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Author Topic: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!  (Read 8149 times)

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Offline tangocharlie99

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DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« on: September 16, 2011, 08:30:22 am »
Hello,

I had a sexual exposure more than 6 months ago and wanted to be sure and had a HIV Test. It came out NEGATIVE. Now I read it here that DNA PCR is not conclusive.

As my exposure is more than the window period, is the DNA PCR test conclusive? Should I get retested?

Please suggest me!!!

Offline Ann

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    • Num is sum qui mentiar tibi?
Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2011, 09:41:58 am »
TC,

Why would you get the more expensive DNA test when all you needed was an antibody test? That makes no sense.

DNA testing is not recommended for diagnosis as it has a high rate of false positives.

If you are in doubt of your hiv status, you need to get an antibody test, not a PCR.

Ann
Condoms are a girl's best friend

Condom and Lube Info  

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Offline tangocharlie99

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2011, 09:52:19 am »
Ann,

So the NEGATIVE I received might be a false negative?

Please confirm!!!

Thanks.

Offline Ann

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2011, 10:01:47 am »
TC,

Did I say false negative? No, I said false positive.

However, some people manage to go to undetectable levels of the virus on their own and it could conceivably happen in six months time. While one is unlikely to get an undetectable reading on a PCR test in the first few months as this is when most people have extremely high levels in their blood, if there has been a real risk, your best bet is to go with an antibody test.

Who on earth let you test using PCR without an antibody test anyway? Absolutely not the standard of care.

What made you test in the first place?

Again, if you are in doubt of your hiv status, go get an antibody test done and get it over with. Although you are unlikely to test positive after having an undetectable PCR, if you had a real risk, I'd be more comfortable with you having the standard antibody test. Hiv is nothing to guess about.

Ann
Condoms are a girl's best friend

Condom and Lube Info  

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Offline tangocharlie99

  • Member
  • Posts: 7
Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2011, 04:58:50 pm »
Ann,

I had a fingering episode with a CSW in the US with a non-bleeding cut on the finger. The CDC helpline told me that HIV can be transmitted through wounds. So I am trying to get tested.

Offline Andy Velez

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2011, 05:22:43 pm »
The CDC person you spoke with was just following the party line as far as risk. Theoretically anything other than sex with your own hand is potentially risky.

But in the real world of HIV we know that sexually only unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse are confirmed risks for HIV transmission.

You are worrying needlessly and there is no need for testing nor for further concern.
Andy Velez

Offline Ann

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2011, 09:26:35 pm »
TC,

If you had PCR testing over fingering, stop wasting our time. You did not have a risk for hiv infection and you never needed antibody testing, let alone PCR testing.

Get a grip. You don't have hiv and never would through fingering.

Ann
Condoms are a girl's best friend

Condom and Lube Info  

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Offline tangocharlie99

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2011, 11:48:34 pm »
Ann,

Does your answer consider that I had a cut which was stinging/paining but not bleeding. So is it a open wound? Please tell me if these details also keep your answer the same as before.

Please explain me as I am completely unaware. It would be of great help to my life.

Thank you for your time time and concern Ann.

Offline jkinatl2

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2011, 01:10:46 am »
Ann,

Does your answer consider that I had a cut which was stinging/paining but not bleeding. So is it a open wound? Please tell me if these details also keep your answer the same as before.

Please explain me as I am completely unaware. It would be of great help to my life.

Thank you for your time time and concern Ann.

Under no circumstances can HIV be transmitted though fingering.

Even your "unique" or "extraordinary" ones.

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

-Kimberly Page-Shafer, PhD, MPH

Welcome Thread

Offline tangocharlie99

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HIV Exposure Risk!!!
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2011, 04:20:30 pm »
Dear Ann or Andy,

This is a generic question that many people ask on various forums and websites. What if a male/female has genital secretions on their hands and use those hands to put a condom for intercourse? So would that secretions be a risk as they go inside the condom and stay on the penis while the condom is on and transmit HIV? Please give me a scientific reason why this cannot happen.

This would be of great help to understand the transmission process more clearly.

Thanks a ton!!!


Offline Rev. Moon

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Re: HIV Exposure Risk!!!
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2011, 05:46:13 pm »
Your questions will not be answered until you return to your original thread.  Please do not start new topics each time that you have a question. Thanks.
"I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else."

Offline tangocharlie99

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2011, 07:10:04 pm »
Dear Ann or Andy,

This is a generic question that many people ask on various forums and websites. What if a male/female has genital secretions on their hands and use those hands to put a condom for intercourse? So would that secretions be a risk as they go inside the condom and stay on the penis while the condom is on and transmit HIV? Please give me a scientific reason why this cannot happen.

This would be of great help to understand the transmission process more clearly.

Thanks a ton!!!

Offline tangocharlie99

  • Member
  • Posts: 7
Re: HIV Exposure Risk!!!
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2011, 07:13:24 pm »
Sorry, I did not know that. I returned to my original thread.

Offline jkinatl2

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Re: DNA PCR Test after 6 Months!!! Please Help!!!
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2011, 07:58:49 pm »
If it were possible for HIV to be transmitted through the act of putting on or taking off a condom, then certainly HIV would be far more infectious than we currently know it to be.


Two things. One, the fluids lubricating a female's genitalia are produced primarily through the Bartholis Gland, located just inside the vagina. These lubricating fluids have no infectious HIV present, and are no more harmful than tears or sweat.

Deep within the cervic, a much thicker mucousal area DOES have infectious fluids present in sufficient quantity to infect. This is why a male CAN get HIV from a female, though the risk is comparatively small compared to a female's risk when a male is HIV positive.

Second: The few seconds is takes for your haves to leave the interior of a body cavity and affix or remove a condom are plenty of time for any potential;y infectious HIV particles to become inert. HIV is a very fragile virus, easily destroyed by the slightest changes in pH or temperature or exposure to oxygen.

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

-Kimberly Page-Shafer, PhD, MPH

Welcome Thread

 


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