Before you start searching for a treatment for HIV, you should know that you shouldn’t expect to find a cure. Nonetheless there are some treatment options that allow women to live a longer and healthier life, thus improving their quality of life.
Before you start any treatment, make sure that you have the most information possible.
When to start the HIV treatment?
In order to make sure that you are as healthy as possible, you should have regular checkups. This usually includes lab tests and physical exams. The tests check the viral load, CD4 count, and you will also find out if the HIV strain is resistant in case of any drugs used in the treatment.
Having all this information, your doctor will know what HIV treatment to suggest that is safe for you. The truth is that there is no generally accepted moment for the start of the treatment.
Usually it is started in case you have some severe symptoms of the illness or you get AIDS.
It is also started if the CD4 count drops below 350, in case you are pregnant, you have a kidney disease or you are being treated for hep B or C.
It is important to know about treatment for HIV that once you start it, there is no turning back; you have to take it for the rest of your life. This is why there are some aspects that you have to consider before starting it.
Being ready for the HIV treatment
Most probably you will have to take numerous medications, according to the indications of your doctor. Also you have to know that you can make no mistake.
In case you do something wrong the virus could become immune for the drug in question. If this happens, the virus could also become immune to another treatment for HIV that you aren’t using.
At the moment there is no drug that is strong enough to fight the infection on its own; you will need a combination of different drugs on a daily basis.
It doesn’t matter whether you have to take only one drug or several ones as part of your HIV treatment every day. This is a commitment you have to remember.
Side effects of the treatment for HIV
In the majority of the cases the drugs used have side effects. While there are some that you will hardly notice, others are quite difficult to live with. Talk to your doctor about these side effects, and stop taking the drugs because of them only in case your doctor tells you so.
In case there are some side effects of the HIV treatment that you are having, you should know that some of them disappear with time. Find out about those side effects that should alarm you.
There are some typical side effects of the treatment for HIV that include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, weakness, tiredness, rash, headache and fever. Some of these side effects appear with time and some of them could be life threatening.
