Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
April 02, 2024, 08:30:54 am

Login with username, password and session length


Members
  • Total Members: 37617
  • Latest: NChio
Stats
  • Total Posts: 772997
  • Total Topics: 66312
  • Online Today: 225
  • Online Ever: 5484
  • (June 18, 2021, 11:15:29 pm)
Users Online
Users: 0
Guests: 161
Total: 161

Welcome


Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and others concerned about HIV/AIDS.  Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning:  Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

  • The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own physician.

  • All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

  • Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators of these forums. Click here for “Do I Have HIV?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

  • We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are true and correct to their knowledge.

  • Product advertisement—including links; banners; editorial content; and clinical trial, study or survey participation—is strictly prohibited by forums members unless permission has been secured from POZ.

To change forums navigation language settings, click here (members only), Register now

Para cambiar sus preferencias de los foros en español, haz clic aquí (sólo miembros), Regístrate ahora

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the symbol in each box.

Welcome to Do I Have HIV?

Welcome to the "Do I Have HIV?" POZ forum.

This special section of the POZ forum is for individuals who have concerns about whether or not they are HIV positive. Individuals are permitted to post up to three questions or responses in this forum.

Ongoing participation in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum (posting more than three questions or responses) requires a paid subscription, with secure payments made via PayPal.

A seven-day subscription is $9.99, a 30-day subscription is $14.99 and a 90-day subscription is $24.99.

Anyone who needs to post more than three messages in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum -- including past, present and future POZ Forums members -- will need to subscribe, with secure payments made via PayPal.

There is no charge to read threads in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum, nor will there be a charge for participating in any of the other POZ forums. In addition, the POZ Basics "HIV Transmission and Risks" and "HIV Testing" basics, will remain accessible to all.

NOTE: HIV testing questions will still need to be posted in the "Do I Have HIV?" forum; attempts to post HIV symptoms or testing questions in any other forums will be considered violations of our rules of membership and subject to time-outs and permanent bans.

To learn how to upgrade your Forums account to participate beyond three posts in the "Do I Have HIV?" Forum, please click here.

Thank you for your understanding and future support of the best online support service for people living with, affected by and at risk for HIV.

Author Topic: Am I Infected..Please Help!!  (Read 4512 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline yellowman

  • Standard
  • Member
  • Posts: 3
Am I Infected..Please Help!!
« on: December 28, 2013, 12:46:53 pm »
Hi,

I am really scared due to recent developments in my life.  I am a 35 year old male who went to a massage parlor on Nov 27 and ended up having protected vaginal sex with the person giving me massage.  Pretty sure the condom was intact after the act.  The mistake I made was that I performed unprotected cunnilingus on her for about a good 5 minutes. That was the end of it.

Just about two weeks later I got these eruptions near my genitals for which I went to the doctor.  They tested me for STD's and while everything came negative, I was tested positive for Herpes :(  I was also tested for HIV at the time which cam negative.

A week following that I started to feel kind of low energy, and flu like symptoms with some night sweat but no fever which continues till today.  I don't have any skin rash, cold or anything else.  I started to lose appetite and even lost about 5-6 pounds within a week.  I was so scared I went for another HIV test at the end of the 4th week. i.e  Dec 26th which also came negative.

I continue to be scared and losing sleep and appetite over this incident.  Can you please let me know what are my chances of getting infected?  Should I be getting tested one more time?

Thanks!

Offline Jeff G

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 17,064
  • How am I doing Beren ?
Re: Am I Infected..Please Help!!
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2013, 12:52:41 pm »

Hiv transmission doesn't stand a chance of happening via female genitals to mouth - there are just too many obstacles on the oral route.
The first obstacle is the mouth itself. The mouth is a veritable fortress, standing against all sorts of pathogens we come into contact with every minute of our lives. It's a very hostile environment and saliva has been shown to contain over a dozen different proteins and enzymes that damage hiv.
Hiv is a very fragile virus - literally. Its outer surface doesn't take kindly to changes in its preferred environment; slight changes in temperature, moisture content and pH levels all damage the outer surface. Importantly, it needs this outer surface to be intact before it can latch onto a few, very specific cell types and infect.
Which leads to the second obstacle. Hiv can only latch onto certain types of cells, cells which are not found in abundance in the mouth.
The third obstacle to transmission this way is having hiv present in the first place. The female secretion where hiv has been shown to be present is the cervicovaginal fluid. This fluid is actually a thick mucus that covers and protects the cervix.
The fluid a woman produces when sexually excited comes from the Bartholin's glands, located on either side of the vaginal opening. I have yet to discover one shred of evidence (and believe me, I've looked) that shows this lubricating fluid to have any more hiv present than other bodily secretions such as saliva, sweat or tears. Saliva, sweat and tears are NOT infectious fluids.
So there you have it. Once the results of the serodiscordant studies started rolling in, what we know about hiv transmission on the cellular level was validated. The only people who were getting infected were those who had unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse. Period. One of the three studies went on for ten years and involved hundreds of couples. That's a lot of nookie.

ALTHOUGH YOU DO NOT NEED HIV TESTING AT THIS TIME for this incident , 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. Some of the other STDs can be present with no obvious symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to test.

Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid HIV infection. It really is that simple!

HIV 101 - Basics
HIV 101
You can read more about Transmission and Risks here:
HIV Transmission and Risks
You can read more about Testing here:
HIV Testing
You can read more about Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP) here:
HIV TasP
You can read more about HIV prevention here:
HIV prevention
You can read more about PEP and PrEP here
PEP and PrEP

Offline yellowman

  • Standard
  • Member
  • Posts: 3
Re: Am I Infected..Please Help!!
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2013, 12:43:05 pm »
Thanks for your response.  One last question.  I was diagnosed with molluscum contagiosum warts around my groin area. About 6-7 small ones including one on the base of my penis.  Do these warts qualify as easy entry points for the HIV virus?  I am quite sure that these warts weren't bleeding at the time or anything.

Offline Jeff G

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 17,064
  • How am I doing Beren ?
Re: Am I Infected..Please Help!!
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2013, 12:46:53 pm »
Thanks for your response.  One last question.  I was diagnosed with molluscum contagiosum warts around my groin area. About 6-7 small ones including one on the base of my penis.  Do these warts qualify as easy entry points for the HIV virus?  I am quite sure that these warts weren't bleeding at the time or anything.

You did not have a risk and what I shared above contains the reasons why you did not come into contact with infectious fluids ... so its not a risk .
HIV 101 - Basics
HIV 101
You can read more about Transmission and Risks here:
HIV Transmission and Risks
You can read more about Testing here:
HIV Testing
You can read more about Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP) here:
HIV TasP
You can read more about HIV prevention here:
HIV prevention
You can read more about PEP and PrEP here
PEP and PrEP

Offline yellowman

  • Standard
  • Member
  • Posts: 3
Re: Am I Infected..Please Help!!
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2013, 05:41:13 pm »
You've been very patient with this thanks. I just want to be sure that while having protected vaginal sex, the infected vaginal fluids had no chance of enetring through my warts? There is a good chance that my warts would have come in contact with the vaginal fluids as they are very close to the shaft of my penis which a condom does not cover.  Once again sorry to drag this, but I am really worried.

Offline Jeff G

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 17,064
  • How am I doing Beren ?
Re: Am I Infected..Please Help!!
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2013, 07:34:32 pm »
You've been very patient with this thanks. I just want to be sure that while having protected vaginal sex, the infected vaginal fluids had no chance of enetring through my warts? There is a good chance that my warts would have come in contact with the vaginal fluids as they are very close to the shaft of my penis which a condom does not cover.  Once again sorry to drag this, but I am really worried.

No risk really does mean no risk . I read all your concerns carefully and you are worrying over nothing . Vaginal secretions a woman makes when excited are NOT infectious for HIV .
HIV 101 - Basics
HIV 101
You can read more about Transmission and Risks here:
HIV Transmission and Risks
You can read more about Testing here:
HIV Testing
You can read more about Treatment-as-Prevention (TasP) here:
HIV TasP
You can read more about HIV prevention here:
HIV prevention
You can read more about PEP and PrEP here
PEP and PrEP

 


Terms of Membership for these forums
 

© 2024 Smart + Strong. All Rights Reserved.   terms of use and your privacy
Smart + Strong® is a registered trademark of CDM Publishing, LLC.