Some patients face hurdles getting HIV prevention drugs. Here's what to know

Some patients face hurdles getting HIV prevention drugs. Here's what to know When a librarian in Berkeley, Calif., was looking to take PrEP to prevent HIV, the doctor hadn't heard of the medicine, and the bills that came were expensive ... and wrong. The process was so frustrating that at one point they wondered, "Am I just going to stop this medication to stop having to deal with these coding issues and these scary bills?" - Matthew Hurley, 30, from Berkeley, California A couple of years ago, Matthew Hurley got the kind of text people fear. It said: "When was the last time you were STD tested?" Someone Hurley had recently had unprotected sex with had just tested positive for HIV. Hurley, who uses they/them pronouns, went to a clinic and got tested. "Luckily, I had not caught HIV, but it was a wake-up call," they said. That experience moved Hurley to seek out PrEP, shorthand for preexposure prophylaxis. The antiretroviral medication greatly reduces the chance of getting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The therapy is 99% effective at protecting people against sexual transmission when taken as prescribed. Hurley started PrEP and all was well for the first nine months - until their health insurance changed and they started seeing a new doctor: "When I brought PrEP up to him, he said, 'What's that?' And I was like, oh boy." Hurley, who is a librarian, went into teaching mode. They explained that the PrEP regimen they'd been on required daily pills and lab work every three months to look out for breakthrough infections or other health issues. Hurley was surprised they knew more about PrEP than the physician. The FDA approved the first drug, Truvada, back in 2012 , and Hurley lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place with one of the highest concentrations of LGBTQ+ people in the nation and a deep history of HIV and health care activism. Hurley said older friends and acquaintances who survived the AIDS epidemic shared the horror of living through a time when there was no effective treatment or drugs for prevention. Deciding to take PrEP felt like an empowering way to protect their health and their community. So Hurley pushed the doctor, and after the physician did his own research, he agreed to prescribe PrEP. Hurley got the care they needed, but they had to be the expert in the exam room. Health Care Helpline helps you navigate the health system hurdles between you and good care. Send us your tricky question and we may assign a reporter to puzzle it out. Share your story and your question here . "That's a big burden," said Beth Oller, a family medicine physician and board member of GLMA, a national organization of LGBTQ+ and allied health care professionals focused on health equity. "You really want someone you can just go in and talk [to] about your health concerns without feeling like you are having to educate and advocate for yourself at...

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