HIV & sexual health
Living with HIV
Day-to-day HIV care in an ordinary family practice, with specialist consultation when a question needs it — rather than a separate service you travel to.
How this works
For most people who are established on treatment and doing well, HIV care is chronic-disease care: a prescription that continues, bloodwork on a schedule, and someone paying attention to the rest of your health. That is family medicine, and it is what we do here.
When something needs a specialist — a complicated regimen change, resistance, treatment that is not working, a co-infection, a pregnancy — we consult one and share the care rather than handing you off and losing the thread.
We provide HIV primary care, with specialist consultation when a question needs it. We do not claim the title itself — it means something specific in Ontario, and overstating it would not help you.
What that includes
- Continuing your antiretroviral treatment, including transfers of care
- Viral load and CD4 monitoring on a schedule that suits where you are
- Bloodwork collected in the building rather than at a separate lab
- Screening and vaccination appropriate to living with HIV
- Sexual health care and STI screening
- Support with drug coverage and the paperwork behind it
- Mental health support and referral
- Specialist consultation and shared care when a question needs it
- Everything else a family doctor does — this is not a single-issue clinic
Undetectable = untransmittable
The scientific consensus is that a person living with HIV who is on treatment and has a sustained undetectable viral load does not transmit HIV to sexual partners. That is not a hedge or an encouragement; it is what the evidence shows, and it has changed a great deal about how people live.
Being precise about what U=U covers
The consensus statement is about sexual transmission, and it depends on sustained viral suppression — which is why staying on treatment and keeping up with monitoring is the part that matters.
It does not automatically extend to breastfeeding or chestfeeding, or to shared injection equipment. Those are separate conversations with their own evidence, and we would rather have them with you than let a slogan do the work.
What it costs
Appointments and monitoring are billed to OHIP. Antiretroviral medication is covered for most people in Ontario through a public drug program — the Ontario Drug Benefit, the Trillium Drug Program, or OHIP+ for people 24 and under without private coverage — and many private plans cover it too.
If your coverage has lapsed, changed, or never existed, say so early. An interruption in treatment matters clinically, and sorting out coverage is a normal part of the visit rather than something to be embarrassed about.
Kind Pharmacy on the ground floor handles the dispensing side — continuity of supply, interaction checking against everything else you take, and coverage paperwork. Kind Clinic and Kind Pharmacy are separate businesses under common ownership. You can fill your prescription anywhere.
Kind Pharmacy →Common questions
I was diagnosed somewhere else. Can I move my care here?
Yes. Bring whatever records you have, or none — we can request them. The priority is that your treatment does not get interrupted while paperwork catches up.
I’ve been out of care for a while.
That is common and it is not something you will be lectured about. Restarting is a clinical process with a clear first step, usually bloodwork and a conversation about what got in the way, so that whatever it was does not do it again.
Will people at the clinic know why I’m there?
Your record is confidential and is not disclosed outside your circle of care without your consent. Practically: this is a general family practice, so being here says nothing about you, the name on the building is deliberately non-descriptive, and appointments are not labelled by reason at the front desk.
Do you test for HIV as well?
Can I bring someone with me?
Yes, to any appointment, for any reason. If at some point it would be useful to speak to you alone, we will say so and explain why.