Strengthening Clinical Support for Providers Working with Women Living with HIV to Manage Menopause - The proposed K01 Award will provide the candidate, Dr. Lauren Suchman, with 1 training and skills to achieve her long-term goal of becoming an independent investigator who enhances access to quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care across the lifespan. Dr. Suchman is an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) with expertise in women’s health, SRH, and HIV with a strong foundation in qualitative methods. The tailored training and research programs described in this K01 application will enhance Dr. Suchman’s ability to conduct independent research in line with NIH’s new high-priority area outlined in NOT-OD-24-119: Research Opportunities Centering the Health of Women Across the HIV Research Continuum. She requires additional training to: 1) develop topical expertise in HIV and menopause with a focus on symptom management and its impact on health outcomes; 2) develop proficiency in clinical research and statistical methods; 3) obtain experience in participatory intervention design; and 4) develop professional skills for career advancement. She has assembled a mentorship team of experts in HIV and menopause, the epidemiology of brain health outcomes in aging women with HIV (WWH), biostatistical methods, and participatory intervention design. These mentors will support Dr. Suchman’s transition to independence through didactic coursework, one-on-one meetings and tutorials, access to adjacent research teams and working groups, and completion of an independent research project. Dr. Suchman’s program of research centers on the midlife health of WWH in the U.S. with a particular focus on the San Francisco Bay Area. Menopause is a critical inflection point in the health of midlife cisgender women, which disproportionately impacts WWH. The menopausal transition and severity of associated symptoms has also been associated with suboptimal engagement in HIV care and antiretroviral treatment. However, WWH are less likely to be offered efficacious treatments for menopausal symptoms and less likely to accept these treatments if offered compared to women without HIV. To address these gaps, the study for this K01 aims to understand how menopausal phase and symptom severity affect HIV outcomes in midlife WWH and determine how therapeutic management of menopausal symptoms can best be implemented in an HIV clinic. Study outcomes will serve as proof of concept for an R01 proposal to develop and empirically test a multi-level intervention for both providers and patients. Research and training will occur at UCSF and will leverage the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS)/Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) and the UCSF Women’s HIV Program. Research findings and skills obtained through this K01 award will facilitate Dr. Suchman’s transition to become an independent investigator who develops interventions aimed at improving SRH care for WWH as they age.
