COMPOSIÇÃO CORPORAL EM MULHERES TRANSGÊNERO VIVENDO COM HIV/AIDS: UMA DISCUSSÃO DAS TRANSFORMAÇÕES QUE INTERFEREM NA AVALIAÇÃO DO ESTADO NUTRICIONAL

Abstract

The clinical practice in care of transgender woman living with HIV/AIDS has drawn attention to the consequences of gender transformation procedures in the evaluation of body composition. Transgender women are people who were attributed as being men at birth, but identify themselves as women and claim for the social and legal recognition as women. In seeking for feminization, these people are likely to make use of silicone gels, hormone therapy or even harmful procedures such as silicone oil injection. These procedures result in anthropometric and body compartment changes such as the ones observed in subcutaneous adipose tissue, bone and lean body mass. In some cases, there is the occurrence of prostatic volume reduction and development of lobular and acinar breasts. In the context of HIV infection, this scenario is even more difficult to handle, since the treatment with antiretroviral, in some cases, could generate adverse reactions such as lipodystrophy. Lipodystrophy is characterized by changes in body fat distribution (lipoatrophy and lipohypertrophy) and must be considered in the body composition evaluation of this population. Because of the considerable vulnerability of transgender women with HIV infection, the World Health Organization recommends the adoption of specific actions of prevention, treatment and health care for this population. Therefore, in the present work, we intend to start thinking about the challenges to nutrition evaluation of transgender women living with HIV/AIDS. DOI: 10.12957/demetra.2016.22542