Question
Are these side effects from Atroiza?
13 December 2013. Related: All topics, Life expectancy, Newly diagnosed, Pregnancy, Side effects.
Am a 19 yr old girl I just foundout that am HIV+ and am pregnant.
I started taking Atroiza but since I started I hardly sleep. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and have a bad headache when I ask nurse she say its part of treatment. Is it Atroiza doing this or what?
I know HIV can’t be cured and I doing this for my unborn baby because if I die who wil raised her/him?
Answer
Hello,
I’m very sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. Finding out you are HIV positive is never easy but finding out in pregnancy can be especially hard. Do you have any support to help you deal with this?
Atroiza is a generic version of Atripla.
Atroiza contains a drug called efavirenz which has side effects that include sleep disturbance, mood changes and headaches. Usually these will improve over the first few weeks of treatment. However, some people change to a different drug because of these side effects.
It’s important to understand that these are related to your treatment, and to discuss them with your clinic if you are finding them difficult or they don’t improve. This link has more about these side effects.
You are right that we don’t have a cure for HIV. ARVs are very effective at treating HIV though and can allow you to have a long and healthy life.
With ARVs, HIV positive people have almost the same life expectancy as HIV negative people. Living with HIV isn’t something that is easy and you do need to take it seriously, but it shouldn’t stop you from doing anything in life you would have done before your diagnosis.
You may find the following links useful for more information. Do get back in touch if you have any questions.
Please advice, i am hiv positive
and decided to formula feed my baby whose status is not yet known. What are the risks of giving my baby pure water to drink? can water make my child’s status positive?
Hi,
There is no HIV related risks to giving your child water. Water will not give it HIV.
Hi Eunice
Having an undetectable viral load makes it very unlikely that your baby will have HIV.
Please tlak to your doctor if you are still worried but in the UK the risk is less than 1%.
I started my treatment in 2013 while i was pregnent and the virus is undetectable. I recently gave birth to another baby recently (caesaren birth), is there a possibility for her to test positive though the virus was undetectable at birth?
Hi Annah
It is important to contact your clinic about any rash related to an HIV drug.
The clinic can then decide how seriuous this sounds.
They will discuss whether you need to visit the clinic and then whether o not you need to use an alternative drug.
I have have been digonised with HIV and I am on Atroiza. I have a skin rash on my face and am worried.
Hi,
What you describe is relatively common, it should get better a couple of weeks after strategy though. If it doesn’t it is important to tell your doctor or clinic about it.
Is itching part of the side effects when starting Atroiza, how long it will it last?
Hi,
You should start HIV treatment immediately if you haven’t already. There is still a good chance of preventing your baby becoming positive. Treatment is used to get an undetectable viral load. This can happen within a month. If you are undetectable at birth the risk of passing on the virus is extremely low.
You can find more information here:
http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
I just found out I’m HIV+ at 34 weeks of pregnancy. my partner and I had unprotected sex several times. I want to know if my baby is also infected?