Prep or Truvada should be considered carefully before use

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Yeah, whoops, better get a blood test done.

I very rarely have coitus and only screw one guy, he is most def screwing around and injecting drugs (doesn't share needles though) .

Better to not bother at all.

How long was it that you had sex with this guy? There are post exposure meds you can take for HIV and I believe Hep C? A friend took them when he had unsafe sex with a man that was HIV+ but lied about it.

 

[✿Dai₷y✿]

How long was it that you had sex with this guy? There are post exposure meds you can take for HIV and I believe Hep C? A friend took them when he had unsafe sex with a man that was HIV+ but lied about it.

I took prophylactics a long time ago after I was raped and jfc, the morning after pill and retrovirus were so disgusting and painful I would never again have it.



Its no big deal I'll go and get a test in a couple days, in 3 months etc.

I get tested on the regular, probably more often than I have sex lolz

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

You are right. Ive picked people up or theyve picked me, whatever, right off the street. Theres a certain walk, a saunter, a dress, a tone of voice, whatever. Hard to explain. Even if its absolutely subtle I always run into people who are gay and then theres a lot of who never guessed I was anything less than straight until I opened my mouth about it too. Then theres people who have picked me me out of 50 people at a smalltown dive bar (not the most gay friendly) and they were absolutely right.

Everyones got varying degrees of intuition on this. Were the most social species on this planet afterall.

Street cruising is HOT. I have had that happen a lot. I never had sex with any of the men who did this, but gay friends of mine have but the one had lots of unsafe passive anal sex this way in the 1980s and early 1990s and it was with men who knew they were HIV+ or living with AIDS and not on AZT or they did not take it daily, or men who were HIV+ or who had AIDS did not know it, were not on AZT or the other later meds and had infected other men they both knew, but somehow my friend was not infected with HIV and has no idea how he was not infected as these were not single one time exposures and these men were not on meds.

 

[Joey]

Street cruising is HOT. I have had that happen a lot. I never had sex with any of the men who did this, but gay friends of mine have but the one had lots of unsafe passive anal sex this way in the 1980s and early 1990s and it was with men who knew they were HIV+ or living with AIDS and not on AZT or they did not take it daily, or men who were HIV+ or who had AIDS did not know it, were not on AZT or the other later meds and had infected other men they both knew, but somehow my friend was not infected with HIV and has no idea how he was not infected as these were not single one time exposures and these men were not on meds.

He got lucky. I've met a fair few people who have described what the scene was like back then to me and it sounds horrific what wes going on. Just a blur and it was like half the guys around you are dropping like flies. I'm glad it's not such a big deal today. For the most part, if you take your meds you're going to be undetectable.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

He got lucky. I've met a fair few people who have described what the scene was like back then to me and it sounds horrific what wes going on. Just a blur and it was like half the guys around you are dropping like flies. I'm glad it's not such a big deal today. For the most part, if you take your meds you're going to be undetectable.

He has not really changed. He likes being fucked hard, rough, and raw/unsafe, by dominant jocks, with no barriers, and no shame. I actually saw his profile on A4A, and he claimed to be on the Truvada but I know he is not on it. But he is an adult, and knows how to have safe sex and his one excuse of being allergic to latex does not work as there are condoms that are not made out of latex and they are not those icky lamb intestine ones that apparently just barely prevent pregnancy.

What is your age/age range? People are still getting infected with HIV and dying from HIV/AIDS. I am almost 40 and I knew people in my age group who became HIV+ and who had AIDS but luckily got tested, started medications and are doing better, and I know multiple people who died from AIDS.

The 'undetectable=untransmissive' campaign/PSA/theory is not accurate. There have been people who were on Truvada/prep and took it daily but got infected with HIV-which is what I have been told will happen eventually if someone has unsafe sex with lots of people or with someone that is HIV+ and if condoms are not used.

The prep/Truvada/descovy is maybe at best 70% effective, it does not work on all strains or other STDs, and the TV ads say to use condoms with it but almost everyone I know that has taken it or who is now on it does not do this, or unsafe anal sex slip ups made them start taking it and they figure it is fine not to use condoms. But if someone is on antivirals or HIV meds unsafe sex with other people who are HIV+ makes the medications less effective at preventing infection/transmission.

A friend of mine who has been living with HIV since the early 1980s only has sex and dates other HIV+ men, condoms are used so as not to make their meds stop working, or risk reinfection or infecting each other with other strains of HIV. My friend does not date or have sex with men that are HIV-, that say they are neg but really do not know, or who are on prep/Truvada/descovy as most men on prep want unsafe sex or were having unsafe sex before it became available and was super agressively marketed as a replacement for condoms, the new safe sex, etc. My friend has been on all of the meds and they all have not so pleasant short and long term side effects.

Also being undetectable is not a permanent state. My friend has taken meds daily for decades, has safe sex, and is otherwise healthy, does not use any drugs or even drink alcohol or smoke pot, but depending on the blood test he has done one type will show him as being 'undetectable' but another type shows him as being 'detectable'.

I read some article or study that said how people who have HIV who are on meds can test undetectable but that HIV transmission/infection still happened because condoms were not used, and despite taking medications daily they were not undetectable or did not stay this way.

 

[Joey]

He has not really changed. He likes being fucked hard, rough, and raw/unsafe, by dominant jocks, with no barriers, and no shame. I actually saw his profile on A4A, and he claimed to be on the Truvada but I know he is not on it. But he is an adult, and knows how to have safe sex and his one excuse of being allergic to latex does not work as there are condoms that are not made out of latex and they are not those icky lamb intestine ones that apparently just barely prevent pregnancy.

What is your age/age range? People are still getting infected with HIV and dying from HIV/AIDS. I am almost 40 and I knew people in my age group who became HIV+ and who had AIDS but luckily got tested, started medications and are doing better, and I know multiple people who died from AIDS.

The 'undetectable=untransmissive' campaign/PSA/theory is not accurate. There have been people who were on Truvada/prep and took it daily but got infected with HIV-which is what I have been told will happen eventually if someone has unsafe sex with lots of people or with someone that is HIV+ and if condoms are not used.

The prep/Truvada/descovy is maybe at best 70% effective, it does not work on all strains or other STDs, and the TV ads say to use condoms with it but almost everyone I know that has taken it or who is now on it does not do this, or unsafe anal sex slip ups made them start taking it and they figure it is fine not to use condoms. But if someone is on antivirals or HIV meds unsafe sex with other people who are HIV+ makes the medications less effective at preventing infection/transmission.

A friend of mine who has been living with HIV since the early 1980s only has sex and dates other HIV+ men, condoms are used so as not to make their meds stop working, or risk reinfection or infecting each other with other strains of HIV. My friend does not date or have sex with men that are HIV-, that say they are neg but really do not know, or who are on prep/Truvada/descovy as most men on prep want unsafe sex or were having unsafe sex before it became available and was super agressively marketed as a replacement for condoms, the new safe sex, etc. My friend has been on all of the meds and they all have not so pleasant short and long term side effects.

Also being undetectable is not a permanent state. My friend has taken meds daily for decades, has safe sex, and is otherwise healthy, does not use any drugs or even drink alcohol or smoke pot, but depending on the blood test he has done one type will show him as being 'undetectable' but another type shows him as being 'detectable'.

I read some article or study that said how people who have HIV who are on meds can test undetectable but that HIV transmission/infection still happened because condoms were not used, and despite taking medications daily they were not undetectable or did not stay this way.

I am 30. I do understand what you're saying. I do get tested regularly and so I have been okay. But yea you're right that undetectable is not an impenetrable defense and it someones viral load does need to checked on a regular basis. It is way better to be safe than not.

I do have an issue with prep. Drugs like truvada do have the potential to have some serious side effects and I've seen it happen. A friend of mine got some sort of a lump in his leg almost immediately after starting it. I started doing some reading and it's kind of surprising to me how easily it's given out to people. I have a bunch of meds Im prescribed normally and a bad heart. I was having a cardiac crisis while I was on the phone with an agency called gofreddie which led me to ER and I received my requisition for bloodwork via a list of what to tell the hospital to put on a requisition on me while I was there and the fax number for gofreddie.

I needed bloodwork for some other reason too (cant remember been in hospital 50-60 times in the last 13 months) and I got it done. I never did get the bloodwork faxed because the lab got confused by my convoluted mess of a paper so it was never sent out. My bloodwork always shows up fine and Im sure I wouldve gotten it. Despite being on several other meds, havinf autoimmune disease severely and major heart problems and addiction to meth and alcohol. Doesnt that seem kind of fucked?

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I am 30. I do understand what you're saying. I do get tested regularly and so I have been okay. But yea you're right that undetectable is not an impenetrable defense and it someones viral load does need to checked on a regular basis. It is way better to be safe than not.

I do have an issue with prep. Drugs like truvada do have the potential to have some serious side effects and I've seen it happen. A friend of mine got some sort of a lump in his leg almost immediately after starting it. I started doing some reading and it's kind of surprising to me how easily it's given out to people. I have a bunch of meds Im prescribed normally and a bad heart. I was having a cardiac crisis while I was on the phone with an agency called gofreddie which led me to ER and I received my requisition for bloodwork via a list of what to tell the hospital to put on a requisition on me while I was there and the fax number for gofreddie.

I needed bloodwork for some other reason too (cant remember been in hospital 50-60 times in the last 13 months) and I got it done. I never did get the bloodwork faxed because the lab got confused by my convoluted mess of a paper so it was never sent out. My bloodwork always shows up fine and Im sure I wouldve gotten it. Despite being on several other meds, havinf autoimmune disease severely and major heart problems and addiction to meth and alcohol. Doesnt that seem kind of fucked?

Yes that is crazy. I know someone who was on prep/Truvada and while he was on it, his liver was damaged from the drug, and he stopped taking the drug under the supervision of his doctor that had prescribed it to him. His liver returned to being healthy after he stopped taking the Truvada.

 

[LandsUnknown]

The problem is that the criteria for "high risk behavior" is vague by nature since there's no such thing as zero risk in the real world. Since the level of risk depends on both the individual's behavior and the behavior of whoever they slept with, being able to accurately weigh the level of risk one actually is at is difficult if not impossible. In other words, someone who is in a monogamous relationship could be at extreme risk if their partner is infected and doesn't know it. So, how would they know when the reward is greater than the risk other than what really is essentially intuition?

 

[PoundSterling]

I think some users in this thread take quite a hard line approach to things

How can reducing HIV infection not be a positive thing. (no pun intended) lol but here in the UK they give kidney/liver tests to all users of prep and insist on a test every 3 months before giving you the free meds.

The tablets also don't have to be taken every day, you can use it on demand before sex, 2 pills 2 hours before sex and then another 24 hours later for two days in a row and you are protected.

Sometimes people like to have bareback sex... you would think reading this thread that it is a Taliban forum and not a forum full of people that like to do drugs hahaha