Thank you for all you do

[scarystuff]

I am a new member and have found your site to be very educational.  There is one thing I wanted to bring to your attention prior to my question.  In your "Welcome" it states, and I quote, "However, there have been case reports highlighting one case of female-to-female transmission of HIV via cunnilingus and another case of female-to-male transmission of HIV via cunnilingus. Both of these cases involved transmission from receptive partner (the one receiving oral sex) to the insertive partner (the one performing oral sex). There haven't been any documented cases of HIV transmission from the insertive partner to the receptive partner."  This is somewhat confusing to me since I thought the insertive person was the person receiving and the receptive person was the one giving oral.  Do you understand by reading this where I am concerned?  In this comment it states that the receptive person is the one receiving oral. 

Now for my question.  I performed oral sex, fingered one time, and kissed a stripper at a strip club in August of 2005.  12 weeks later I tested negative for Hep. A, B, C, Syp. and HIV-1.  I have been concerned with my immune system since I have had a heart problem all my life (pacemaker with many operations), and had staph infection develop in 1988 (during surgery), and had to stay at the hospital for 6 weeks with IV's and antibiotics.  Is this enough to weaken my immune system and cause me to seroconvert late?  Should my 12 week test be considered conclusive, or should I retest at the 6 month mark?  Dr. Bob at the Body.com stated that my test was conclusive and no further testing was warranted.  What do you think?

[Morgan]

Scarystuff,

As long as you're not on any immunosuppressive medications your test is conclusive.

Morgan

[Andy Velez]

I agree with the others. Your negative test result is reliable. You are HIV negative. Period. End of story. 

But that's not a surprise since none of those activities put you at risk for HIV transmission to begin with.

Cheers,

[scarystuff]

Andy, why do you think some sites state that oral sex is a risk?  I know the welcome thread states the two different episodes, but are these the only two?  If so, is it based off of these episodes, or is it something that HIV specialists just assume might be a way of transmission even though history has not proven it occured? 

Also, with immunosuppression drugs, do you have a certain amount of time you need to be off of them before they will not interfere with the HIV test, or is it something where if you have taken them ever in your life that they will alwasys impact antibody development? 

[Morgan]

Scarystuff,

We don't even try to figure out why other sites post what they post.  We just focus on providing accurate information rooted in the latest science of hiv transmission.

Immunosuppressive drugs do not interfere with the test, they delay your bodies production of antibodies which are what the test looks for.  You do not have to go off the drugs.... you just need to allow more time for you body to produce a detectable amount of antibodies.

I assume you haven't undergone transplant surgery so this would not apply to you. 

Again, your test is reliable and you are hiv negative.

Morgan

[Ann]

Scary,

The bottom line here is that you never had a risk of hiv infection in the incident you bring to us in the first place. You can take your test results as accurate. You don't need further testing.

As for the immunosuppressant drugs, even most people who are currently on them will seroconvert and test positive by the end of the official window period. Forget about that anyway, as you didn't have a risk to start with.

You do not need further testing over this incident. However, as any sexually active adult should be having regular, routine sexual health care check ups, at least once a year, mark your calendar for this time next year so you can keep up with annual testing. This is what any responsible adult would be doing. Look after your health.

And use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse and you will avoid hiv infection. When you use condoms consistently, you can fully expect your routine hiv test to continue to return negative results.

Ann

[scarystuff]

I was curious to know about the seroconversions that occured past three months?  Were there only two, which were occupational exposures, and occured in the middle 90's prior to the updated testing methods?  In your opinion, is this why the CDC states that a six month test might need to be taken (in high risk exposures?)?

[RapidRod]

First of all the CDC doesn't say 6 months for a high risk exposure. It says, for occupational exposures to a KNOWN infected person it may be up to 6 months of testing. It's all based on case by case depending on what type of exposure.