Simon & Jordan, close mates who use PrEP

They met on a dating app and have been good mates ever since.

Simon is a teacher currently completing additional night study at Uni.  Jordan works from home 4 days a week in IT support for a large logistics and distribution company.

Both guys have separate casual relationships and enjoy live music, online gaming together, and following music festivals around the country. They’re both fit and healthy, have packed social calendars and both use PrEP to help manage their own sexual health.

Talking with strangers - about sex

Talking about sex is not something they make a point of doing with people outside their social circle, and they’re both tired of having to 'always be the constant educator' when explaining why people use PrEP to manage their health.

Talking with strangers - about PrEP

Recently, Simon's income increased, so he wanted to increase the level of his Income Protection insurance, provided by his employer's super fund, to match.

The super fund had one of their advisers visit Simon's workplace to run some seminars and take care of any applications for increased insurance.

When Simon started an application for more insurance cover, it wasn't long before he ran into some surprising and increasingly uncomfortable questions about his health, and he was asked to ‘list any and all medications’ he was currently taking.

Forced to be 'the educator' again

• Simon quickly found himself caught mid-conversation having to explain why he was taking a medication called PrEP, when he wasn’t sick?
• The super fund’s adviser — clearly unfamiliar with PrEP medication and the reasons for its use — then ‘freaked out’ when the word 'HIV 'came up as part of the explanation. It wasn't long before Simon wished this entire conversation about increasing his insurance had never even started.
• What made this particular situation worse is Simon is currently working in a faith-based religious school.

While Simon decided to keep his relationship status undisclosed, (it's nobody's business anyway) he now began to develop a nagging question about just how safe his personal information would be with this adviser, and whether his employer might ‘somehow’ find out more than they should - what a mess and what a terrible feeling.

So what happened next?

That afternoon Simon texted Jordan about the super fund insurance disaster and how he ‘had to be the PrEP educator again’.

Jordan did what IT support people are great at.

• Jordan googled the search phrase, ‘can people using PrEP qualify for Income Protection’ and he found unusualrisks.com.au and their article Good News for Australians taking PrEP for HIV prevention.
• Later that night Simon clicked the link Jordan shared and learned more about Life Insurances for people using PrEP at the Unusual Risks website.

Life suddenly became so much easier

That night Simon began an email conversation with unusualrisks.com.au to find out what was possible for his personal situation.

• Simon asked for a quote for new Income Protection insurance that matched his new level of income.
• He emailed some questions about different levels of cover, and learned he could also pay the policy premiums from his super fund automatically.
• Once he understood the process he decided to go ahead.
• All the paperwork was completed online - from the application to the electronic signatures.

And all without ever having to speak with a stranger who needed to be educated about PrEP.

It took a few days (and a copy of his recent blood test supplied by his GP) but Simon is now back to his old self of being one happy and confident guy.

Life gets better when it's sorted

Simon now has;

• a professional relationship with a Financial Adviser who understands PrEP, looking out for him
• a better quality Income Protection policy - still paid from his super fund, and
• is taking PrEP as normal - and living his best life.

If you’re like Simon and using PrEP to better manage your health, whether that's for lifestyle or occupational reasons - or both - we’d love to help you get your Life Insurance and Income Protection sorted too.

You can work with us email-to-email, phone-to-phone, or screen-to-screen (even old-school face-to-face if you like too. )

If you want to learn more about PrEP, read our blog article here, browse througgh our PrEP Faqs and make sure to check out Governments Health Direct, PrEP Access Now, and Ending HIV, then speak with a GP you can trust or your local Sexual Health Clinic.