timeline and possible exposure

[howard14]

  Hello everyone. First off, thanks to the moderators and all the people that work so hard on this website! It amazes at your kindness and devotion. I am somewhat of a worry wart to begin with, but I think that and stress has been my main problem. I had an incident, but after reading the forums, and the moderators answers to most questions I have calmed down tremendously, and think I found the answers I needed. I had protected vaginal sex ( I am a male) and fingered a girl, and sucked her breast. I do not know her status, but I assume she was a prostitute. (craigslist type webpage was the source) She also had her own condoms which was a good thing :-( which leads me to believe she could have been negative maybe? ) I have read that you guys don't go by any symptoms, but I have had a round with them!! I think this is my main question. This incident occurred on October 2. Can I test now and it be fairly accurate? I think it is amazing what you guys do here! Thanks in advance. Keep up the good work.

[Jeff G]

You can relax . There was nothing you did that put you at risk for HIV . Use condoms correctly and consistently and you will avoid HIV .

You had safe sex protected with a condom so if this is your only concern in the last three months and you wish to have a routine STD and HIV screen done you can do so at any time now .

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 STIs 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!   

[howard14]

Jeff,
   thanks for the speedy reply! Just for my own peace of mind, am I close enough to the six week mark to test? The action took place on October 2. I just want to make sure that by some freak 1 off chance didn't happen. I also have other people to consider. Mainly just for peace of mind though.
Thank you 

[Jeff G]

You didn't have a risk so you could have tested the same day . You are worrying over nothing .

The average time to seroconversion is 22 days. Most who are infected will test positive by 6 weeks. For various reasons a small number will take longer and that is why we follow the CDC recommendation to test at 3 months for a conclusive negative result.

If you cant accept you never had a risk I suggest waiting the full 6 weeks because if you don't you wont accept the results when you get them .