We all know that the internet is the Wild West of society, where nuance goes to die, and heated discourse travels like wildfire.
This week, the gay side of social media has been obsessed not just with the latest hot photos of Zane Phillips and Hudson Williams, but with one hot-button issue: PrEP belly.
Discourse around PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) — a highly effective medication used to prevent HIV — causing a little belly from bloating has started floating around, causing a stir on social media earlier this week.
The term “PrEP belly” seems to have cropped up almost out of nowhere on April 21, when people started commenting on celebrities like DJ John Summit looking like he had “PrEP belly,” people worrying that they have it, and other gay folks scratching their heads and asking X (formerly Twitter) what the term even means.
“WHAT is a PrEP belly,” DJ, influencer, and modern-day club kid Griffin Maxwell Brooks asked on X, alongside a crying emoji.
“Great now I’m worried about having prep belly,” another person commented on X, while someone else posted, “PrEP belly cannot be real... y'all must be kidding.”
There are even thin and muscular men posting photos of themselves asking if they have “PrEP belly,” and although there are people who are genuinely worried, there are others who are using the viral topic as an excuse to post thirst traps.
But is PrEP belly a real thing you should be worried about? Not really.
According to MISTR, a gay-owned and operated teleheath company that provides free online access to PrEP, HIV testing, and HIV care, the most common side effects of the medication are “nausea, gas, bloating, and sometimes diarrhea,” but these symptoms are usually temporary.
These symptoms usually fade away within the first two to four weeks after starting PrEP as your body adjusts, and there is no clinical evidence that suggests PrEP causes long-term damage to your gut health.
“It’s kind of like how some people feel a bit queasy when starting a new vitamin or supplement. Your system needs time to get used to it,” MISTR said on its website.
Someone else on social media pointed out that the whole thing was just supposed to be a joke, but the concept of “PrEP belly” has clearly broken containment and is being taken seriously by some parts of the internet.
“Uhm so this PrEP belly thing was supposed to be an nyc inside joke (particularly among the Manhattan gays),” @geeyanii wrote. “Like it wasnt supposed to be a thesis or a discussion point. It was supposed to be a joke. No science to it, no stigma, just a good old joke.”
Before long, the discourse moved on to people being worried that attributing bloating or a belly to using PrEP was dangerous, considering how life-saving the medication is, especially for gay men who died in huge numbers during the AIDs Crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
“not to be the friend that’s too woke but the whole ‘PrEP belly' thing just sounds like another way to deter gays from taking PrEP, which there’s already a weird stigma attached to it,” @touchnick wrote on X.
Brooks went back to X on April 23 and posted that being worried about “PrEP belly” makes you “sound like an anti-vaxxer” before making a TikTok video talking about his concern that this discourse could end up harming the gay community.
“I do think we need to be really careful creating stigma around a medication as important as PrEP, specifically in this current age of anti-intellectualism as it regards to medicine,” Brooks said in his video that already has more than 200,000 views.
“Like I think if the Republican Party was able to convince half the country that vaccines cause autism when they don’t, it feels like the distinct possibility that something as simple as like, ‘PrEP makes you a little bit bloated, therefore like kinda chopped’…could end up dissuading some insecure or uninformed little gay boy in a red state where sex ed is basically non existent, from taking PrEP, from taking HIV prevention medication.”
Hopefully, now internet discourse will move on to something more important, like who is the hottest Heated Rivalry star. You know, something that really needs to be discussed.
