{"id":224,"date":"2026-07-01T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/new\/guides\/?page_id=224"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:54:34","slug":"forgot-my-pills","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/starting\/forgot-my-pills","title":{"rendered":"What if I forget to take my pills or miss an injection?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1677\" src=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/files\/2009\/06\/sw.gif\" alt=\"They goes thataway...\" width=\"150\" height=\"181\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Oral pills<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Everyone misses or is late with oral ART at some time. This will be fine. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But there is a difference between an odd missed dose and regularly forgetting.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be strict when checking how adherent you are.<\/li>\n<li>If your adherence is not good, more support can help. It is available but you will need to ask.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you often miss doses, please talk to your clinic about other options.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Simple options like a pill box might help.<\/li>\n<li>There may be an easier combination.<\/li>\n<li>It needs to be easy for you to take ART every day.<\/li>\n<li>There are always things that can help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taking days off treatment is not a good way to use ART.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you realise you have missed a dose, take it as soon as you remember.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>BUT, if you only realise when you\u2019re going to take your next dose, do not take a double dose.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Injectable ART<\/h2>\n<p><strong>If your HIV drugs include injectable ART, please plan carefully to reduce the risk of missing an injection.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most injections have a window period when you can come a week early or a week late and still be okay,<\/p>\n<p>Talk to your clinic if your next injection is at a difficult time &#8211; for example if you are planning to travel. The clinic might be able to bring the next injection forward.<\/p>\n<p>Your clinic should also give you oral versions of these drugs in case you can&#8217;t get to the clinic. Switching to oral meds is very safe but please also contact the clinic to let them know.<\/p>\n<p>The clinic will give you specific advice depending on which injection you are using.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes this might involve restarting the injections with a slightly different dose.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>HIV treatment is not rocket science. You can easily learn about it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I am sure I get better treatment for my HIV because I understand what is going on.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>This gives me the confidence that I should live a long and happy life.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I talk with my doctor and I take an active role in my choice of treatment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I always say if I have problems with side effects or adherence.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>\u2014 Paul, London.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oral pills Everyone misses or is late with oral ART at some time. This will be fine. But there is a difference between an odd missed dose and regularly forgetting. Be strict when checking how adherent you are. If your &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1547,"menu_order":39,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guides.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-224","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/224","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=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19246,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/224\/revisions\/19246"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}