POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: stanchevstan on December 15, 2011, 01:49:13 pm
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Hello friends , 1st lets say that's a nice forum , full with very helpful information.Now here's my story.5 weeks ago i had an incident with a sex worker in South East Asia.The case is that the condom broke during vaginal interourse and I was unprotected for maybe 1 or 2 minutes.3 days after this I woke up with fever of 37.5 and very strong pain in arms and legs and also a headache.There were also some strange purple spots on my inner sides of palms near the fingers , which still are still there , diahriaa for 2 days.A week later when I got home the fever was still existant - 37.2 ( starts in the morning throughout the day and in the evening it's 36.8.I went to the doctor , she said i had sore throat and gave me some antibiotics , which didn't help.Today , 5 weeks after exposure I still have unexplained fever , sore throat , 3 more days diahriaa , white tongue , maybe my skin gets red now and then ( no distinc rash , just i see it's red).I'm asking , taking into account this symptoms , can you tell it's a Hiv infection , and also if the symptoms are present for so long , does it mean antibodies should be there if it's hiv?I had tested 25 days after exposure with INSTI antibody test - it was negative.What is the chance that it's false negative?Thanks in advance.
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Despite your many physical symptoms which you are mistakenly attributing to HIV/ARS, your risk during that recent incident was a very low one. HIV is not an easy virus to transmit. It is significantly harder to accomplish from female to male than it is the other way around.
This was a single and very brief happening during which you were protected until the condom broke.
Taking all of that into consideration, when you test for a conclusive result at 3 months I would expect you to test negative.
As for your symptoms, if they persist I suggest you discuss them with your doctor. They are not in any way HIV specific.
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Thank you for your opinion.But I'm still worried , it's very unusual and never happened to me before , all day now I think about it .Is there anyone else here who had experienced such symptoms and what the outcome was - positive , negative ? Thank you .
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Thank you for your opinion.But I'm still worried , it's very unusual and never happened to me before , all day now I think about it .Is there anyone else here who had experienced such symptoms and what the outcome was - positive , negative ? Thank you .
Use the search function, there are thousands of the same questions.
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Stan,
This forum is full of people who had every symptoms imaginable, but yet tested conclusively hiv negative. I have yet to see the insertive partner (that's you) end up hiv positive following a condom break and I do not expect you to be the first.
You are much more likely to have picked up one of the other, more easily transmitted STIs than you are to have picked up hiv from this incident. Make sure you also have a full panel of STI screening. Many of the other STIs can be present with no obvious symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to be tested.
Here's what you need to know in order to avoid hiv infection:
You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL sexually transmitted infections together.
To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with an STI. Sex without a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.
Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence. A correctly used condom rarely breaks, so make sure you do the reading so you can avoid breakage in future.
Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.
If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results.
Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv.
Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!
Ann
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Ann ,
Thank you for your answer.I'm almost sure i was infected because all this happened after a risky contact , and it was a very long ( 4 weeks) illness i never ecperienced before.In 3 days I'll make another test at 6 weeks ( 38 days) to check my status .
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Stan,
If I had a penny every time someone was convinced they were infected after a low risk incident - just because they coincidentally got sick - and ultimately tested conclusively hiv negative, I'd be rich enough to retire to Hawaii and buy a huge beach-front property by now.
Stop trying to diagnose yourself and go see a doctor instead. As I said earlier, make sure you are tested for all the OTHER, more EASILY transmitted STIs as well. You're much more likely to have picked up something like chlamydia following a condom break than you are to pick up hiv.
If fully expect you to test hiv negative.
Ann
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Hi , it's me again.Today I made 2nd Insti antibody test 39 days(approx. 6 weeks) after exposure and it came back negative.I'm now in some way relieved though I know 3 month test is the one that is conclusive.It's gonna be a little more waiting and hope.I wanna thank you people who gave me information and courage so far!
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Well that is a very encouraging result. Given that all but the smallest number of those who are going to seroconvert will do so within 4-6 weeks after a risk, a negative now means it is likely you will continue to test negative at 3 months.
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Hi people it's me again.A little development to my story - some days ago i made a new blood test- 60 days after exposure ( blood from vien ) for Hiv , siphilis , chlamidia and hep. B - all came back negative.I was very relieved and though i have to make the final hiv test after 1 month i start to believe everything is going to be ok.
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Good. As you have been told previously, your risk was a low-level one and the odds are in your favor that you will test negative.
Meanwhile during the waiting time to test you need to make a concerted effort to focus on other matters in your life. Doing that will make the waiting time pass much more easily. Really.
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Hi , just for the record , I made my last Hiv test at 3 months ( 85 days) after incident and it's negative.I wanna thank all of you who gave me correct and very useful information , it was very very helpful for me.And about the sypmtoms , i think i know what it was - " dengue fever " , which is very common in SE Asea and the sypmtoms are very similar - fever ,headache , strong joint pain ... So you are right - the symptoms can't tell you nothing , only the test will.Thank you once again.
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Well that is happy news. Get on with your life now and always remember to use condoms for vaginal and anal intercourse.
Cheers.