POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Someone I Care About Has HIV => Topic started by: PatrickDaniel052 on November 15, 2019, 10:46:22 am
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I turned to this community for support last year when my husband was diagnosed with HIV. He began treatment right away and was relieved to see great results from his medication. Things have been normal for the last several months, however this past week he had a follow up visit with a specialist and they have detected abnormal cells in his anus. They say it is either AIN2 or AIN3 (either moderate or more severe level of pre-cancerous cells) and sent it out for labs. Like the anxious person that I am, I have been researching all night what this could mean. I have learned a lot about the higher rates of anal cancer in folks with HPV and HIV. Basically, I am so confused and scared about what this additional health challenge may mean for him.
Has anyone else out there been affected by this situation? Any positive experiences with early treatment?
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Hello,I'm sorry for the news you got just when you got used to hiv.
I also had a similar situation. Actually it's how I found out I had hiv as well. I had a giant condyloma that was about 5 to 7 centimetres on the inside of me behind and the docs had found abnormal cells there too,saying I was very close to cancer (at least that's what the gastroenterologist told me) and he recommended I get an hiv test as well. It came positive. It's been 2 years since then. I removed the mass with surgery and whatever else the doc told me to do. I am fine now and it was quite a difficult process since I was unable to go to the toilet without the mass prolapsing and losing a ton of blood,not to mention the pain (so much so,that when I recovered I couldn't stand for more than a minute).
I don't seem to have any complications now.
As I saw,the earlier you deal with it,the better. He should do an anorectal exam to rule out any masses like mine was and remove them. A gastroenterologist would be able to help with the exam.
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Fabio- Thank you so much for sharing your story. I am glad to hear that you have recovered from the experience. It is helpful to hear how others have been affected and know that you recovered fully after treatment.
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Any evidence around early treatment.is mixed at best. There are many cases that regress spontaneously but also that treatment doesn't prevent reoccurrence.
There's a very recent article in the research news forum.
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Going occasionally for check ups is good too. Maybe getting it early on might not help with reocurence but it helps with complications and pain during the surgery.
For example,I could have removed this thing early when it was a mere 2 or 3 cm,but it became 7 cm just because I couldn't find a person who wanted to perform surgery on me (because I'm hiv positive it's a big issue with doctors here who don't want to treat anything you have).
Catching things early prevent the worst,prevents you from.going through the same pain and inconvenience I went through.
I hope that everything will go Ok and nothing bad will happen. I'm also glad that you care about your husband and want to help him in this difficult situation. Make sure to update us on the situation and if anything else worries you we are here .
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Been for my check up, four dysplasias biopsied.
Long chat with the specialist.
Approximately 1% of the patients progress from AIN3 to anal cancer per year. Approximately 60% to 70% of operations on AINS have a reoccurrence.
At this stage my personal call is not to have AINs operated in because for me the risk of complications looks higher than any benefit. Here I'm factoring in that I'm in, that I'm in my late fifties and unlikely to live more than twenty odd years.
Everybody's risk assessment will be different.