POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: mw2006 on August 15, 2006, 03:00:58 am
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n
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mw,
Hiv cannot be diagnosed through symptoms. Symptoms or the lack of symptoms means nothing when it comes to hiv infection and only the appropriate test at the appropriate time will inform you of your hiv status.
As you report the condom broke while you were the receptive partner, you do need to test. It is unclear whether or not you used a condom while you were the insertive partner during anal intercourse - but if you did, you had no risk for that particular activity as condoms protect.
The vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by six weeks, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days. A test at this time would be an excellent indication of your hiv status, but a negative result at this point must be confirmed at the 12-13 week point.
You would be wise to also test for the other STIs two weeks or so after your encounter - including a throat swab. The other STIs are MUCH more easily transmitted than hiv. Hiv is a fragile, difficult to transmit virus and exposure does not automatically result in successful transmission.
Do yourself a favour and don't symptom hunt or surf the internet for hiv information. This site is one of the few that relies on scientific, fact based information as reported in scientific/medical peer reviewed journals and you'd be wise to read the information here and discount the rest. Please read the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0) and follow the Lessons links found there.
And please also read through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can make sure that both you and your partners are using them correctly. A correctly used condom rarely breaks.
Good luck with the testing and feel free to let us know your results - but forget about listing your symptoms. They mean nothing where hiv is concerned and you won't hear any different here.
Ann