PrEP Lab & Follow-Up Schedule

Before your first dose or injection, the CDC recommends a baseline workup so your clinician can confirm PrEP is safe and right for you. That means an HIV test — an antigen/antibody test, plus an HIV-1 RNA test, which is required before the cabotegravir injection — to be sure you're HIV-negative, since PrEP is only for people who don't have HIV. It also means kidney-function testing (creatinine/eGFR) for the oral pills, hepatitis B serology (the pills also suppress hep B, so your status matters), a hepatitis C screen, and screening for syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. A pregnancy test is done where relevant, and for the F/TAF pill (Descovy) a lipid panel and weight are checked. Getting all of this done up front is what lets PrEP start safely — this tool lays out the list, but your clinician orders the tests.

Because PrEP only works, and is only safe, for people who are HIV-negative. The daily pills and the injection each contain medicines that on their own are not enough to treat HIV — so if someone unknowingly has HIV and keeps taking PrEP, the virus can develop resistance to those drugs, which narrows future treatment options. That's why the CDC schedule builds in an HIV test at every visit: every 3 months for the pills, and before every injection for cabotegravir (using both an antigen/antibody and an HIV-1 RNA test). If a check comes due and you can't get tested, don't just keep going on your own — contact your clinician before your next dose or injection. Staying HIV-negative, and proving it at each visit, is the single rule that keeps PrEP working.

It depends on which PrEP you're on. For the oral pills — especially F/TDF (Truvada or generic) — kidney function (eGFR) is checked at baseline and then roughly every 6 to 12 months: about every 6 months if you're over 50 or your baseline eGFR is under 90, and at least yearly otherwise, sooner if you're at higher risk. The cabotegravir injection isn't cleared through the kidneys the same way, so routine kidney monitoring generally isn't needed with it. STI screening (syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia) is recommended every 3 to 6 months on any form of PrEP, because PrEP prevents HIV but not other sexually transmitted infections — many people find PrEP visits are a convenient time to stay on top of full STI testing. Your clinician tailors the exact intervals to your situation.

Yes. On the daily pills (F/TDF or F/TAF), you have a follow-up visit with an HIV test every 3 months, STI screening every 3–6 months, kidney checks about every 6–12 months for F/TDF, hep-C periodically, and — for F/TAF — cholesterol and weight about yearly. The cabotegravir injection runs on its own rhythm: you get the shot, a second shot 1 month later, and then an injection every 2 months. An HIV test (antigen/antibody plus RNA) is done before each of those injection visits, and STI screening still happens every 3–6 months, but routine kidney monitoring isn't part of it. The planner above builds whichever schedule matches the type you pick, mapped to your start date, so you can see the actual dates rather than the intervals in the abstract.

A missed visit isn't a catastrophe, but it does need attention rather than waiting it out. Because every PrEP visit includes an HIV test, missing one means going without that confirmation — so the safest move is to contact your clinic to reschedule promptly, and to keep using condoms if there's any gap in your protection. If you also stopped taking your pills or missed an injection, tell your provider: with the pills, protection fades within days to weeks of stopping, and restarting has its own ramp-up time (see our protection-onset guide); with the injection, the medicine lingers for months, which is exactly why the HIV testing is so important around any gap. None of this is a reason to feel you've failed at PrEP — it's routine to your clinician, who can get you back on schedule. This tool shows the intended dates; your provider handles the catch-up plan.

Yes. This planner runs entirely in your browser: the PrEP type and start date you enter are used on your own device to compute your schedule and are never sent to a server, saved to any account, or shared — close the tab and they're gone. There are no accounts, no tracking of your inputs, and no storage. The output is an educational schedule built from published CDC guidance (the 2021 PrEP Clinical Practice Guideline and CDC's current clinical monitoring tables); it isn't medical advice, a prescription, or a diagnosis, and it doesn't replace your clinician, who sets your exact tests and timing.