Interview Part 2: Toronto Health Promoter Chooses PrEP

via Positive Lite (Canada)

Part 2 of an interview with Len Tooley, an HIV-negative gay guy who is taking pre-exposure prophylaxis. He works in Toronto as a gay men’s health promoter, HIV educator, tester and counsellor. In this part of the interview, he discusses the conversations he had with his doctor before getting a prescription for PrEP.

Excerpt:

It took about four appointments for me to actually get the prescription from my doctor. The first time I mentioned the idea he told me that before we considered it, we’d have to have a lengthy discussion about what was going through my mind when I decided not to use condoms. I told him that I wished it was that simple (I’m an HIV counsellor after all), that it wasn’t as simple as a ‘yes or no’ decision, and that I could guarantee him I was trying my absolute hardest to have perfectly safe sex. I just wasn’t succeeding perfectly.

At the second appointment (I was there for something else) I again brought up the idea of PrEP. This time he was still a bit hesitant, and told me that if he was going to prescribe PrEP I was going to have to get blood tests to test my kidney and liver functions and make sure I was HIV-negative, and then, depending on those results, we could talk about it more. I agreed, he gave me the test requisition, and that day I went to a lab and got my blood work done.

Once I knew my blood work results had arrived, I scheduled another appointment and saw my doctor. He confirmed that I was still HIV-negative and that all my kidney and liver function tests were okay. I was pretty nervous and excited. He asked me what I’d do if I experienced the side effects of the medication. I told him that I knew that only about 5% of people in studies of the drug had reported side effects, so it wasn’t too likely, but that if I did have those side effects I’d reconsider staying on it if they didn’t go away and became intolerable. Then I told him that I knew there could be longer-term side effects, but that right now it was probably better for me to go on Truvada temporarily while I feel I’m at risk for HIV, than get HIV and have to take that drug, or other drugs, for the rest of my life.

Read the rest.