whitecck

"I recommend every guy over the age of 40 or so get testosterone treatments. It changes everything for the better. "... WHy? What is better? What about risks? Maybe i am outdated, but i was always told that this will give me cancer and heart disease and make my balls smaller.. really curious.

The Soi 13 branch opens in August. I was at the Silom clinic the other day - it is more convenient than Thai Red Cross Anonymous clinic but MUCH more expensive. Something to consider...

Hi, I do not see many posts regarding this nasty STD, however, from what i heard and read, it is quite common. Easy to treat if discovered too. I wonder if anyone here had any experience with it?

suggestion: Download LINE and activate the account - most comms in this place is done through LINE. open account on Thai Friendly. You can start e-meeting there and lining up a bunch of potential dates. I personally prefer BKK to PTY. Enjoy!

this is true - regarding HIV only! There are plenty of other nasty STD`s to consider, including Hep, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Syphilis, warts etc etc. So Undetectable does in fact = Untrabnsmittable of HIV ONLY! Enjoy! :-)

Thank you! Yes, when i first heard teh Dx, my world turned upside down. I had pictures of Tom Hanks in Philadelphia running through my mind. I saw myself disowned by my family, alone, with soars and skinny and dying all alone. The doc ;laughed and told me that i would be surprised how many people have this. With today`s treatment - according to the doc - it is today considered a chronic disease/condition that is fairly easy to treat. He compared it to Diabetes which he thought was worse. The main issue is the stigma. As far as meds, it seems these days we are very lucky - so many different choices and options. This is especially good news for people who have some resistant strains of the virus. BTW, i highly recommend people to browse through poz.com to get the most updated info regarding this disease. Cheers and thanks!

My first regimen - 9 pills a day affected me hard - stomach cramps, diarrhea 4-5 times a day. After becoming UD after 3 months, switched to the so popular and convenient Atripla - unfortunately i fall into that small % of people who react bad to this med - crazy wild dreams, foggy mind, inability to think straight, moody etc. After 2 weeks of this shit i switched to Complera. Also a once-a-day regimen but it needs to be taken after food. No noticeable side affects what so ever. Finally i was pooping solid again! Well, to be precise, there was one side affect i forgot to mention which started form the first regimen and has not gone away. As soon as i started taking taking my cholesterol jumped to the ski - it is a known side affect. They had me on statins at first but i decided to deal with it naturally and have managed to reduce to a "borderline" level. This is a known side affect to all HIV meds. So, i wake up, have breakfast, pop my two pills (Complera is not sold as one pill in Thailand) and go on with my day. Sounds just like anyone else`s routine, right?

"something like 50x greater than normal "..hehehehe - when i got my results my doc`s jaw dropped. She had never seen such a high VL ever - and she was in her 70`s!! My VL was 4M(!!). 1 month after meds it dropped to 9,000 and then a month after that 450, month after that UD. Praise the lord!

BBBJ is considered the lowest risk activity (besides a hand job i guess ) when talking about HIV. In fact, till today, there has never been a single documented case. Going BB Anal - well, that is an entirely different story. You can`t argue with the numbers bro. In any case, never intended to "scare monger" but rather share my story and give practical advice. I believe i am within the context of this thread, right? Be cool bro and Enjoy!

Hi, been there a zillion times bro - 99.999% chance it is not HIV and probably nothing at all except for tonsilitis! If you were bottom, i would say otherwise, but as a top, your chances are pretty low. Just to put some perspective, i must have had sex with my wife 5 or 6 times while infected with a very high VL before taking meds, and she came out ok (this was teh few weeks before diagnosis) - so there you go. It is not an automatic infection if you are with someone who is poz (and not UD). It just increases the chance of getting infected. Having said all that, there are plenty of other nasty things that one can catch like the clap, herpes, warts HEP etc etc . Of course, when the dick is hard and a the beer goggles are on, hahahaha - risk takes on a completely different meaning . Anyway, don`t sweat it. Go get checked and deal with whatever comes your way. If you have questions feel free to PM me. BTW - was she good? :-)

Now for my serious answer.. i guess the risk is different f you Top or if you Bottom. May i ask if you BB as a bottom? Also, the risks seem to be lower for circumcised - not sure why. I guess it is like not wearing a seatbelt when driving, not wearing a helmiet on a motorbike, etc etc - everything is fine until it isn`t. Anyway, no intent to kill your buzz or to preach. Enjoy yourself bro! Just get checked often and and if something goes wrong, you know that there are good options nowadays. Peace!

yes i agree that bragging re bb isn*t so wise. Besides HIV,there is of course HEP which is way easier to get and harder to treat, there is re oral, i think brushing teeth does not create enough open wound/exposure to blood vessels to pass the virus. HIV is a very vulnerable virus and the mouth has many natural antiseptics where HIV cannot live. However, if you have other infections (gum or throat) or other STD`s or have had a tooth pulled or train boxing and have a cut in your mouth etc, then for sure there is a risk. Anyway, my prupose was not to scare people or give a "buzz-kill", rather, just share and update/educate/inform others that it can happen and what to do if it does happen. Had i known what i know today, i would have taken PeP and most probably NOT been infected...cheers and thanks again!

you are a very lucky guy - i am very jealous!! hahahaha

Hi LB Lover, Thanks for the words of support. Regarding point 7 - yes, i agree. I too would someone HIV+ even if they were UD - that is probably because i was brainwashed for so many years and hard for me to digest the science. The truth is though, whether we can accept it or not, that being with a person not does not know their status is riskier than being with someone who knows he is poz and is on meds and UD. Food for thought :-). As for the LB`s, as i mentioned, in my experience over the past few years, most really don`t care at all. In fact, when i try to speak to them regarding safety, PreP etc, they seem disinterested. Most have a "whatever" attitude... I was surprised to find that some (30%) actually new the science and even suggested BB (something i refuse since i don`t need to catch anything else!). Also, Thai`s are entitled to free HIV meds. Actually it is almost free (like 40 THB/month) from the pubic hospitals. There are also clinics which provide heavily subsidized meds. Thailand is considered number 1 in Asia in treatment in fact. If you are interested in reading more or resources let me know and i can send you some links. Cheers!

Hi Guys, I know this is an old post, and i hope it is ok to revive it for such an important topic. i don`t want to ruin anyone`s hardon, but i figure it is important for me to tell my story. So..I was a hetro for many many years and never had any experiences with anyone except for women. Fast forward to my 4th or 5th trip to BKK on biz and i found myself drunk in nana and trying to stick my tongue down a hot hot "chick"`s throat - when suddenly i was informed that there was a little extra between the legs, and to my surprise it didn`t bother me - in fact i liked it! Fast forward 10 years later and i became a LB "addict", where this became my preference by default, and teh center of my free time. So many things about LB that i love, but, i can sum it up in 4 words - I love the sex!!! So, playing around like the rest of us, sometimes on top, some times on bottom, always with condom except for BJ (giving and getting). Always healthy, never really any issues. Fast forward 5 years ago, i caught my first case of gonorrhea (i was 45 years old!!)....who knows how and from whom. Got rid of it and all was great. 2 years ago, i had an encounter with a "bored in room and looking for fun" lb that i met on CL. She did not want cash, was originally from VN but lived in the USA here for plastic surgery (that was her story) and we started to play. After some regular foreplay, she got on top (with a condom) and things were great. At a certain point i reached back to feel the condom (i always do this for reassurance) and just as i did, she pulled out and said "oops it just slipped off a second ago". Ok,... didn`t think much of it. She put it back on and we played a bit more and that was that. Well....as you can all guess, that was not "THAT"..... a few weeks later, flu-like symptoms, doc visit, anti-biotics, symptoms don`t clear, a week or 2 go by, i go back to doctor and he sends me to the ID Doc, he runs the array of tests and comes back with the bad news - i am HIV positive....shock...utter shock! How? What? Me? I`m a married guy with a good job, kids, no drugs, always use condoms...THIS CAN`T BE HAPPENING!!! It was horrible. I was completely uneducated and thought that i would die a shameful horrible death within months - luckily i was absolutely wrong. Started meds, read and researched TONS, told the wife who supported me throughout the process, she is neg, after a few months i was UD, perfectly healthy, perfect CD4 and life has gone on. A few things to learn from my case (regarding HIV only! - there are many other STD`s): any risk of exposure is a real risk of exposure and should be treated accordingly. Bottoms and needle users (for whatever) have the highest risk of exposure. 1 second of exposure is exposure. Had i been educated, i would have known about PeP. If you have been exposed, PeP is a real option that has a VERY HIGH chance of preventing infection. For those that don`t know, PeP is basically taking HIV meds within a day or 2 of exposer (i forget the exact amount of time, but the sooner the better) for an entire month, thus preventing the virus from infecting white blood cells and multiplying. It is like the "morning after pill" of HIV. It works! I was ignorant,i had no idea, i didn`t even think of it, and the rest is history. Stupid me! People with HIV who are on meds and UD (UnDetectable viral load) cannot infect others through sex. This is 99.9% certain. UD = Untranslatable. That is why testing regularly and knowing ones status is so important, and, if one gets infected, starting meds asap is important. The sooner you start your meds once infected, the better. In fact you will have a near NORMAL LIFE EXPECTANCY and can be if you start immediately (some say a LONGER one since the frequent doc visits catch any anomalies early and can be treated, as opposed to people who do not frequently visit docs). The quicker you start, the less long term damage done to your immune system. I was lucky since i showed symptoms and went to get checked. MOST PEOPLE DO NOT SHOW SYMPTOMS WHEN FIRST INFECTED. SO, GET CHECKED REGULARLY!! This will cause controversy i am sure - It is safer to have sex with someone who is HIV Positive and UNDETECTABLE, rather than someone whose status is unknown. Think it through, and if you disagree with me, let me know why. People who are HIV positive and NOT on medication and NOT UD (undetectable) usually are VERY infectious because their Viral Load (VL) is high. When i discovered my infection, it was soon after being infected, when the VL is very high usually, and my VL was around 4MILLION! It took 3 months of meds to get me UD (= less than 40!!). My wife was very lucky because we had sex a few times just days before i was diagnosed and yet she never got infected - we (she) were very lucky! Life goes on after HIV - daily meds is the main burden, but today, the side affects are mild, and things are basically normal - life goes on. I usually disclose to the sex partners i play with out of sheer conscience and morality (and perhaps legality). 99% don`t seem to care. Most LB`s seem to understand the basics or just don`t seem to care. I sometimes wonder how many are poz and/if on meds. Today there is a something called PreP - this is taking HIV meds before infection on a regular daily basis - for people who are high risk. It is a preventative measure and has proved to prevent being infected more than 90% of the cases. It is given for free in some places like the Redcross. I try teaching the LB i meet about this and urge them to start since they are very high risk. In my case, i believe i figured out how i got it - that one incident. However, often i wonder if i got it from oral sex where i gave and did not use a condom (i never used a condom giving or getting). I know the chances are EXTREMELY low and "no documented cases" but maybe that`s because no one knows that is how they got it? Oh well, looking forward and not backwards! So....sorry if i ruined anyone`s good time. I thought it would be important to tell men of the same interest a real life story from just an ordinary normal guy like you, and hopefully it will help someone out one of these days. BTW, if anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me. Take care guys. I LOVE THIS FORUM!