Question
Does taking steroids cause drug interactions with my meds?
28 March 2021. Related: All topics, Drug interactions.
I am 34 years old and currently I am taking Truvada and Viramune. My CD4 is 490 and my viral load is undetectable. I feel very healthy.
I am considering of taking steroids and I was wondering if the steroids might interaction with my medication. Is it possible the steroids will take down the efficiency of the medication and will raise my viral load?
The steroids I was thinking about taking are Primobolan or Winstrol. I will not take them both so I was wondering which one would not interact with my meds. Thank you for taking time to answer my question.
Answer
Steroids can cause drug interactions when taken with HIV medication.
They need to be used cautiously, preferably under medical supervision.
The caution from steroid use is that these chemicals cause have liver toxicity. It can also cause other side effects such as elevated blood pressure, angina and weakening of the heart muscle.
As with any supplement or medication, over the counter, prescribed or not regulated. This is something that your HIV doctor and pharmacist should be aware of.
The free online drug interaction website based at Liverpool University (www.hiv-druginteractions.org) is a good way to check for possible interactions with HIV meds.
It includes all HIV meds and about 20 steroids, including testosterone. Some HIV meds have no interactions. However, any combinations with boosted combinations have red warnings.
Black market steroids are never a good idea. If you really want to build muscle get advice for a good exercise programme. This will use resistance exercise, probably with and protein supplements. This will be a much safer and way to develop muscle bulk. Creatinine supplements needs to be used with care as though as the results can affect your HIV monitoring tests.
The US activist Nelson Vergel might be able to help. He runs yahoo discussion forum called PozHealth that is easy to subscribe to. He has also published two books on HIV and steroid use that should be easy to find on a Google or Amazon search.
Nelson’s YouTube link.
This page was updated in March 2021 from a question first posted in 2012.
Hi Francisco, has your nutritionist recommended you take this for regaining fat? The steroids you have been recommended are used to reverse lipodystrophy caused by corticosteroids, not HIV treatment. They work differently and so will not be able to recover fat lost due to ART.
More information about this can be found here: https://i-base.info/guides/side/fat-loss-lipoatrophy
My nutricionist wants me to start on Primobolan (Methenolone enanthate) 100mg every 5 days and Oxandrolone 10 mg every 12 hrs for 15 days. Is it a good idea if I´m on a diet and gym, 17% body fat, 35 y/o undetectable, Triumeq, dislipidemic and had prev Hepatitis B 10 years ago? Lipids and triglecerydes are ok levels now.