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.
What happens after when someone takes the ARVs maybe for a week then she or he stops then after a month takes them again and stop? Will there be no side effects when that person takes them again?
Hi Terry, this link is to a recent article about integrase inhibitors and weight gain. Perhaps show this to your doctor. Depending on your previous treatment history, if there are easy alternative combinations – perhaps using an NNRTI, this might be worth switching to to see if there is any difference.
I’m on genvoya and I have noticed that I am putting weight on and this is not small it’s very big, I go gym I’m eating Healthy walk my two dogs for two hours, but I am not losing it. I’ve spoken to my consultant and they say it’s not the pill sorry but Wat is it. I’m doing everything right but nothing is happening I am thinking of coming off the pill because it feels no one is listening to me. I feel depressed not wanting to do anything
Hi Unknown,
This is something that will need to be discussed with a doctor.
Hi
My mom found out that she’s HIV IN 2017 and she started with medication so early last year i wasn’t home she decided to stop when I come back after some months I took her to clinic again I think it was last year April till today she’s week she is not getting any better but she’s drinking the medication
Hi Noxolo,
Weight loss can be due to a number of reasons, one of which used to be ARVs. How long have you been on ARVs for? What type of medication do you take?
Many yrs now taking hiv treatment but my weight not normal legs and face very thin at the clinic when they check they say I am fine I need to gain weight
Hi Fortunate,
If your husband wants to control his HIV he needs to be on ARVs. There isn’t anything else that can help his HIV, so no boosters.
Hi I’m Fortunate
My husband was diagnosed with HIV eleven years ago and never been sick till last year.He had TB and took treatment well and started A RVs.Now I’m worried after finishing TB treatment he just stops taking A RVs. He is taking immune boosters.Im worried that he might become sick again
Hi Malefa,
You don’t need to be scared, you’re going to be OK. You do however need to restart medication. If its possible book an appointment to see your doctor. Let them know that you’d like to restart medication. They’ll be able to discuss treatment options with you. You may be able to use Tribuss again, or you may be offered something else. This will depend on where it is that you live globally.
Wanting to start meds again is the right thing to do. Once you’re back on meds your CD4 count will climb and your viral load will decrease. Your HIV will become controlled again.