Question
What happens if I stop taking treatment?
31 August 2016. Related: Adherence, All topics, Changing treatment, Side effects, South 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, I’ve got a crisis at home in KwaZulu-Natal, I forgot my medication in gauteng and I’m only gonna be here for a week is there any problem of getting sick I’m on medication for 4 years it’s only now I forgot my meds.
Hi Winnie,
What’s the name of the medication that you’re taking? And no, don’t stop.
Hi.
I started taking my meds one week ago. After taking the meds in the morning, I feel more tired, nauseated, headache and even a heartache. I’m thinking of stopping because the effects began the day I started treatment. Should I stop until I am able to go see my doctor in one week or so?
Hi Khanyisile,
It’s great that you want to restart treatment, this is you taking control.
Though you might be nervous about telling your clinic that you missed your meds for a few months, you do need to tell them as this could influence what medication you’re given.
It’s important to remember that health care professionals are there to help, if you’re given a hard time, complain.
Hello
I stopped my meds October 2019 and i went to start again now in January2020 but im afraid because i didnt tell them i defaulted i just came there as someone who is gonna start medication for the first time. And i have been taking the pills but im fine
Hi Christina,
I’m sorry to hear your meds have been difficult to take. But you can talk to your doctor about this and explain how difficult it was.
Please ask if you can try other meds that will make things easier for you. Please don’t be scared. It’s a good idea to start your HIV treatment again.
Please let us know how you get on.
Hi I have stopped taking my meds too as I was feeling nausea at night after taking them and was given others to take at the morning they were white others were yellow so I would vommit after taking them ….it’s been 9/10 months now and I really want to take them again but I’m scared I might get sick or die …what can I do please help
Hi Susan,
Can I ask why you had to stop? Was it because of a stock out, or maybe it was because of side effects.
But if you want to start again you could talk to your doctor about it. You can explain why you had to stop. If you want, you could discuss starting treatment again with meds that could be easier for you to take.
Here’s the Introduction to HIV treatment (ART). There’s a lot of info in this that could help when you talk to your doctor.
Please let us know more about your ART and why you stopped. If you have access to your CD4 count and viral load results please tell us those too.
I stopped taking my meds on November and I had just begun what do I do
Hi Shine,
It’s great that you’ve been on HIV treatment (ART) for 6 years. So missing 8 days isn’t ideal. But please talk to your doctor about this. However, if your viral load was undetectable it’s likely that your meds will still work well.