Lipodystrophy is a disturbance in how your body uses, produces, and stores fat tissue. There are actually two different kinds of lipodystrophy: lipoatrophy, or fat wasting, and hyperadiposity, or fat accumulation. Originally, physicians believed this fat wasting or fat accumulation occurred in individuals taking protease inhibitors to combat HIV. Other studies emerged implicating both nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors when the two were taken at the same time. Researchers believe that it is not solely caused by protease inhibitors due to the presence of individuals who experience lipodystrophy without having taken protease inhibitors. Nevertheless, studies suggest that the longer you remain on either of these two medications, your chances of developing lipodystrophy increase.