 What's up, fam? I'm Raif DeRozzi and in this video, I will be discussing my new one-pill HIV medication, including the two drugs, Dahl-Utegravir and Lemivirine, also known as Dovato, covering why I switched from my previous medication, Victarvi, what my experience was taking Victarvi, what my experience is so far on Dovato, and any pertinent information regarding side effects, etc. related to Dovato. So, taking it all the way back, before switching to my previous medication, Victarvi, I was on the one-pill regimen called Genvoia. I did a video talking about my experience with Genvoia and switching from Genvoia to Victarvi, so if that is something of interest to you, I will put up a card here to that video so you can watch it. But before getting into Dovato, a quick recap on Victarvi. Victarvi is a three-drug one-pill ARV or antiretroviral medication taken once a day. The pharmaceutical company that makes this drug is Gilead. The three drugs that make up Victarvi are Victegravir in 50 milligrams, M-Tricidabine 200 milligrams, and Tanofavir alethenamide, also known as TAF, in 25 milligrams. I believe there's a different dosage as well, but that's the dosage that I was taking. And this is what the pill looks like. And there is the bottle for your reference. Okay, so Victarvi can be taken with or without food, which is nice. Common listed side effects include but are not limited to depression, abnormal dreams, headache, dizziness, tiredness, gas, diarrhea, rash, and the third drug that I mentioned, Tanofavir alethenamide, is what is called an integrase strand transfer inhibitor or INSTI. Not that important to know exactly what that is, but just know that it has been linked to some weight gain. Now, I have to say, I may or may not have experienced some or all of these side effects from Victarvi, but honestly, there's no scientific way for me to prove that if I experienced any of these symptoms, that it was because of Victarvi directly. These are all symptoms I experienced on occasion anyway. But I can tell you that I didn't notice a significant increase or change to symptoms in my life. So it's safe to say that Victarvi had a negligible impact, if any impact on me, except for one symptom. But I'll get to that once we cover Victarvi and Duvato. So this is my spiel on the weight gain aspect, because I know that's a concern for a lot of you. Have I gained weight while taking Victarvi? Yes, emphatically. I've gained the most weight that I've ever gained in my life. While on Victarvi, I gained a whopping 40 pounds of fat at the peak of it. But here's the thing. During this time, the pandemic was happening. Lockdowns were in effect. I lost my very active job where I was on my feet eight to 10 hours a day, sweating, hustling, working hard. I was bartending and you might not associate that with like really hard work, but I was constantly sweating. I was constantly my heart rate was elevated. I was running around because I was also taking tables and making drinks for the whole restaurant. So I was I know I was burning a ton of calories with that job. Gyms were closed. I had anxiety. I had depression. My diet went to shit, to be honest. My supplementation of vitamins, et cetera, also went to shit. I'm also a few years older now. So my metabolism, you know, might have naturally also slowed down with age as it tends to do. These are all things on their own without Victarvi would contribute to weight gain, for sure. But would it be easy to blame it on Victarvi? Of course. But are there more likely factors in my life that contributed to my weight gain? Definitely. Also, what I can tell you is in 2019 before the pandemic, while taking Victarvi, I was able to prep for and compete in a pro natural men's physique bodybuilding competition. I was able to get my body fat down to about four percent body fat, like leaner than lean naturally. So even if Victarvi was impacting my weight gain, it's clearly nowhere near impossible to lose body fat, let alone maintain it. If you so choose, if you, you know, structure your life in a way that will lend itself to being able to control your body fat. OK, on to Dovado. Quick reminder, if you are enjoying this video, please remember to like this video by clicking that like button down below. OK, so Dovado. Dovado is a two drug, one pill, ARV medication also taken once a day. The pharmaceutical company that makes this drug is Vive Health Care. The two drugs that make up Dovado are Dahlutegravir in 50 milligrams and Lemivudin in 300 milligrams. There might be another dosage that I'm unaware of, but that's the dosage that I'm taking. And this is what the pill looks like. It's maybe slightly larger than Victarvi, but barely. It's not really noticeable. And here is the bottle. Dovado can also be taken with or without food and looking at the side effects. All the common side effects are basically essentially exactly the same as Victarvi. Depression, abnormal dreams, headache, dizziness, tiredness, gas, diarrhea, rash and on and on. And the first drug in Dovado that I mentioned, Dahlutegravir, is also an integrase strand transfer inhibitor, INSTI. So therefore also a possibility of weight gain. Now, taking it back again to the weight gain, starting this year, 2023, I finally got back on my fitness regimen. It's been a slow, steady, increasing progress, nothing too crazy all at once. I've been slowly increasing the intensity of my workouts. And in the past month or so, I've been introducing cardio as well and increasing the intensity and the duration of my cardio. I can tell you that I've noticed a significant improvement to my body shape. My muscles are starting to develop again. And very recently, I'm starting to see my waist starting to shrink. And when I pinch my body fat for the subcutaneous body fat, that's the fat that's directly under your skin. I'm noticing that it's starting to get thinner and thinner and thinner like in different parts of my body. So that's a really good sign for me. I'm really like heartened to be able to to see that finally. And as far as my actual weight is concerned, it's fairly steady at or just below 200 pounds. But I think because of the rapid muscle growth, I think I have, you know, muscle memory, so it's initially it's normal for your muscles to grow rather quickly and then sort of level off and then slowly grow from there on with that initial bump in muscle mass, along with the steady body fat percentage decrease, I think it's to be expected that my, my actual weight is kind of staying the same time will tell. But in the mirror, I can definitely tell you that I'm noticing a difference. And also when I put my clothes on, I'm starting to see a positive change in that respect as well. Clothes are starting to fit a little, little better. They're not as tight as they were before, especially around the waist. If you'd like to see more content of me documenting my fitness journey back to bodybuilding rave status, let me know in the comments below. I'm happy to revisit that now that I'm starting to get my momentum back again. But the bigger factor that really pushed me over the edge to consider switching from big Tarvi to Devato is my struggle with gas. I have always had gas and gastrointestinal issues growing up. I even had a camera put down my throat at one point to take a look at my stomach because I had so many issues in my stomach as well. And they did find a ton of white bumps lining my stomach, but they didn't know what was causing it. They didn't know what it was. So there was really nothing that they were willing or able to do about it. And I've just done my best to cope with it. However, in the past few years, gradually I've noticed more and more gas. It's more gas and it's more consistent and constant, really. And so at home, I'm always pretty much releasing gas in one way or another, belching or the other way. And my boyfriend and Duke have to deal with it. And I mean, for the most part, we kind of laugh and joke about it. But it's kind of gotten to the point now where it's starting to really affect my ability to function publicly, where I kind of have to like I kind of dread if I'm if I am feeling a lot of gas, how I'm going to relieve myself in public, if it's loud, things like that. I also dread, you know, when I travel, having to go on a plane, I'm like, oh my God, please don't let me be gassy if I have to go on this plane. And then with the pressure change, like that's changing everything inside my body, it's it can be really uncomfortable if not painful sometimes. So I've done all kinds of things with my diet before you all chime in. I've done all kinds of things with my diet and supplementation and probiotics and all these things, but it's really, really, really hard to really keep it in check. So I thought, why not try Dovato and see if there's any positive change? Even a slight difference would be like hallelujah. Also, since a two drug regimen, instead of three drugs like Victoria V, it's theoretically less toxic. As I've heard multiple doctors tell me, I don't really understand. To be honest, I confess the reason why that would make it less toxic going from three drugs to two drugs, because I don't know. That's just not enough of a reason for me because, hey, if if one drug and a two drug regimen is toxic and one drug and a three drug regimen is toxic, then they're both equally toxic. So I don't really understand that, but that's what I've been told. Anyway, tangent with that said, I have been taking Dovato now for about three weeks and I haven't noticed any immediate differences, but it's very early on. So I wasn't expecting to notice anything anyway. Next week, I go to the doctor to do my regular blood work in my labs and that will be after one month of taking Dovato. So I'm really looking forward to see if there is any noticeable difference in my labs in the lab results that I get. I'll get a chance to see if the medication is really having a measurable impact on my body and at least the ways that it's measured through blood work. That will be very interesting to find out. And once I get those results, I'm happy to share those with you all in a video as well. Unfortunately, I still haven't made progress with Kaiser and being able to record my doctor's visits. I mentioned that probably at the beginning of the year. And that's when I was really pushing it in that first quarter, those first three months of 2023, I pushed and pushed and I finally got a little bit of traction. And basically it was like, okay, well, if you really want to do this, you need to go to our legal team and communicate with them. And they sent me this really long packet of just pages and pages and pages of legal stuff that I'm supposed to like go through and comprehend. And then once that happens, reach out to legal and take it from there and see what happens. I honestly haven't had time to sit down and go through all that. And it's really daunting. And I don't know if that's kind of part of their game is to like, let's overload Rafe so that he kind of like gives up. But but I'm definitely intending to sit down and sift through all those papers and do my due diligence or really push this because I know how important and impactful the HIV doctor visit vlogs have been and can be for you all. So I'm definitely going to push for that. All right, fam. So this is my take on switching from Big Tarby to Delvato. Check out the links in the description box below this video to follow me on socials and even make a donation. If you like, please like this video, subscribe if you haven't already hit that bell so you get a notification every time a new video comes out. And please share this with anyone you think might fight value in this content until next time. Cheers.