HEAL London

Breaking in your doctor

It's come to my attention that many people have trouble with their ordinary GP when their GP finds out they've been diagnosed HIV+. I've had one report of a doctor 'freaking out' when his patient told him they'd been diagnosed HIV+ and stopped taking the meds after a short period of time.

Has anyone found an effective way of getting your doctor on side?

Re: Breaking in your doctor

My brief experience, as someone who has never taken ARVs and continues to do the quarterly thing, is that no other medicine is applied as long as ARVs are not taken. There is no protocol for treating the unARVed. It is a major black hole in the thought patterns of the Drs about what to do first or what to do next. If you present with dandruff and are poz and not on meds I bet they cant think what to do next. The fact that issues remaining untreated for a long time are likely only to get worse, Im sure, does occur to them, but then that would only prove their point. So help is not coming from that avenue.

Disclosing beyond the infectious diseases department yields the samne result. Its please get back on your ARVs from even the most proficient naturopath. For that reason I suggest not telling at all. Not dentists or anyone from whom objectivity would be helpful.

Re: Breaking in your doctor

The point here is that everyone is entitled to do whatever it is with their bodies. Do anti retrovirals improve outcomes, in every study I've seen yes. Does that mean you have to take them? Of course not, it is your body and your decisions are your own.

However, what you have to realise, is that with a decreased level of immunity and predisposition to opportunistic infections the differentials for any symptom are much more and in many cases much more severe, so most GPs will refer you on as they do not want to be responsible for missing something big. However, regardless of whether you take ARVs or not, you should stress that your right to medical care are the same.