Hello DR.s, I am on a salvage regime which contains dual protease inhibitors - I've been on the same regime for 3 years - in the last few months I gained 20lbs - all in my stomach - In Jan-06 - They 2xdose of effexor xr-could this fat gain be from the anti-depressant rather than lipodystrophy?

Weight gain is certainly a side effect of the effexor, so if yur stomach started growing shortly after you started the effexor, this new medication may be the cause of it. As for your HIV medications, it is certainly possible for lipodystrophy to start appearing latein treatment. If your viral load is undetectable, you may be able to consider a simplification of your regimen, to allow one (or both) of the protease inhibitors to be stopped. If there is stavudine in your regimen as a nucleoside analogue, this may also be a good time to think about changing it to another drug not associated with lipodystrophy.