PHYSICIAN VOICES
4 Signs It's Time to Switch Your HIV Treatment

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    Today, there are a variety of options available to treat HIV.
    HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, interferes with your body’s ability to fight diseases by damaging your immune system. If untreated, it can lead to AIDS. In the United States, an estimated 1 million people have HIV, and one in five people who have it don’t know it. Luckily, treatment options have vastly increased and improved since the virus was first discovered in the 1980s. However, as physicians, we try not to change your medications unless it’s absolutely necessary, because they’re still limited.  
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    Consistency is key in treating HIV.
    If you have HIV, you have to remain on medication every day for the rest of your life, and missing just one day can cause your body to become resistant to that specific treatment – which means you’d have to switch to a different one. And not all medications will work for you. The vast majority of patients will take one of the first-line regimens and do very well. But when we do switch treatments, it’s usually for one of these four reasons:
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    1. You have intolerable side effects.
    Like any drug, some of the HIV treatment options can have serious side effects that outweigh the drug’s benefits. Some medications may cause or worsen psychiatric or mental illness symptoms, or lead to extremely vivid dreams or nightmares. Others can cause liver damage, nausea, vomiting or fatigue. Occasionally, your treatment can cause the whites of your eyes to turn yellow. While this particular side effect isn’t physically harmful, it’s upsetting and can be embarrassing for many of my patients, so we may try something different.
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    2. You have developed resistance to the drug.
    In certain cases, your virus may have an underlying resistance to the drug – meaning that the specific medication does not suppress the amount of virus freely replicating in your blood, known as your viral load. Or, your virus may have developed that resistance. Unlike a lot of other medications taken for chronic disease, HIV medications must be taken every single day without fail. If not, resistance to that drug may be the result. Before starting HIV patients on treatment, we make sure they are ready and willing to take their meds every day for the rest of their lives. I tell my patients when it comes to HIV treatment, it’s better to take nothing at all than to take it poorly. 
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    3. Your HIV treatment is interacting with another medication.
    Your HIV treatment could potentially negatively interact with a drug you are taking to manage another condition like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In this case, you could experience worse side effects and want to switch medications as a result. The drug interaction could also reduce the overall effectiveness of your HIV treatment. 
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    4. It’s just not working.
    If the viral load does not become undetectable in your blood, even though you’re taking your medications daily, then your doctor will discuss the need to test your virus for resistance and then possibly switch your current medications. That happens for a number of reasons, like if you’ve developed resistance to the drug or if an interaction with a different medication has reduced the effectiveness. 
4 Signs It's Time to Switch Your HIV Treatment
HIV
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THIS CONTENT DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. This content is provided for informational purposes and reflects the opinions of the author. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional regarding your health. If you think you may have a medical emergency, contact your doctor immediately or call 911.