Long Term Survivor

Why I Wiped HIV Off My Face

Queerty contributor Mark S. King gets candid about the physical effects of long-term HIV survival – and the lengths he has gone to correct them. He chronicles his treatments and their results in a video, below.

Mark-757-750x349

Some years ago, I told someone that I was HIV positive before I agreed to his invitation for a date. “Yeah, I know,” he casually replied, and then he looked a little embarrassed, as if he shouldn’t have said it. It was too late. I knew exactly what he meant. He could tell my HIV status by my face.

I had The Look. The sunken, wasted cheeks of someone living with HIV. It became a common manifestation in the 1980s and persisted until the medications that caused the condition, known as facial lipoatrophy (or facial wasting), were changed or abandoned for better treatments.

Today, facial wasting is almost exclusively limited to long-term HIV survivors who used medications like d4T and DDI more than 20 years ago.

I’m one of those long-term survivors. When my symptoms began to appear, it meant that the choice whether to share my status, as an activist or on a personal level, had been taken away. My HIV was written across my face for all to see.

I am proud of my history advocating for and living with HIV. But as uncomfortable as it may be to admit, it’s a lot easier to live openly as a person with HIV when you don’t look like it.

I felt ashamed of my appearance, and then conflicted. For someone who has been fighting so hard to reduce HIV stigma, what was there to be ashamed of, exactly? Many of the physical signs of HIV – from weight loss to fat redistribution to facial wasting – are worn as battle scars, if not badges of honor, by thousands of people living with HIV. My very survival is mirrored in my physicality. What’s wrong with that?

Related Post Also By Mark King: What Poz Guys Need Negative Guys To Know

Eventually, I realized that correcting my facial wasting was no different from improving my T cell counts. I wasn’t making a political statement; I was improving my health and well-being.

And so, I began a journey of multiple visits to Dr. Gerald Pierone in Vero Beach, Florida, to have various “facial filler” products injected into my face. It wasn’t easy trusting a physician with this. My face may have been sagging, but it’s the only one I have. And God knows I didn’t want to end up looking like a Real Housewife.

It was only after careful research that I felt comfortable in having found an experienced and empathetic specialist in Dr. Pierone. (I encourage anyone interested in facial fillers to do their homework before choosing a provider.)

I chronicled my journey through video blogs that span more than six years. They include the treatments available for facial lipoatrophy, information about patient assistance programs for temporary fillers, and the dramatic results of permanent fillers, with plenty of “before and after” footage along the way.

 

The supportive response to the videos has taught me, once again, that the things about which we may be the most ashamed are the very things that can help someone else, if only we allow ourselves the courage to speak up about them.

I realize that the answer to HIV stigma is not to simply wipe away any evidence that we may be living with the virus (beauty may be skin deep, but stigma runs far deeper). This has been an exercise in healing for me, and not an effort to escape the realities of my life and my health.

And although no one loves the aging process, mine is tempered by the knowledge that I have survived when many have not.

It is gratitude, nothing more, that is written across my face.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated