In praise of Yeztugo (from someone who got nauseous on all pill forms of prep)
I wanted to share my experience in the event that anyone else has found it difficult to take prep in pill form. Tl:dr: Yeztugo may be the answer.
As the title states, I got violently nauseous on Truvada and descovy— violent enough to where I couldn’t continue the onboarding process and be functional at work or home, so I stopped. It was recommended that I try Yeztugo because there are fewer pills involved to make me potentially nauseous. i agreed because of that, and because I liked the idea of not having to take a pill every day to reduce risk of contraction. I received my first dose of Yeztugo a couple days ago. I elected to get the shots in my thighs after reading several posts from others.
Let’s talk about those fucking horse pills. The 4 pills you have to take over the course of the 48hrs are massive. It def took me a few tries to get them down. NGL, it burned like hell when the solution was first injected. I took a couple of extra strength over-the-counter pain killers about 30 min before to help reduce pain and inflammation. I also used ice packs on the areas of injection just before. The NP who did the injection remarked that ppl have anecdotally been reporting that the left leg hurts more/burns longer than the right. Maybe it was priming, but the left side def. burned longer than the right. Right leg felt fine after about 5-10min. Left took more like 10-15min.
much to my surprise, the burning subsided enough for me to feel comfortable walking back to the train, and continuing with my day. More importantly, I HAD NO NAUSEA AT ALL. Not from the 2 pills before or the next day. Not from the shots. No. Nausea. A bit of fatigue, sure.
The following day, there was no burn or pain. Some tenderness when you press on the area surrounding the injection site. I’ve been massaging the lumps, and they're already spreading so as to not look like nodules under my skin.
If you have also had concerns about stomach/digestive issues from taking prep, I highly recommend considering Yeztugo.