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.
Hi, You can ask the clinic why they changed your meds. Did they give you a reason before they changed them? What meds were you on before?
Please get back in touch when you’ve got more information.
I have been on different meds since I have started HIV treatment, so now they changed to atroiza when it was first introduced, I had no problem with the ones I took before but now atroiza is giving me problems ichty skin dark marks and I’m not gaining weight.
Hi, Thanks for this. It’s a great success story, HIV is undetectable and your CD4 count is strong at 600.
However, you’re concerned about gaining weight. Fat gain is much less common with modern ARVs. But if this is affecting your quality of life you can talk to the clinic about it, and ask if it could be a side effect.
Treatments for fat accumulation include, diet and exercise, and some treatments might also help. Diet means having a healthy balanced diet. It does not mean you should dramatically cut calorie intake, which makes fat loss more difficult. And now that your immune system has recovered you should be feeling stronger, which can help you to increase your routine exercise.
You can find out more about fat accumulation in this guide:
http://i-base.info/guides/side/fat-accumulation
Good day. I have been on ARV treatment since June 2015. I have been given Tribuss, Atripla and Atroiza at different intervals by the community clinic that I attend. The nursing sisters explained that its the same medication with different names due to it being manufactured by different companies so there is no need to worry. I have been fortunate not to have experienced any major side effects except for bad dreams when I initially started the treatment. The viral load is undetectable and the CD4 count is up from 179 when I started the treatment to 600 currently. I have been trying to lose weight and have lost a bit, I’m however concerned about my stomach, it’s suddenly flabby. Could it be fat redistribution that is caused by ARV medication? I have tried to research this but I couldn’t find any confirmation on the internet. If it is indeed fat redistribution caused by the ARV medication, what can I do to stop it as I wouldn’t want to be disfigured. Please help. Thank you.
Hi Lolo, thanks.
I am sorry about your results. The clinic should repeat the test if the results are not available now. Tests go missing in all hospitals, including in the UK, and it is very frustrating and difficult as a patient. Nearly all countries have similar problems.
Perhaps link up with Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa (www.tac.org.za) so you can link with other HIV positive people to help advocate for better care.
Thank you advocate, I did go back to ask for my results only to find out they r missing from my file. No body knows wht hppnd to them. Not long ago we had aids conference in SA. But we still have issues like dis. Worst part of it they col themselves professionals # m so disappointed.
Hi Lolo. I am sorry to hear about these problems. In the UK the doctor would offer alternative HIV drugs. Your clinic should definitely give you your test results so please ask the again.
Hi is there anything I can do?? Been on atrioza 4 6mnths d prblm when I took it I start scratching like somebody who had allergy & I’ll b up whole nite. It also happen even during d day. I tok to d nurses @ d clinic dei just gave me calamine lotion which does not make any dffrnce. Dei don’t explain anything about findings in blood tests instead dei jus give me meds. I should ask dem or what?? I don’t even know my v/load nor my CD 4 count. I find it very strange. Why dei ask us to do blood test when dei don’t reveal d finding. Plz help
Hi, lots or people are in your situation. Please talk to your doctor about this. You can just conceive normally. Your boyfirend will not be at risk because you have an undetectable viral load.
Hi. I’m 28 I have been in different HIV medication since 2014. My viral load is undetectable. My boyfriend of 17 months is HIV negative and he wants a baby. Is there any chance for us to conceive?