Will I have to start medications right away?

Will I have to start medications right away?

Having HIV doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take medications right away. As long as your immune system is still healthy enough on its own, you may not need to take antiretrovirals.

However, most HIV-positive people have to start medications at some point, to avoid getting AIDS. How long you can wait depends on a lot of things. Everyone is different, and some people can be HIV positive for a very long time (10 years or more) without being in danger of developing AIDS.

You and your doctor will make the decision to start treatment based on your blood test results and your symptoms.

Your blood can tell you a lot about what’s going on in your body. If you’ve tested HIV positive, you’ll be getting a lot of “blood work” done (having blood drawn from your arm at a lab for testing). Your regular blood work will check for many things, but two of the most important factors are your CD4 count and your viral load.