Campagne “Ik slik, slik jij?”

Begin 2019 is PrEPnu een campagne begonnen om mensen die PrEP willen, maar het misschien teveel gedoe vinden, aan te moedigen om tóch de stap te nemen.

Voor deze campagne hebben we tal van mensen gevraagd om rolmodel te staan en te vertellen waarom ze PrEP slikken.
Alaa – 34 jaar, gebruikt 2 jaar PrEP

‘Before being on PrEP, I was always scared after con­dom­less sex’

The first times I heard about PrEP, I was a bit hes­is­tant about it. I wasn’t con­vinced that it would be some­thing for me. My views changed after I hooked up with a guy on PrEP who told me a lot about it. I went to my GP for a pre­scrip­tion, but unfor­tu­nate­ly he was very reluc­tant to help me with PrEP. I have a med­ical back­ground myself, and was able to con­vince him in the end. But oth­ers may be held back by their doctor’s oppo­si­tion, which I think is real­ly a bad thing. Before I was on PrEP, I some­times had sex with­out a con­dom, but I was always real­ly scared after­wards. That’s changed com­plete­ly. I’m ful­ly con­fi­dent now that PrEP pro­tects me against HIV. And con­doms, well… I pre­fer not to use them any­more. It just feels so much bet­ter without. 

Costas – 22 jaar, gebruikt 1,5 jaar PrEP

‘I was one of the very first peo­ple in Ukraine to get on PrEP’

In Ukraine I was with an HIV char­i­ty organ­i­sa­tion, and they start­ed a small PrEP pilot project with 20 peo­ple. I got the pills for free, but had to take care of all the tests myself, and that’s quite expen­sive in Ukraine. I’ve been in the Nether­lands for a lit­tle over a year now. Life wasn’t safe any­more for me as an LGBT activist. Trans­fer­ring my PrEP care didn’t go very smooth­ly though. My GP in Hoogeveen told me I should just use con­doms. In the end he agreed do to the tests, but he won’t give a pre­scrip­tion. For­tu­nate­ly friends in Ams­ter­dam are able to help me get­ting the pills. I was a drag activist already in Ukraine, and here I joined the House of Hopelezz. I like the polit­i­cal side of drag. Being on PrEP has def­i­nite­ly changed my sex life. I feel so much more free. 

Luna – 22 jaar, gebruikt 1,5 jaar PrEP

‘Being on PrEP has been good for business ;-)’

I’ve nev­er been very wor­ried about get­ting HIV, but of course it’s bet­ter to pre­vent it if you can. And since I’m not too fond of con­doms, it seemed a log­i­cal choice for me to get on PrEP. For both pri­vate and pro­fes­sion­al rea­sons actu­al­ly, because I’m also a sex work­er. I used to be very strict on using con­doms with clients, but this did lim­it my clien­tele. So I could say being on PrEP has been good for busi­ness as well. 😉 I’m orig­i­nal­ly from Madrid, and I noticed that the atti­tude towards PrEP is quite dif­fer­ent there. Once when I was back in Spain I was aggres­sive­ly harassed on Grindr for being on PrEP. So I just decid­ed to put in my pro­file that I’m pos­i­tive, that was eas­i­er. But it all comes down to lack of infor­ma­tion I guess. I’m glad peo­ple are gen­er­al­ly more informed on PrEP here. 

Peter – 52 jaar, gebruikt een half jaar PrEP

‘PrEP heeft mijn sek­sleven totaal veranderd’

De aids-epi­demie van de jaren 80 en 90 heb ik van dicht­bij meege­maakt, en con­dooms waren daarom echt een vanzelf­sprek­end­heid. Des­on­danks heb ik het alti­jd ver­schrikke­lijke din­gen gevon­den. Uitein­delijk betek­ende dat dat ik gewoon nauwelijks nog neuk­te. En toen was er PrEP. Hoewel ik een pri­ma relatie met mijn huis­arts heb, wilde hij écht geen PrEP voorschri­jven. Ik kon hem niet over­tu­igen. Gelukkig kon bij een pro­gram­ma van de Ams­ter­damse GGD terecht, en daarmee zijn mijn tests en recept geregeld. Mijn sek­sleven is sinds­di­en wel echt veran­derd. Con­dooms zijn de deur uit. Ik heb wel vak­er een soa dan vroeger, maar dat is het me waard. Gelukkig gaan ze daar bij de GGD relaxed mee om.