[VIDEO] Garland from Chicago on participating in PrEP research

In the video below, Garland from Chicago discusses his participation in the iPrEx Open Label Study and taking Truvada as a way to prevent HIV infection. The iPrEx trial was the first study to show that an antiretroviral drug (ARV) - normally used to treat people living with HIV - could also be used to prevent HIV among people who are HIV-negative.

In July of 2012, the FDA approved the ARV drug Truvada for the prevention of HIV.

Thanks to the iPrEx team, My PrEP Experience will be sharing a number of videos from iPrEx study participants over the coming days and weeks. Check back often, or like our partner Project RSP! on FB and follow along with all the new videos that way.

If YOU are taking Truvada as PrEP, we'd love to hear your story. You can share your experience in a video, or you can write something up. Whatever you want to do - we want to hear your experience - whether taking Truvada as PrEP was a good experience or a bad experience - or anywhere in between. Email myprepexperience@gmail.com and let us know!
 

Project Ready, Set, PrEP!'s Training Slides on PrEP for HIV Prevention

Chicago's Project Ready, Set, PrEP! (Project RSP!) has uploaded a fresh training on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention. The training is designed for prevention workers, case managers, and others working in the HIV field and includes the key things you need to know about PrEP.

Check out the PowerPoint slides below, and feel free to download a copy. And please connect with us on Facebook. There are also a lot of helpful informational resources on the right-hand side of this blog just waiting to be clicked.

Project RSP! Training on PrEP for HIV Prevention 

 

He protects me. So does PrEP.

Learn more about PrEP right on this page - check out the info links to the right, and scroll down to read personal stories from folks using PrEP. Learn from them.

Read our short fact sheet.

Click here for a CDC brochure to help you prepare for talking to your doctor about PrEP.

The CDC recently released PrEP guidance for clinicians. Click here. And let your medical provider know about this document (they may not.)

Share this page with boyfriends, hook ups, friends, strangers, people at the table next to you....

Trying to Get Pregnant and Thankful for PrEP

by an HIV-negative spouse

I've been married to my HIV+ husband for over ten years.

A few years ago we decided we wanted to try to get pregnant.

After years of researching and many disappointments, we decided to try to conceive naturally. Luckily, I had a doctor that was willing to work with us, who respected our choices, and wanted to do whatever she could to mitigate my risks.

She prescribed me Truvada. I began taking it for a month before my husband and I had unprotected sex, and after about two years of trying...we are still not pregnant, but I remain negative.

I realize our choices are risky, but there are not many realistic options for couples in our position who want to conceive. Sure, there are fertility treatments, we looked in to them all, not one fertility treatment option worked for us for one reason or another.

Taking the Truvada does not make me "reckless" in my decision to have unprotected sex, it makes me feel supported by a community of doctors and advocates, who recognize the nuances of my situation, and are doing all they can to help me stay negative.

I understand the risks I'm taking. I don't minimize them just because I'm using Truvada.

It is frustrating to hear experts say that prescribing Truvada to someone could give them an unrealistic sense of safety from becoming HIV+. I'm sure that's true for some...but judging from my own REAL (not hypothetical) experience, it makes me more aware of the risks I'm taking. I am reminded of those risks on a daily basis, every time I open that bottle and swallow that blue pill. I don't take them lightly. If I did, I wouldn't go through the trouble of using Truvada.

I've jumped a lot of hurdles to get to this place....through legislative changes, doctors with unbelievable and blatant prejudice, and all the disappointments that go with failing to conceive.

What has angered me the most, is watching and listening to doctors, politicians, and experts decide what my choices and risks should be.  For most of them, it is their job. But for me....it is my life.

Their opinions and decisions trickle down to impact my life in very real ways. From not being able to utilize certain fertility treatments because the Center for Disease Control won't establish guidelines, (even though I am legally entitled to those treatments), to walking past the baby apparel section at the store, to seeing that negative pregnancy test every month.

With all the complications and legal limitations of our situation, I am thankful for the opportunity to use Truvada. For now, it is my only option. And I think its a good one.

To read more about my journey, check out my blog (HIV negative spouses.)

Power Bottoms Activate!

This is a BIG deal.

PrEP is the first HIV prevention tool controlled by the bottom/receptive partner. No negotiation needed.

Learn more about PrEP right on this page - check out the info links to the right, and scroll down to read personal stories from folks using PrEP. Learn from them. Read our short fact sheet.

Click here for a CDC brochure to help you prepare for talking to your doctor about PrEP.

The CDC recently released PrEP guidance for clinicians. Click here. And let your medical provider know about this really important document (they may not.)

Please share this link with people who may be interested.

[VIDEO] Alejandro, his POZ partner, and using PrEP

[Video courtesy of Project Inform]

Alejandro has been with his partner for several years. They're a mixed status couple ... Alejandro is  HIV-negative, and his partner is positive. Here, Alejandro describes some of the things he and his partner thought about when they were deciding whether or not to use PrEP.



Project Inform is a great resource for info on PrEP. Click here.
 

John - "I feel more in control of my prophylactic decisions than I ever have before"

Not preaching or trying to convince anyone, just thought I'd share my PrEP story...

via John Sewell
Seattle, WA

I'm 46, which means I became a teenager the year we first got news of the "gay plague." I went to a military college, then spent 5 years in the Navy following that. I had a very few, discreet sexual encounters during those years, but mostly shied away because: 1) being gay was not socially acceptable, 2) I would have been kicked out of the Navy in disgrace if I had been called out, and 3) there was a mysterious killer affecting gay men with not much information about how it was transmitted or controlled.

Fast forward to 3 years ago.

I found myself head over heals in love with a man who was HIV+.

I had been infatuated with a few HIV+ men over the years, but had never before had to consciously decide if I wanted to be in an ongoing relationship with one. Love won out, and I made an agreement with myself that I'd be okay with a life of continued, consistent condom usage with this man. (I had been in the habit of regular condom usage until a monogamous partner and I had been together for six months, at which point I switched to condomless sex paired with continued regular testing.) At the time my boyfriend and I met, he was positive, but not yet on ART (as per CDC guidelines and his doctor's advice at the time.)

A year later, the CDC changed their recommendation on when to start ART. My boyfriend, on the advice of his doctor, started taking Atripla and, within 3 months, had an undetectable viral load. Once he reached that point, he and I stopped using condoms with each other. A year or so after that, I started on Truvada.

We are not monogamous, and I myself have enjoyed going to bath houses in the past and currently.

I get tested almost monthly as the result of a PrEP study and an HIV vaccine study I participate in. This winter, I tested positive for gonorrhea. This was the first time I'd ever tested positive for an STI. I was treated immediately and followed the advice of the STI clinic in regards to notification and temporary abstinence. Because I had discussed this possibility in advance with my partner and health care providers, it did not shock me or destroy my ego. I felt equanimity about it.

Where am I at mentally today?

I feel good about my choices regarding my sexual, mental and social health (if I can be so bold as to make those three categorizations). I feel more in control of my prophylactic decisions than I ever have before.

I think I've done a reasonable, informed job of preventing myself from becoming infected with HIV, but I'm also not afraid that my life will end if I do become infected. That's a welcome change! I would like to avoid other STI's, but I also understand that I should balance that with finding joy and pleasure in life, not hiding in the closet.

I'm sure not everyone would agree with my approach. I know there are both individual conscience and community responsibility angles to this discussion which are complex and sensitive. I'm happy with my current choices, and I continue to try to remain both well informed and open to modifying my strategy as we learn more about both HIV, other STIs and gay health in general.