When should I start treatment?

Okay, this is the big question that everyone worries about. The answer depends on many things.

• Your current health, including whether you have other complications such as TB or hepatitis coinfection.
• Your CD4 count, CD4% and viral load and how fast they are changing.
• Your age and how long you have been HIV-positive.
• Whether you are pregnant.
• Current guidelines and available drugs.

It also depends, very importantly, on whether you are ready to start treatment.

You are the person who has to take the pills. So you have the choice over when you start, as well as which drugs you use.

Discuss this with your doctor long before you need treatment, including when you are first diagnosed.

• Ask about the different drugs that you can use. You need to know the good and bad things about each of them.
• Take time to think about what you want to do. Do not feel rushed or pressurised into doing something you don’t understand.
• If you have only recently been diagnosed, you are likely to need time to come to terms with this before you are ready to start treatment.