Hank Trout was diagnosed with HIV in 1989 at the age of 36.
The longtime San Francisco resident resisted medication at first, but eventually began the fraught medication journey with which those living with the condition are familiar — a drug “cocktail” involving a strict regimen of several medications a day.
After trying several such combinations of drugs to keep his HIV levels in check, he eventually started taking just one drug — tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.
After about 10 years of taking a combination drug known as Truvada that includes TDF, Trout said, he started experiencing severe bone-density loss. About eight years ago, he was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Although he was only in his 60s at the time, his bone-density loss was comparable to that of men 20 years older.
And that wasn’t the end of his troubles. By now, he’s shrunk four inches, in part due to six compression fractures in his spine. He’s had several back surgeries. Just a couple of years ago, he fractured his pelvis just stepping off a curb. There have been times when he’s been confined to a wheelchair, he said, and he now walks with a cane.