Hi<\/p>\n
Thanks for your question and for letting us post the answer online.<\/p>\n
The two important pieces of information that would help answer your question include how long you have been HIV-positive and how low your CD4 count dropped before starting treatment. The longer you have been HIV-positive and the lower your lowest ever CD4 count, are both likely to increase the risks from stopping treatment.<\/p>\n
You also don’t say which drugs are in your current combination, which is also important, and where you are treated (ie is this at a large experienced centre?).<\/p>\n
Although you feel that the HIV drugs are causing your fatigue, this may not be the case, so it is important that other possible causes are looked at.<\/p>\n
If you discontinue treatment, you are probably more likely to feel more ill in the short-term, because your viral load is likely to rebound to detectable levels within a week and may be back to your pre-treatment levels within a few weeks. The high levels of viral load are more likely to make you feel worse than medication, and definitely increase your risk of more serious illnesses.<\/p>\n
Your CD4 count is also likely to return to pre-treatment levels within a couple of months, and in the SMART study, even 18 months after restarting treatment, people who had taken a treatment break had a CD4 count that was 150 cells lower than when they first stopped treatment. ie – even if you did feel better for a short while, this is likely to have a long term negative impact on your CD4 count.<\/p>\n
Your current CD4 count is actually very good – 500 is considered ‘normal’,<\/p>\n
It is important to find out what is causing your nausea though, and to ask for a referral for support with your depression. HIV experience, although preferable, isn’t always the most important factor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello<\/p>\n
I am 47 year old gay man & have been on meds for 5 years now. I remain undetectable with an average CD4 of 500, which I think is low.<\/p>\n
I have yet to find a consultant whom I can trust\/relate to. My first one put me on Combivir even though I was worried about facial wasting, within 4 months it was apparent, I am on to my third now.<\/p>\n
I constantly complain of fatigue. I am told that it is part of the condition & that I have to live with it, but this is wearing me down. I have also been diagnosed with depression by my GP whom whilst are very nice have admitted that have no experience of dealing with an HIV patient.<\/p>\n
I have constantly over the years adhered to my meds, I dont do rec drugs, I don’t smoke & I practice safe sex.<\/p>\n
Finally, my questions are:
\n1) If I stop taking the meds will I initially feel better because I don’t have these toxic drugs pumping round my body ? and<\/p>\n
2) Also, how long will it be before I start to develop AIDS? Obviously you cannot be specific, but an average would help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,10,26,38,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-topics","category-cd4-and-viral-load","category-changing-treatment","category-living-with-hiv-long-term","category-side-effects","category-stopping-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21444,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/21444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}