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.
Hi, it’s been 3 yrs since I discovered that I’m hiv positive but I haven’t started taking pills. I’ve been single and haven’t had sex since I discovered this….am I at risk??
Hi Njongo,
It your sister is feeling like this, she needs to see a doctor. She should also be on ARVs.
Hi my sister stops taking ARVs 3 years back and now she’s unwell, she eats now and go to toilet after eating same as water after drinking water she will go to toilet plz help me what can help her?
Hi Tio,
Please can you talk to the doctor about your mother’s health? She sounds very unwell.
You can ask the doctor if the HIV meds she’s taking are still working. And also can they test for drug resistance.
Do you have access to your mother’s viral load and CD4 results? Please let us know. What HIV drugs is your mother taking?
Hello my mother stopped taking drug for four years now she cant wake up she’s worse we from clinic they gave her drug but she’s not recovering so please help what mst i do to get herself agn nd wake up
Hi Dineo,
Where do you live? If you live in South Africa you can contact the Treatment Action Campaign. They can help with local advice.
Hi if may i ask u,am taking my treatment from government clinc but now i need to stop going to the clinic i need to get the scripts from my private doctor,is it possible?thnks
Hi Jane.
Its great to hear that you want to restart medication and that you feel like you’re in better place.
Yes you can restart medication, and no its not too late to have control over your HIV. Ideally you should book an appointment to see your HIV doctor/nurse. Let them know that you’ve been off meds for four years, but that you’re now ready to restart. They should check your CD4 count as well as your viral load. They should also talk to you about treatment options.
You will be OK though, and the ARVs will help.
Hi, I have stop taking my ARV’s four years back and now I want to start taking them again but I’m scared. I stopped when I lost everything in my life I wanted to die I wanted to die like my mother n my father but now I’m trying to rebuild my life again is it too late for me to start all over again????
Hi Pretty,
Though you care about your partner, you need to first think about yourself. If you aren’t taking medication your HIV will no longer be under control. If you aren’t on meds you also risk infecting your partner. Though this may be a difficult discussion to have, if there’s any chance your partner has been put at risk you need to tell him. You also need to continue with your medication. This is why, though there is a chance that people can lose a sexual partner due to their status, in the long run its easier to just be honest from the start.
This noted, its up to you what you deiced to do. This is just my personal opinion and not that of i-base.