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Monitoring HIV in women
Two bloods tests are of crucial importance in monitoring HIV. These are CD4 cell counts and HIV viral load tests. The booklet Viral Load and CD4 in this series provides more information on these tests.
In people who are not infected with HIV, CD4 cell counts tend to be higher in women than men.
Your CD4 cell count may go up or down with your menstrual cycle and use of the oral contraceptive pill may lower your CD4 cell count, but not to such an extent that your health may be at risk.
Your viral load may be lower than a man's shortly after you are first infected with HIV, but this does not have any effect on the speed of HIV progression.