Menstrual cup may be best way to detect HIV RNA viral load in South African women

Dr. Jones and colleagues compared HIV RNA levels among specimens collected using the three methods, from 51 HIV-positive, anti-retroviral therapy-naive women in South Africa.

They found the menstrual cup and swab enriched lavage to have higher proportions of HIV RNA detection and viral load than the swab. Further, the menstrual cup generally had higher detection rates than the lavage, but also had a higher proportion of insufficient specimens for processing. As the menstrual cup can be self-inserted and removed and the women found it acceptable to use, with optimization to ensure sufficient specimen collection, the menstrual cup may be the best sampling method to measure HIV genital viral load in women.