Questions about Truvada (PreP)

[bankside]

Gay people have just as much of a right as straight people to hook up without being judged. You're married, you can have sex whenever you want. What are you going to say to lonely single people who have trouble dating and meeting others but get horny at times?

Of course, having one partner that you are committed to is the best situation. But for those of us who haven't met that person yet, another method that seems to be effective at HIV prevention (in addition to condoms) is a good thing imo.

Okay first of all I'm not saying everyone has to be virginal until they find the monogamous love of their life or something. But when I think back to my single days and the single days of my friends, you just didn't go fuck a completely random nameless person when you were horny.

People fell in and out of short-term things, and they started things fast, and they had relationships that they knew were physical rather than being soul mates. Sometimes they even cheated on what was supposed to be a monogamous relationship. But there's no such thing as a "sex emergency." If any of my old crowd, gay or straight, said "I'm having a sex emergency. Bring me a completely random stranger to fuck otherwise my brain will explode from not fucking!" we would have laughed at their mock desperation, and they would have survived until the next weekend. Laughed in their faces. Does that sound judgemental? Oh, well, yup. Because fucking a stranger until you get a disease, or pass one on, is the definition of failing at sex. And that judgement kept us alive.

It's not a moral thing about monogamy or tradition or "my way or the highway" or anything like that. I knew lots of people who had three-ways or different flings throughout the year. But none of them were so random that there was literally no way of knowing if the person even has a disease or not. Even the cheaters I remember knew something about the people they got together with. They were with people known to each other, long enough to know what they were getting into. To be specific, long enough for people to break up and get tested before going back on the market. People knew the names of who to call if they had to break news about an STI. And there was enough time to make that call before they had gone on to sleep with 20 others.

And this thing about everything being risky is just a distraction. Yeah everything is risky. A car could go off the highway and hit me on the sidewalk. Or I could walk randomly down the middle of the highway and hope the cars can dodge me. If my friends did that I would definitely judge them one way or the other because I would like them to be alive.

 

[vulgar_newcomer]

I think you are demissing the part about the cost and fooling yourself if you think a insurance company will not deny or put up one hell of a fight in paying any portion of a claim for a tier 4 or 5 specialty drug that's not even on all drug plan formularies. Insurance companies put up one nasty long fight in paying claims for those who are in need of various medications without all the proper paperwork and delaying things as long as possible, that leaves you with the cost even in appeal you are responsible for that debt and should a appeal fail that baby is your debt.
The retail cost can or will go higher then stated in this thread. It really doesn't matter what a insurance company says it will do unless its written into law. They may say they will cover some thing while the lawyers look into how not to cover it and if you aren't with the illness needing the drug or its not a matter of life or death in possible contacting the illness you are going to be looking at problems.

The long term effects from these medications is still in the guinea pig stage in many ways. These are powerful drugs and they are fairly new. They are not like taking a dangerous Tylenol you can buy over the counter. The media and drug companies make them sound like a cake walk. But don't they do that with every drug before things go haywire and they are in massive lawsuits where people are mucked up or dead? Its the $$$$.


One thing is certain you will have to get additional blood test 2 to 4 times a yr that must be done in a lab with a Doctor visit, you can't buy a blood test at the Walgreens to test liver, kidney, cholesterol, etc. So add another few grand to the bank and hope your liver doesn't clog up meaning you need cholesterol drugs or some other drugs to help out fix up the Truvada fuck up, but hell at least you can have sex without a rubber and I agree thats cool.
Look forward to the day when some thing like this is a reality and available to all though.