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 can happened if you without your treatment for 9 months.
Asking on behalf of someone else.
Hi Bobo,
What does the doctor say about your wife’s treatment? Please can you ask your wife to talk to the doctor and tell them what symptoms she has?
It’s important to carry on taking ARVs once you’ve started them. If you stop using ARVs it increases the risk of other infections and of getting sick. Please ask her to see the doctor soon.
My wife was diagnosed of HIV last month. She started the ARV immediately but her body is not feeling well after 5 days of using the ARV. I ask her to stop using it. What will happen to her now?
Hi Vick,
I’m sorry to hear about this. When is she coming home? Is there any way that she can access HIV treatment in the prison?
Hi,my girl friend has not taken hers for almost 6 month cus she is in prison outside the country.any problem when she start
Hi Want to be done,
Please tell us more. Do you have access to HIV treatment (ART) and your CD4 count and viral load results? Please let us know.
How long would it take me to die???
Hi Jane,
Unfortunately we don’t have resources to answer more questions about HIV risks and testing. But all FAQs are answered here.
If a man does not get hard enough to go in but touches the Vagina can the woman get infected
Hi Mbongeni,
I’m sorry to hear your story, it sounds tough for both of you.
It’s difficult if someone doesn’t want to talk about their HIV treatment. Please see this Q&A about how stigma can stop us from talking to people we love about our HIV. This is a different situation from yours. But there’s a lot of good thoughts and ideas in the answer and comments. I hope it helps.
If you live in South Africa you can contact the Treatment Action Campaign. They might be able to offer local support.