Patients are enrolled in balanced numbers based on gender and stratified by viral load (less than or equal to 10,000, 10,000 to 100,000, or more than 100,000 copies/ml). Prior to therapy, a peer-based patient education intervention is presented. Patients receive a combination of IDV, RTV, enteric-coated ddI, and d4T. Responses to this multi-agent antiretroviral drug regimen are explored based on sex differences. A pharmacokinetic sub-study, balanced so that half of patients are male and half are female, is performed on IDV and RTV for 20 to 25 of the patients. About 20 females are examined for study-drug effects on gonadotropic hormone levels.
