Reports have emerged of how Kenyan women are going at extreme lengths to enhance their body image.
One such method, according to reports by The Star, is the use of antiretrovirals (ARVs), where women use the drug to gain weight. ARVs are medication used to treat HIV.
According to one woman, identified as Monica Njeri, though not her real name, she first got wind of the idea from a private Facebook group.
Njeri claimed that she was hesitant about using the ARVs at first noting that it was risky and illegal.
Furthermore, she had no idea where to get the drugs. However, she claimed that a friend of hers managed to convince her to join the practice.
“I was willing to try anything to get my desired weight,” she stated.
The friend referred Njeri to her pharmacist friend, who was HIV-positive and would sell the drugs to group members at Ksh5,000.
One year later after she started using the drugs, her general weight increased.
“I was 49kg before I started using ARVs. I am 60kg now,” she divulged.
She added that she would only stop taking the ARVs when she hits her desired weight of between 70 and 75kg.
According to her, the weight gain would enable her to attract a man of her dreams, “A rich, tall, buff, light guy will get attracted to me and we get married."
However, HIV-Aids specialist Dr Patrick Gichohi stated that when a person takes the drugs, they will experience changes in the distribution of body fat, which women may mistake for weight gain.
Gichohi cautioned women on the use of ARVS to gain weight stating that the side effects were dire.
“Some antiretroviral drugs like Efavirenz may cause psychiatric problems, while protease inhibitors (a class of ARV drugs used to stop the replication of the HIV virus) may raise your levels of cholesterol,” he disclosed.
Some of the long-term side effects include kidney, liver or pancreas damage, and Abacavir hypersensitivity reaction, which results in fever, vomiting, and/or nausea, high blood sugar, diabetes and high lactic acid levels in the blood.