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Ask the Experts about Managing Side Effects of HIV Treatment
Hello there,
iam a 33 yrs old woman living in africa, and has been positive since 2005. i was placed on stavudine,neviiripine and lamuvudine which resulted to me suffering frm lipodystrophy!..i have very skinny butts and legs and have huge fat around my tummy and back of my neck. i complained to the healthcare people and the stavudine was replaced with zidovudine. this has brought very little improvements for me..(at laest better than in the past) the problem is that i have huge fat on my tummy and back of neck... i went through the archives and learnt that human growth hormone can help..so after weighing all options i decided to order for GHR1000 which claims to have no side effects. but is it safe for me to take this supplement if i want to become pregnant? please do not refer me to my doctors because here, they have limited knowlegde of these things(africa)...
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Response from Dr. Henry
Oral forms of human growth hormone will not generally be effective (in US only forms are injected). Growth hormone or growth hormone releasing factor has not resulted in recovery of body fat but has been somewhat effective at decreasing increases in body fat within the abdomen or on the back of the neck (though shots can have some side effects and are very expensive so not approved for that use in US at present). Changing the zidivudine to tenofovir is generally the best option in this setting if generic tenofovir is available in your area. KH
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