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In a new study, researchers examined fertility in couples made up of an HIV positive male and an HIV negative female who received antiretroviral pre-exposure preventive (PrEP) therapy. The team concluded that preventive therapy did not lead to any significant differences in pregnancy incidence, birth outcomes, and infant growth between women who got the treatment and women who received a placebo drug.

The researchers recruited 1,785 couples from Kenya and Uganda. 598 women received the daily PrEP oral treatment made with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), 566 of them received a combination of TDF with emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC+TDF) and the remaining 621 received a placebo.

The researchers recorded a total of 431 pregnancies. There were no huge differences in pregnancy and pregnancy losses between the groups. 42.5 percent of the women in the FTC+TDF group, 32.3 percent of women in the placebo group and 27.7 percent of women in the TDF group lost a pregnancy. The researchers found that after July 11 when they stopped the placebo group, they found that the pregnancy lost rate was 37.5 percent for the FTC+TDF group and 36.7 percent in the TDF group.

"These results should be discussed with HIV-uninfected women receiving PrEP who are considering becoming pregnant," the authors wrote according to the press release.

The study, "Pregnancy Incidence and Outcomes Among Women Receiving Preexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention," was published in JAMA.