to participate in this study.

Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Gilead Sciences: [Grant Number IN-US-276-5456].