Your Experience With Prep

[hungry_hole]

I know PrEP is becoming very popular,  sort of like a party drug. Guys go on PrEP, feel immune to HIV and that way have all the sex we all dream in saunas and sex clubs. But, how long can a person be on PrEP?

 

How long have you been on PrEP? Any problems?

[HotBottomBoyNYC]

Awesome Question would love to know everything about it 

[HereInLondon]

I know PrEP is becoming very popular,  sort of like a party drug. Guys go on PrEP, feel immune to HIV and that way have all the sex we all dream in saunas and sex clubs. But, how long can a person be on PrEP?

 

How long have you been on PrEP? Any problems?

I can't tell whether you're trolling or not with your use of the phrase "party drug".

 

I guess I do feel immune to HIV by being on PrEP.  The whole experience has made me think a lot about my use of condoms (which I still use in the majority of hook-ups).  Before PrEP, condoms made me feel immune to HIV. I had no qualms hooking up with a guy if he was positive (or negative or status unknown), because we were using condoms.

I probably have a more balanced and informed view of HIV now than I did before going on PrEP.

I know that neither condoms nor PrEP offer complete immunity. But you work with what you got.

It's a bit presumptuous to think that every guy on PrEP is having "all the sex we all dream in saunas and sex clubs". Bit like thinking that every HIV positive guy is free of all sexual health constraints and fucks away regardless in dark rooms.

 

I think it is a good question, "How long can a person be on PrEP?"

Partly from a medical point of view, is it good to stay on the drug for a long time? I don't know.

The question does make me think of all the PrEP detractors talking about people being 'shackled' to a drug for the rest of their lives, if that's a realistic expectation to put on someone. But then I wonder if it's a realistic expectation to say that guys should use (or be shackled to) condoms for the rest of their lives.

[seaguy]

Google search and you will find several blogs from early PrEP takers where they discuss their experience.  I don't think it is wise or really appropriate to use the term party drug when referring to PrEP since that was what the ass hole head of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation referred to it as and he is not pro-PrEP, he is anti, as well as being anti bareback porn.

 

Meth or Molly are party drugs so putting PrEP in the same category is totally wrong.

[Guest JizzDumpWI]

Agree, PrEP is not a party drug.

How long? Well I have been on it about 18 months, no ill effects. Poz guys are on HIV drugs for years, why should that not be true for a neg?

[sexxxpigg]

Been on it for three months now. I am going today for my 3 month check up to test for STDs and also kidney and liver.  I will let you know what happens.  I had a "date" the other night and told the guy I was on PREP and I got looked at like I had three heads.  Basically shamed me and told me its just a way for gays guys to be able to Bareback.  When i told him I always barebacked and have been lucky so far, he didnt like the answer he got.  Last time I see that arrogant little fuck.

 

Dont let anyone make you feel bad about taking this.  Everyone lives there life differently.  If anyone trys to shame me into feeling bad, I will put them in their place.  I feel good about taking this and yes, I feel somewhat safe.  The feeling of not having to worry about HIV is something I never though I would be able to do.  Is it still a possibilty for me? Yes.  But, far from what it was.  I will take my chances.

 

Good luck with it.

And no.  It isnt a "party" drug.  Meth is a party drug.  PREP is not.  

[subbytch]

Truvada, the main drug for PrEP, has been in use to treat HIV since 2004 and the two drugs that make it up have been in use longer than that. The side effect profile for Truvada for those taking for HIV suppression is rather mild. For those taking it for PrEP, the effects appear to be milder still, with a small amount bone mineral loss in about 14% of users the only long term side effect.

 

So, in theory, Truvada for PrEP could be used "forever" without any real impact on the health of a person. 

 

Keep in mind that Truvada is the current drug in use for PrEP. Other anti-HIV medicines are being studied for use as PrEP. Ones with a still milder side effect profile will be approved in the coming years. 

 

Prediction? Based on PrEP being better at preventing HIV than condoms -- even inconsistent use of PrEP provides better protection than inconsistent condom use -- within 10 years, PrEP will be the standard for HIV prevention. Condoms will take a backseat.

[bearbandit]

Truvada is the ONLY drug licensed for PrEP, anywhere in the world. Other drugs are still at the research stage. I took therapeutic truvada for about eight or nine years, maybe ten years (quite a while before it was investigated for PrEP) before I hit the wall (actually I came off my motorbike), but then I'd already had a lot of damage done by earlier anti-retrovirals - diagnosed as early as I was I wanted to continue going to funerals (or, rather, for preference, none at all), not be the the star attraction at one.

The side effects of truvada are well known and I have my little place in history from being one of the first in the UK to hit Fanconi's syndrome where your kidneys are so fucked that they excrete the vitamins and minerals they should be recycling. Note: it does help to have a competent doctor if you get this far. Mine wasn't: he was a CD4 and VL merchant and looked at you askance if you even asked about CD4 percentage. I hear he's now retired. According to the Daily Telegraph's "search for you consultant" feature some years back he's actually a GU consultant with a special interest in diseases of the vulva, which explains why I used to feel such a twat trying to getting information out of him.

So having hit pretty much the worst that truvada can offer, would I recommend it. Fuck, yes! Just keep up your regular appointments and blood tests and DON'T treat it as a party drug: take it as prescribed every day. It wasn't designed to be used for disco dosing, rather it needs to become just part of your daily routine. Some people complain of GI problems with it: take it with you breakfast: enough calories there to buffer the inrush of strange chemicals.

At present it's the only PrEP drug, though as others have remarked other gentler drugs are being investigated. And frankly looking over the pile of anti-retrovirals I've taken to stay alive, truvada was, for the most part one of the easier ones.

[boy4you]

I've been on PrEP for 6 months now. It's not a party drug and I treat it just like someone takes meds for high blood pressure. I take it with meals and have had no side effects so far. The last few months I've been BB more and with people I don't know. I know being HIV is a life sentence.

[jizzpig]

I've been on it since March, and like others here, I wouldn't call it a party drug. It's just a drug that I take with my allergy pill each day. It's a once a day "condom" in a pill.

I've had no bad reaction to the meds, checked about every 90 days, though the holidays has me off schedule a little. It allows me to not worry about HIV or condoms when I have sex. its a bit more liberating and I have less fear. Do I have more sex? Yes! That's only because I don't second guess myself. I just do it.