POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: circes on September 02, 2006, 07:46:11 pm
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Hi, I've been reading the forums for a few weeks now and just have to say what a fantastic job all of the moderators and advisors are doing. I have learnt so much from the information on this site.
About nearly 8 weeks ago I did somethig really stupid - something i don't normally do. I was very drunk and I'm not sure why i did it, possibly because i was upset at the time, i think it was stupid thing to do - but i gave a complete stranger a blow job and he came in my mouth. Normally i'm really careful - i have no idea what his status was either.
I've been searching this site for risks about giving oral sex, and everything seems to say that my risk was really low. anyway i got tested at 4 weeks after the incident and it was negative. I got tested for a whole range of STDs as well, and the results came back all negative.
I'm still feeling awful about what happend and I'm thinking of testing again this week, which would be the 8th week after it happend, but my question is - is there any point, would this really give me peace of mind - should i wait 4 more weeks, so i can be tested at the 12 week mark? ???
what would you advise? Thanks and best wishes,
circes
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While there have been a very, very small number of confirmed cases of transmission via giving oral, even those are questionable. There is much more supportive evidence from longterm studies of sero-dystonic couples which supports giving oral not being a risk.
So theoretically there is a risk. In actuality it seems to rarely occur and given how common a sexual act this is we would have known long before today if it was a real risk.
However, extremely low risk is not the same as no risk. Since ejaculation did occur orally, (and by the way your saliva has an inhibitory element which reduces the possibility of HIV transmission IF the guy was actually HIV positive), you'd probably feel better if you test at 13 weeks.
The average time to seroconversion is 22 days. So a negative at 4 weeks while not an all clear is certainly encouraging.
Re-test at 13 weeks and my expectation is that you will continue to test negative.
Good luck.
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Andy, thank you so much for your quick reply.
I am in the UK and I have seen some advice which suggests testing at 12 weeks. I am not sure if this is correct for my situation - would it make much difference if I tested at 12 weeks?
thanks
circes
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sorry, just to clarify - would you say its OK for me to test at 12 weeks, rather than 13 weeks.
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We recommend 13 weeks because that's CDC standard policy. But in many countries 12 weeks is the standard. And yes, if you test negative at 12 weeks you can consider that to be a reliable result.
Cheers,