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Would you buy a home test for viral load and CD4 count?  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Would you buy a home test for viral load and CD4 count?

    • No, I am not interested
      1
    • No, I leave that for my doctor
      3
    • Yes, if it's less than $500
      1
    • Yes, if it's less than $1000
      0
    • I would as long as I can afford it, knowing my numbers is very important to me
      4


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Posted

Hi there,

I have been thinking a bit, and it seems obvious to me that soon we will have small devices that will be able to do the kind of tests we need (FDA approval is another matter, but you could buy them as a hobby, not for measuring your VL ;) ). A very small device that is low cost could be used by us to measure VL and CD4 cells.

Would you be interested in such a thing? Is it important for you to know your numbers when you want, as opposed to check them every three months? How would you use such a device if you had it?

These tests can be quite expensive if paid out of pocket, around $800, IIRC, when I was in the US, so if you have no or crappy insurance, buying something like this could save money in the mid term.

What do you think?

Posted

I'm not sure what the point would be of a home test. I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic and frequent blood-sugar tests with a cheap monitor are essential, so that I can adjust my insulin doses and/or eating. But CD4 and VL counts aren't quite so time-sensitive.

I guess that if you want to know when your VL is high so that you can be more hopeful of pozzing another guy, or low so that you can avoid that, then there might be some point.

Nut isn't the uncertainty part of the play for those into gifting or converting?

Posted

I am still not on meds, and in my country, getting one can take months. I am not comfortable waiting 3-6 months between checks, knowing that my cells could drop suddenly. Once you are on meds, I guess it's not as important to know as long as you don't miss your doses

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