undetected partner broken condom!!

[pyro]

Hello
My partner who i love very much has HIV and is on med also is undetectable and has been for a while with very low VL, and i am negative. 3 days ago we had protected  sex and i was the top as always and he was the bottom, but we were so caught up in the heat of it all that i didn't realize that the condom had broke. It lasted about 20 mins at the most and then it was over. There was no ejaculation in him, and right after i went and washed myself off with hot water and soap.

Iv done recherche and everything and it says that there is a risk of transmission but very low, but its mainly on heterosexual couples and and m4m. He is very worried that he might have infected me, but im trying to keep my head cleared until i get myself tested again. So my question is. Has anyone else been or is in the same situation that i am in, and what are my chances on getting tested positive?

[Andy Velez]

Hello, Pyro.

Yes, that was a risk. It is less of a risk for the insertive partner. Whether you ejaculated or not is irrelevant. Your having ejaculated would not matter in terms of risk to you. It was also a single risky incident which further reduces the risk to you. And his having an undetectable viral load because he's on meds is a very important fact in your favor against transmission occuring.

You may know there is a treatment called PEP which can be done in this kind of circumstances. It involves taking anti-retroviral drugs for 28 days. If that is going to be done they must be done within 48-72 hours after a risk. You're pretty close to that time frame now so if you think you want to do it, you'd need to get to your doctor or to an emergency room and get the medications. That's up to you to decide if you want to go that route.

Otherwise you can test at 6 weeks after condom breakage. If as we hope you test negative at 6 weeks, then you will most likely test negative at 3 months for a conclusive result.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Keep us posted.

[pyro]

Thanks Andy,
Its been one week sense the incident happened, and right now the gland on the left side of my face bellow the jaw bone feels swollen and my ear kinda hurts, but that is all as of right now. Getting a little worried at the moment though. :-/

[Andy Velez]

Those are not HIV-specific symptoms. Unfortunately when one starts to be worried about HIV, suddenly everything that happens or doesn't happen physically can mistakenly become ominous. Do not squeeze or bother your lymph nodes. They are very sensitive to the touch and you can create a problem by bothering them. If the swelling persists you should discuss it with your doctor.

Try to focus on other things in your life while you are waiting to test initially at 6 weeks. Again, the odds are in your favor that you will test negative.

Cheers.