{"id":11545,"date":"2025-10-01T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/?page_id=11545"},"modified":"2025-11-01T04:04:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:04:54","slug":"prep-and-side-effects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/prep\/prep-and-side-effects","title":{"rendered":"PrEP and side effects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-16301\" src=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/logos-for-prep.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"238\" \/><b>Most people taking PrEP do not get side effects.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>However, like all medicines, some people might get some side effects.<\/p>\n<p>Less than 1 in 10 people report mild nausea, diarrhoea, bloating and headache in the first month. These side effects then usually stop.<\/p>\n<p>Taking oral PrEP with food can sometimes help.<\/p>\n<p>It is also okay to separate the first double dose by a few hours, if this helps.<\/p>\n<p>Occasionally, PrEP can cause more serious side effects that reduce kidney function and\/or bone health. This is why kidney tests are needed when using oral TD\/FTC.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Changes in bone structure are usually small and reverse after stopping TD\/FTC. This is similar to a commonly used oral contraceptive but might be important if you are younger than 18 when bones are still developing. Bone strength was not fully reversed after a year in one study in adolescents aged 15 to 19.<\/p>\n<p>PrEP does not increase the risk of bone fractures.<\/p>\n<p>The main side effects with injectable PrEP are linked to the injections. This can sometimes be sore or leave a bump under the skin which takes a while to go down. Very few people in studies stopped PrEP for this reason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people taking PrEP do not get side effects.\u00a0 However, like all medicines, some people might get some side effects. Less than 1 in 10 people report mild nausea, diarrhoea, bloating and headache in the first month. These side effects &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":11507,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guides.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11545","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11545"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19075,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11545\/revisions\/19075"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}