Can't decide whether or not to get pozzed

[BootmanLA]

21 hours ago, BigChaserHere said:

If you can't swallow your PrEP, consider CABENUVA

First month = IM injection day 1 then IM injection 30 days later

THEN ....

an IM injection every other month

It lends great protection

Cabenuva is *NOT* a PrEP medication. It's for TREATMENT of HIV once you get it. Please don't confuse the issue by conflating PrEP (which is prevention of HIV) with this drug (which is for TREATMENT of HIV).

The injectable form of PrEP is called (by brand name) Apretude, which contains only ONE of the active ingredients in Cabenuva. In fact, as a general rule, PrEP (in any form) contains fewer ingredients than HIV treatment medications. The reason is that it's easier to prevent HIV than it is to treat it - once it's managed to burrow its way in, completely removing it is essentially* impossible, and it requires disrupting the replication of HIV in more than one way. Prevention just has to keep it from taking hold in your system.

*I  say "essentially" because there have been a handful of cases of eradicating HIV, by killing off a patient's entire immune system with chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant to replace it. But that's an expensive, debilitating process that runs the risk of killing the patient and may or may not always succeed. 

[BootmanLA]

15 hours ago, IrishBoi said:

the injection isnt available in the uk here yet

And it's unlikely to be approved as a first-line PrEP product; that is, it's more likely that even when it IS approved and available, you'd be required to take the tablet form until they documented that didn't work well for you given your swallowing issues. You might luck out and get the injection approved from the start, but planning on that is betting on a less-than-likely event.

[rpup]

One thing about getting pozzed and HIV regimens: you don’t really get to choose.  I for example have a mutation which causes HIV to be fully resistant to NNRTI class drugs, like what is half of the medicines in Cabenuva, so there is no complete regimen for me and anyone else who inherited their HIV from people who had trouble with Efavirenz or Nevirapine toxicity and side effects years ago.

Your HIV is genotyped and phenotyped using Stanford’s comprehensive database of HIV mutations, and it will suggest to you what drugs are most effective. YMMV.

[Norcalfukkr]

I’d do the injection, too, if my insurance would cover it. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so then I’m stuck with pills and I’m bad about remembering to take, especially if I’ve been on a weekend binge of sex. When I’m drunk on cock and cum, it’s hard to temper to take a pill. 

[barefucker44]

7 minutes ago, Norcalfukkr said:

I’d do the injection, too, if my insurance would cover it. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so then I’m stuck with pills and I’m bad about remembering to take, especially if I’ve been on a weekend binge of sex. When I’m drunk on cock and cum, it’s hard to temper to take a pill. 

Yep, it is.  Easier to just get pozzed up and forget about it and fuck

[Bwccummer]

I am wondering when Prep injection may possibly be available in the UK. If is to say be in a month to maybe wait a month and get prep injection. If lower or unknown then could be more difficult. 

A alternative maybe is if can travel to learn if injection available in another country like France, Germany. Or I guess if able to travel to United States for injection but I realize cost may not work as a option.

[Guest]

genuine question, sorry if it's a dumb one -- would grinding up the PrEP pill into a powder somehow render it ineffective? If not, could you "take" the pill that way?

[Norcalfukkr]

12 minutes ago, Vancrawman said:

genuine question, sorry if it's a dumb one -- would grinding up the PrEP pill into a powder somehow render it ineffective? If not, could you "take" the pill that way?

Unfortunately, that would change the absorption characteristics of the pharmaceuticals.  They’re in pill form, with a hard outer coating to slow the absorption rate so that the compounds enter the bloodstream through a slow and controlled process.  Having it ground up would make it absorb rapidly but then be flushed out of your  body just as rapidly through your kidneys.  It wouldn’t have the chance to build up a protective concentration in your body.  

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Norcalfukkr said:

Unfortunately, that would change the absorption characteristics of the pharmaceuticals.  They’re in pill form, with a hard outer coating to slow the absorption rate so that the compounds enter the bloodstream through a slow and controlled process.  Having it ground up would make it absorb rapidly but then be flushed out of your  body just as rapidly through your kidneys.  It wouldn’t have the chance to build up a protective concentration in your body.  

Ah, that makes sense! Thanks for that info 😀

[PozBearWI]

PrEP injection....  Yeah that is a pretty cool thing.  Especially for guys who pretty much live at the saunas...  

Cabeneuva starts out with pills though guys...  The plan is to learn how your body responds to a shorter acting version so that we aren't started on something lasting 30 or 60 days and learn you need to be OFF of that stuff immediately.  Once that test has been done the injections can start.  But know that pretty much everyone is reporting a sore but (and that injection has to go into large muscle, so butt is where it goes).  

By contrast a PrEP on demand can meet the needs of MOST.  And done that way one is reducing the amount of medication in our system while still being effective.  For one who has trouble swallowing pills as my hubby does, 2-1-1 can really help.  

 

[Poz50something]

On 10/20/2024 at 9:57 PM, Norcalfukkr said:

I’d do the injection, too, if my insurance would cover it. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so then I’m stuck with pills and I’m bad about remembering to take, especially if I’ve been on a weekend binge of sex. When I’m drunk on cock and cum, it’s hard to temper to take a pill. 

the reality is this - if you become HIV, you are GONNA have to take a pill. I lived for two years without being medicated, and believe me, I have never felt so sick in my life. Therre's the once monthly injection, but I am not sure I am ready for it. 

[BlueSaphir]

NO…you don’t want to get poz. I speak from experience of dealing with AIDS. 

[greo]

On 11/9/2024 at 10:13 AM, Norcalfukkr said:

They’re in pill form, with a hard outer coating to slow the absorption rate so that the compounds enter the bloodstream through a slow and controlled process. 

Truvada is neither enteric coated (to delay its dissolution) nor in an extended/delayed release formulation.

Some people who can't take Truvada tablets are advised to mix it with 100ml of juice or water, OP could ask their doctor what they think, studies say it's fine to.

[rpup]

On 11/11/2024 at 3:02 PM, BlueSaphir said:

NO…you don’t want to get poz. I speak from experience of dealing with AIDS. 

It’s a PITA to have AIDS.

Sure, we can treat today what many people died from in the 80s and 90s.

But these treatments have limits.

It’s hard to get insurance coverage for Shingles vaccines under 50… I’m in my 30s and my experience with shingles is that I know I don’t want it again.

And like shingles/chickenpox is a herpes virus, Herpes Simplex 1 or 2 comes with a vengeance in people who have AIDS. It used to be a small patch for the outbreak but once I hit AIDS, its an 800 mg of Acyclovir which is the minimum amount I have to take to keep myself from having an outbreak the size of a baseball.

Double digit CD4 is intriguing until you have to start taking Bactrim everyday because otherwise I would literally suffer from a nice little pneumonia. Those vaccines are only useful if you’re t-cells stick around to protect you! Struggling to breathe is how I don’t want spend my nights. This daily Bactrim pre exposure prophylaxis didn’t seem to work for my MRSA infection, requiring surgery to remove the abscesses. 

And it’s a party until the virus attacked my brain directly. My neuropsychologist said that my delirium was caused by a lack of T-cells and that my viral load has been a factor in my brains’ psychoses episodes.

These are just the things that I have to deal with. And I consider myself one of the lucky ones! YMMV.

[PozBearWI]

Further, HIV develops differently in each of us.  I have friends who progressed to AIDS within their first year poz.  And others who didn't have a CD4 drop off for more than 20 years.  

My consistent answer to anyone asking "should I get infected with HIV?".  NO.  You have to figure this out on your own. 

We have a choice to prevent HIV infection (and some others if you're young enough when you read this).  There will be fewer challenges if you don't get infected.  There is still some AIDS  hysteria around and that is growing in surprising areas.  When I write that, the misinformation and folk lore about HIV that tends to separate Neg and Poz people.  So u=u be damned they are still not willing to engage.  At least here in rural US Midwest.  

Until you can have a face to face conversation with yourself, and can explain for yourself why you need to live with an HIV factory inside you, you have your own doubt.  And only you can resolve your own doubt.  If you choose to let Joe down the street decide everything, well then you're living Joe's life, not your own.