If it ain't broke...fix it. Maybe it's time for your HIV drug regime to change. This piece looks at changing your HIV drug to reduce the chance of getting side effects, even if your viral load is undetectable.
For many doctors, 'proactive switching' isn't a comfortable idea. A major London clinic had recently told its patients that they can't have their HIV drugs changed 'except in dire clinical necessity'. Peripheral neuropathy? Take an aspirin. Nightmares? Get used to them. Stigmatising facial wasting? Tough.
There are reasons why doctors don't want to let you chop and change your drugs every time you get a bit of diarrhoea.
Statistically, second and third combos fail sooner than first ones.
But we feel policies like this are both short-sighted and inhumane. Though unplanned change is often worse than none, planned change may be better. These days the aim of HIV therapy should not just be to prolong life - it should be to improve quality of life. There are combos available now that, if taken early enough, could greatly reduce the chance of side effects happening; or extend the time you stave them off.

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That means minimising future depression, anxiety - and poor adherence. One recent Californian study found that having HIV and lipodystrophy reduced people's quality of life, on a psychological scale, by 46 per cent - and that they would be prepared to take a 13 per cent greater risk of death in order to avoid it.
Here we look specifically at changing HIV drugs, rather than what else you can do to reduce side effects. So we're missing out ideas like taking B vitamins or carnitine for neuropathy, exercising to reduce fat accumulation, New-Fill for facial wasting, etc.
We assume a reasonable knowledge of the different classes of anti-HIV drugs and their side effects.

Take it along to your doctor or look under 'more info' if you're unclear.