Do Or Don't: Asking Poz Friends For Truvada?

[naughtycute82]

I've recently become an active pro-PrEP voice in the local PrEP discussion, so now some of my poz friends have started joking about me taking their Truvada. When they take their pills while I'm visiting they go:"Look, here is what you want!" Several of my friends have done this now and I know they're joking. But since I also hear their stories about this and that guy who needed to drop or temporarily stop his meds because of side effects I was wondering whether I should seriously ask them for it. (PrEP won't become available in our local community until 2017/18.) 

Does anyone have experience with this? Did anyone ever ask their poz friends for Truvada? And what did they say? 

[bearbandit]

Don't do it. Even if the Truvada is going spare, there's more to it than swallowing a pill every day. If you are unlucky enough to get HIV in one of your Truvada-less periods, it is not an adequate treatment for HIV and it possible that resistance could build up. Truvada for HIV treatment requires at least one other drug beside it (preferably these days an integrase inhibitor). That's why guys on PrEP have to have an HIV antibody test every three months.

Secondly you need to have your liver and kidneys monitored on a quarterly basis. Embitricitabine (FTC) isn't too bad on the side effect front, but tenofovir (the other ingredient) can be vicious and fast. Two years ago I smashed my bike, moved house to a very ill-advised location for someone with no personal transport, believed a small pot of yogurt and a litre of fruit juice was an adequate diet, lost a lot of bone mass (a one way street), and when I did go into hospital I was within a week or so of dying and the police were there to ensure I did go to hospital. All because tenofovir had damaged my kidneys so much that I was pissing away minerals and vitamins essential for life.

Yes you can buy generic truvada online (Tenvir-EM - google it) for about $100 per month, but the important thing is you need a range of blood tests at least quarterly to check that truvada isn't doing internal damage.

Don't get me wrong: truvada is the next step on from condoms and I do all I can to promote it within the UK (where also it won't be available till 2017/8). The PROUD study is hoping to recruit another 2,500 gay men to the study early next year - if you can produce a UK address and can afford the travel costs, that may be your best bet...

[Guest pozarnoldPGH]

from my view, i treat via meditation/diet/exercise ALL WITH my doctors input.   Medications are an OPTION, poz 10 years and am healthier AT THIS TIME being off of meds.   MUCH depends on you, your ethnic lineage (genetics) and how you allow YOUR MIND  to  impact the rest of your body. 90% of "illness"  is of the mind.

[evilqueerpig]

A guy willing to share Truvada is more than likely not taking his meds regularly

[rawfuckr]

 Yes you can buy generic truvada online (Tenvir-EM - google it) for about $100 per month, but the important thing is you need a range of blood tests at least quarterly to check that truvada isn't doing internal damage.

 

I guess it should be possible in europe to find some doctor what will get familiar with the PrEP protocol and can run the necessary tests, like creatinine clearance, liver function and all that. Then you go and get the Tenvir-EM from India and you be in equal terms than the US peeps. Definitely involved, but theoretically possible.

[discreetmpls]

A guy willing to share Truvada is more than likely not taking his meds regularly

 

Exactly right.  This is an expensive, typically highly regulated medication, they don't give you "extra" - if mine were to be "stolen", for example, I'd have to pay full price for a refill (~$1400).  So if someone poz is offering you theirs, they are not taking it, hence off their meds and probably highly contagious.  

 

Also, it takes about 3 days for the drug to build up in your blood enough to protect you, and the protection runs back down in about 3 more days, less effective each day, so taking a pill here or there is not going to protect you, anyway.