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.
I have discovered that a person who is very close to me is positive. She was sick when I took her to hospital and the doctor said she should start with hiv testing(which is private) and when she came out the card felt down and I saw the result and kept quiet!
She is not taking her medication and changes doctors now and then! She has defaulted 3 times now! I need help asp
Hi Vincent,
Missing doses for a week means that drug levels will fall and the ARVs will not work as well. When this happens HIV can develop drug resistance. That means you might have to change your ARVs.
What ARVs are you taking? Please let us know.
Please also tell us if there was a problem with your supply of ARVs in your country.
What if i stop taking my ARV for a week ? Those the ARV will still effective if i take it a week after? Im taking my AVR for almost 20months
Hi Kgaugelo,
If you live in South Africa you can contact the Treatment Action Campaign about which clinic to go to.
But it’s important that you talk to the clinic about what HIV meds you used to take. That’s because you need to make sure the meds the clinic give you now will work as well as they did before.
Stopping HIV meds can mean that there is resistance to those particular meds. You can ask what meds will be right to take this time.
Hi I stopped taking my medication last year November I want to take my medication again from the same clinic it is possible
Hi Elsie,
It’s great to hear that your baby is negative, given that you didn’t use medication your child has been very lucky.
If you don’t use ARVs, your HIV won’t be under control. As to how long it will take before your CD4 drops to low levels it isn’t possible to say. The best thing you can do is start medication.
i found out that im HIV posative then started taking madication then i got pregnant while was pregnant i didnt take madication until i gave birth and my babe was find negative until now im not talking madication im not sick im even gaining waight i wanted to know what makes that what are the risk of me get sick die
Hi Zandi,
If you aren’t taking your treatment consistently, your HIV won’t be under control. Though you may be scared of going to your clinic for more ARVs, it’s important that you talk to your doctor. They may be able to help you with issues around adherence.
If you’re on and off meds, your doctor will need to check what your CD4 is as well as your viral load. They’ll also need to see if the meds that you’ve been taking are still OK to take. This is because it’s possible that you may have developed resistance.
Yes, sometimes it can be hard to adhere to medication, it is however really important that you do.
Hi
I keep going back and forth with my treatment. I take it and stoothen go back again.
I have not checked my CD4count since last year and im scared to go back to get more drugs. Im not sexualy active
Hi Julie,
If you’re positive, you need to be taking ARVs. It’s the ARVs that will control your HIV. This is more important if your CD4 count is below 350. Though you may feel OK, ARVs are really important. Please see here: http://i-base.info/guides/starting
You’ve mentioned that you’ve abstained from sex, if you were to start medication, once your viral load becomes undetectable you’d no longer be able to transmit the virus when having sex without a condom. This is another reason to be on medication. http://i-base.info/u-equals-u/