Question
What happens if I stop taking treatment?
31 August 2016. Related: Adherence, All topics, Changing treatment, Side effects, Southern Africa, Stopping treatment.
What are the side effects if someone stops taking her medication for HIV?
Answer
Thanks for your question.
May I ask why you are thinking of stopping? Many people find adhering hard at some in their lives but there are ways to make it easier. Likewise if you are suffering side effects – you can switch to meds that better suit you.
Several years ago a very large study called SMART reported that stopping treatment increased the risk of serious complications. These included a higher risk for heart, liver and kidney complications in people who stopped treatment and also a higher rate of some cancers.
If you decide to stop treatment, your viral load is likely to rebound within a few weeks. If you stay off treatment your CD4 count will start to drop over the next few months. When this happens the risk of developing other infections and getting sick increases.
How quickly this will happen though varies a lot. The lower your CD4 count was when you started meds, the quicker your CD4 is likely to fall without ART.
In the SMART study, most people who took a treatment break did pretty well for a short time. However, most people were not able to recover their CD4 count to earlier levels even 18 months after they restarted treatment.
Please talk to your doctor about who you feel. It is not generally good to stop treatment. It is definitely not good to do this without first talking to your doctor.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
My significant other quit taking his meds (triumeq) I am HIV negative. Will this increase the chances of me acquiring the disease? He said the meds make him crazy but he has had mental issues life long. I just don’t want to end up sick or in bad shape. Thanks for all the help and replies. Also will his viral load go up?
Hi Michael,
We can’t help you access medication, however if you can tell us which country you live in we may be able to put you in touch with a treatment group where you live. If you’re having issues with access you could try taking this up with the hospital/clinics administration. You have a right to access medication, and its important that you do.
HI MY NAME IS MICHAEL I DID NOT STOP USING MY ARVS BECAUSE I WANTED TO BUT THE CLINIC I WAS ATTENDING IS VERY POOR IN SERVICES , THEY TRANFERED ME TO THE CHEMIST NEAR TO MY HOUSE AND BECAUSE OF MY WORK I COULD NOT ATTEND THE DATES THEY GAVE ME DURING THE DAY SO WHEN EVER I GO FOR COLLECTION THERE THEY ALWAYS TELL ME TO WAIT FOR AN SMS AS MY MEDS HAS NOT ARRIVED YET. PLS HELP AS IVE DECIDED TO STOP USING AND CHECK IF SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN TO ME. AT THE MOMENT IM TAKING MINAMINO TABLETS FROM DISCARM
Hi Vicky,
This is something that you’re going to need to talk to your doctor about. You may need to use a different combination of ARVs.
I’m on HAART meds.and it makes me vomit,rashes on my body and it turns my eye.and i stopped 4 two weeks….wat do i do
Hi Lionah,
It’s good that you’ve started taking ARVs again. What meds are you taking? What did the doctor say about starting again on ARVs.
Can you ask about changing to ARVs that are easier for you to take? It’s a good idea to talk to the doctor about your depression and anxiety too. These symptoms can be side effects of some ARVs.
I took arvs in 2008 ans stopped after giving birth as they were giving me problems especially the side eefects they were too much for me.Now I’ve started taking them again 10yrs later. Still I get some of the side effects and I dont know if I’ll be able to cope. I havent gone to get my cd4 count yet. What should I do? I havr depression and anxiety loss of appetite and feel weak most of the time.
Hi Terry,
You can ask the consultant if you can switch to other meds. There have been some reports that class of drug in Genvoya can lead to weight gain. Does your doctor know about this?
Might help if you’re on treatment that can be taken without food? This could help you make more changes to your diet.
Taking regular exercise can help too. Here’s the guide to HIV and quality of life. It has this section which says that diet and exercise seem to be useful in helping reverse these changes.
Stopping treatment can mean viral rebound and a CD4 count drop. So trying all the above might help to avoid this.
I am on Genvoya and I have noticed that I am getting a bit bigger, I have been the doctors and seen my consultant and they have said it is not the pill, I have three meals a day no takeaways or cakes at all. I have even stopped drinking redbull, but my last weigh in was not good, from a size M to xxl and I am not happy and I want to stop my pill. Wat do I do? Coz I know if I stop I know that my virual load will drop and cd4 count will drop. Help I just want to get to the way I was.
Hi Ebrima,
What HIV meds are you taking? Some of these meds can affect kidney function. And that might make you urinate a bit less or a bit more. But it sounds like it would be a good idea to see the doctor about it. There could be other reasons why this is happening. It might not just be because of your HIV meds.