Thinking about starting treatment

Some people find starting HIV treatment a difficult commitment to make.

Starting treatment can often mean that you have think through how you manage aspects of your day-to-day life.

Before starting treatment, you should give yourself enough time to talk through all your options. As well as talking to your doctor, you could speak to other people with HIV (perhaps at a support group) and advisors at local HIV organisations. If there’s a friend or family member who is supportive, they may also help you make your mind up.

The advantages of starting HIV treatment:

• You may have less illness, if HIV has been making you ill.
• The treatment will stop HIV reproducing.
• Your immune system will be strengthened.
• You will become less infectious. . This could be particularly important to you if your partner is HIV negative.

The disadvantages of starting HIV treatment:

• You may get side-effects from the drugs you are on.
• You will have to take your drugs every day at the right time.
• There is the risk of developing drug resistance.

Are you ready to start?

Unless you are already ill, it’s best to only start combination therapy when you feel you’re ready for it.

You need to be sure that you’ll be able to take it exactly as prescribed.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about fitting HIV treatment into your life:  

• Do I know enough about HIV treatment, how it will affect me and what benefits it can have for my health?
• Starting treatment will involve making changes to my life and routine. Can I concentrate on that at the moment?
• The first few weeks on a treatment are often the most difficult. Can I make my health a priority and give myself extra time to adjust? For example, could I take time off work?
• Have I found it difficult to take medicines in the past? If I had problems, what were the reasons for this? How can I avoid these problems in the future?
• If I have problems remembering to take my drugs on time, who could I talk to for support? Could I ask somebody to remind me - a friend or a housemate?
• Are there people who I wouldn’t want to see me taking my drugs – people at work, people I live with, friends or family?
• What about people I might meet in the future - like a new partner? How will I deal with them knowing I’m taking anti-HIV drugs? Will this put pressure on me to tell them I’m HIV positive?