Figure 2.

Viral load in semen and plasma in the absence of treatment (ie, at diagnosis) by weeks from estimated date of detectible infection (EDDI) for all study participants. The Loess method was used to generate smoothed curves for semen and plasma viral load (VL). Dots show individual VL values and the lines show the Loess smoothed fit. At enrollment and randomization, time from EDDI ranged from 2 to 14 weeks. Semen VL increased slightly in the initial weeks after EDDI (weeks 2–5), and then declined paralleling plasma VL, beginning 5 weeks from EDDI.