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 was diagnosed with HIV in 2019 I’ve been taking my medication up until March last year and I’ve stopped since. I don’t know what to do I’m scared to go to the clinic because the nurses there are really I’ll mannered and I don’t want to be judged for not taking my medication I’m still trying to get used to my new life please help. I’m from Namibia
Hi Zano, is there a reason you have been taking a break from your ARVs? and have you discussed this with your doctor before doing this?
ARVs are safe to be taken long term and generally do not require a break to be taken. The risk of taking a month of is it allows for HIV to develop resistance to your current ARVs and they may not be as effective each time you restart. A month is a long time which can allow your viral load to rebound and for HIV to become active again and impact your immune system.
When was the last time you were had your viral load tested? Depending on when you last tested, it is impossible to say if you are still undetectable or not.
I regularly take a break from my arvs for a month or and restart with the same pill. I’ve been doing this for years. And am still undetected
Hi Jentrix, yes you can go back on the same medication. It would be advised to follow up with a viral load test a few weeks later to check that they still work .
Do you mind me asking why you stopped taking your medication in the first place?
Hello..I’m 29yrs i stopped taking arvs 6month now because of some challenges I’m facing..I feel like giving up on this life..but when I see my kids I feel like starting taking my medication again..my question,is it ok to get back to the same medicine I was using before?
Hi Peter, is she often missing medications? Missing a dose of HIV medication on occasion (even often) is not going to cause this. Has your wife gone to see a nurse/doctor?
my wife has forgotten to take her medicine. Can that be the reason for bleeding ? from her virgina in between her regular menstruation (she is about 45 years old).
Hi Eddie, where are you based? In the UK The Terrance Higgins Trust runs a community forum for HIV positive people to share their stories and meet: https://www.tht.org.uk/our-services/living-well-hiv/my-community-forum
l take biktarvy. l would like to meet real people out there who take this medication. How can l meet them?
Hi Gaby, there is nothing wrong with you. Did you ever try taking your medication in the evening? Doing this you would avoid feeling nauseous and vomiting by being asleep when these side effects kicked in. It’s also possible that a new combination of HIV medication is now available that will not cause this symptom.
HIV will have a different course within everybody. It is possible to go a number of years without noticing side effects. However HIV will still be impacting your immune system and make you more vulnerable to other infection.
HIV is not readily transmitted. This might explain why your parter and daughter do not have HIV. This link will help show what changes the risk of HIV transmission: https://i-base.info/guides/testing/risks-for-transmission