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 HIV medications are used in the United Kingdom? And if I am not a citizen but I live there, will I be given these medications?
Hi Ketha, please contact a local HIV organisation in your city or state. Your clinic should give you contact details if you don’t know of one. i-Base is in the UK and you need help from an organisation in the US. I am sure they can help find a way to stay on ART.
I am in a situation where I may have to be forced to stop taking the meds because Medicare and Medicaid are not paying for it. So what do I do at this point? Can someone please tell me who to contact.
Hi Lumka, please see Qs 1, 2 and 5 at this link:
https://i-base.info/qa/most-asked-questions
7 days ago I tested negative for HIV. The gent tested positive with a very faint line 1 (finger test). It turns out that he was on TB and ARVs for 6 months. After completing that period he stopped taking ARVs. I have been sexually active with him since 6 Aug 2024 until 9 Oct 2024. How is it that I tested negative after over 2 months of exposure? I worried that it is a false negative. Lastly will taking PrEP now reduce chances of that negative result becoming a positive when I test after finishing PrEP? I’m not planning on sleeping with him after this lie.
Hello Charlie and thanks for the question.
It’s a really good idea to restart ARVs. It will protect your health in the long-term.
No, you cannot just restart. You need to go to the clinic and speak with a doctor.
This is to ensure you did not develop resistance to the old medication.
It will give you the chance to discuss any side effects you might have had in the past.
Finally, you can see if better regimens are available to you now.
Here you can see more information about restarting ARVs:
https://i-base.info/qa/25192
Hi guys,
I have been on ARVs for the past 4 years, I wasn’t sick when I found out about my status so I immediately started the therapy when I found out. So I was on the meds for 4 years, recently I have missed my medication for the past 5 months and it really bothers me. Can I just restart on the very medication I was on or I need to do some sort of tests before restarting?
Hi Farouq and thanks for the comment.
Black seed and other herbal remedies cannot cure HIV.
We have a lot of evidence about this and we are only suggesting people take medication that have been on clinical trials and have evidence about how well they work.
Please use this site to educate yourself
Can black seed cure hiv
Hello Ayanda and thanks for the question.
I am really glad you are feeling well.
This probably means that the ARV medication you were taking previously have rebuilt your immune system to the point you can be without medication for a while.
Do you mind if I ask why did you stop?
I am only asking because sometimes people have side effects that cannot tolerate.
In those cases it is very helpful to discuss with the clinic.
They might be able to offer you alternative options with other medication that are better tolerated.
Yes, you are right, you should have a check up.
It is actually recommended here in the UK that if someone wants to have a “treatment holiday” they can be offered more often check ups.
That is very helpful because you can monitor your health closely.
So, you can restart medication before you become seriously ill.
I do need to tell you though, that the longer you remain without medication, the more risk you have to become ill.
Here you can read some more information about being off ARVs:
https://i-base.info/qa/11921
We also know that today we have medication that are well tolerated and with minimal side effects (if any).
We have a lot of research that has shown a very important improvement in the lives of people who are on treatment:
your immune system will remain strong and that will ensure a very good quality of life for years to come.
Finally, being off medication, makes you lose your undetectable status, which is very important if you want to have children.
(Women on ARVs can deliver HIV-free children, men on ARVs can have children with their partners without using any other precautions)
Being on medication and with an undetectable viral load mean you cannot pass on HIV to your sexual partners too.
You can read more here about U=U:
https://i-base.info/u-equals-u/