How often and why do I need to get retested?

Once you’re on PrEP, you’ll need to get tested every 3 months for HIV and to make sure your kidneys are working well. It’s really important to go to these follow-up appointments to make sure you’re kidneys are healthy, and you remain HIV-negative. It’s very unlikely you’ll get HIV if you’re using PrEP consistently. But if you do happen to get HIV while using PrEP, it’s important for your health to stop using PrEP right away. PrEP is not a treatment for HIV—in fact, taking PrEP when you have HIV can make the virus harder to treat.