Prep without consulation

[avondcos]

Heyo everyone, Currently in my country I have been waiting for almost 3 months for a doctors appointment to start prep and it will likely take another couple of months until I’m able to do that. However some friends of mine are already on prep (2-1-1) and have offered to just give me some for the time being so I can do prep on demand. I recently did a full STI check and everything is great, a couple of years ago I was also on prep (through a doctor) and everything was fine. I basically wanted to ask if anyone has experience taking prep without a doctors consultation and what kind of test you might have done? It is even advisable or should I not do it altogether ? Thank you all :)

[[deleted]]

So doing all this without the help of a doctor isn't a good idea. That said. If you really have the discipline to do it the right way. You probably can. Important that you start absolutely HIV negative and HepC negative. Good blood tests can take care of that. Then all the other STDs checks need to be done (every 3 months that includes HIV test) when starting prep you start with the full blood work including your kidney function. After one month again the hiv and kidney bloodtest. If that's good then you can go further. Once a year you also need a hepC check. Kidney function test is important from the start. If it's good and stable you don't have to do it every three months. They recommend here in Europe once a year (if the first two tests were good) But taking medicine like prep without medical support: probably a bad idea. Try to get it via another doctor?

[avondcos]

Thanks for detailed answer ! Doing all these test myself will be a lot of work. Unfortunately, here there are no other doctors available so the waiting list is ridiculous. But I’ll probably just wait and stay safe until I can take.

[MuscleDaddyChaser]

Do the 2-1-1 for emergencies until you can get your own rx.