POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: QuestionGal on September 23, 2006, 03:54:05 pm
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I have a couple of basic questions, but first I will tell you my situation.
I had unprotected sex 3 times in one night with a guy I was dating (I'm a female), he did not ejaculate in me. I performed oral on him, without ejaculation. Before engaging in sex, I did at least ask when he last tested (he indicated he tested 7 months prior), etc, you never know when someone is lying. I had a test done at 3 1/2-4 week time frame and another at 8 weeks. I had a full range of STD testing, done last week (3 1/2 months after) and everything was negative. I know everyone states that you should have another test at 13 weeks, but my question are:
1) Have you ever seen anyone test negative at 4 weeks and 8 weeks, test positive at the 13 week test (given there are not other unsafe encounters)?
2) I started having a problem with my mouth, red and sore, (I did burn my mouth on some unbelievably hot coffee a week ago), and it's been bothering me (I'm also a smoker), but, could this be an indication of something else, 3 1/2 months after the encounters?
I had one encounter after this time, but it was FULLY protected and to the best of my knowledge (I looked at the condom), there was no breakage. 3) Is it VERY obvious looking when a condom breaks?
Along with this one, there is another web site that I monitor the questions and answers on, medhelp, and Dr. H indicates that you can be 99% sure at a 8 week test, do you all disagree. He has indicated that he along with other doctors that work closely with HIV patients have never had anyone test positive that tested negative at a 6 week test, based on the same encounter, do you all agree? (I guess in a way that's a repeat question).
Thanks for your time for answering and all that you do for us worriers!!!!
God Bless
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Condom failure is very noticeable. Yes I have seen someone go from negative to positive within 4 week time frame. I've never seen anyone go from negative to positive at 8 weeks. Your mouth problems should be looked at if it is bothering you. Symptoms or the lack of symptoms mean zilch when it comes to diagnosing HIV. I don't believe in using percentages when it comes to HIV test results. I wouldn't want it to come back and bite me on the ass.
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Girl,
I've never seen a six week negative turn positive at three months either. However, you would be wise to get your three month confirmation so you can move on with your life.
And speaking of your life, you need to stop playing roulette with it by having unprotected intercourse. 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 STIs together. To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with a sexually transmitted infection.
Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can make sure your fella is using them properly. While you're on either of those pages, have a look through the bottom three links in the left-hand column. They discuss ways that you, as a woman, can protect yourself. I recommend the female condom as they are also excellent barriers against hiv infection, and importantly, they give YOU the control over condom use.
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.
Please consider your recent check-up as the start of a life-long habit. 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.
Ann
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Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, as well as everyone else on here.
I ABSOLUTELY agree about "stop playing roulette." I always carry condoms now and have no problems saying 'no glove, no love.' At my last encounter, I made sure that a condom was put in place before he went inside me and as soon as we were done, he withdrew and removed the condom.
I had my mouth problem looked about two weeks ago, I went to an ENT and he stuck a camera down my nose to make sure I didn't have throat cancer, from being a smoker. I am currently working on quiting, I have cut back from 1 1/2 packs a day to 1/2 pack a day, and I 'm going to start using the patch on Monday. My GP looked at my mouth two weeks ago, when I had burnt my mouth a couple days before on coffee and indicated it was a scald burn, but then two days later, burnt it on hot coffee again (some of these places serve the coffee so hot, and I'm a latte addict :). I guess I made it worse when I burned on top of a burn. But, plan on going back this week if it isn't better.
Thanks again for all your the work that you all do on here and being so patience for those of us that make stupid decisions in our lives, or get paniced when we try to be safe, and condoms break, etc. You all really do help control the fears, and you have equally provided me with a lot of knowledge on how to stay safe.
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One more questions, please.
I've read that close to 70% or more of people that experience ARS, a 'high fever' is almost always present. What exactly is a 'high fever' as it relates to ARS, 101, 102, higher? I was curious for my own knowledge.
Thank you again.
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ARS will cause you more worry than anything else relating to AIDS. Because it can look like so many other things its easy for you to convince yourself that some simple symptom like a fever is related to HIV. There are a million things that can cause a fever beside HIV. I myself had high fever post exposure (102) and I turn out negative.
DO NOT INVESTIGATE ARS SYMPTOMS !
DO NOT SPECULATE ABOUT ANY SYMPTOMS YOU ARE HAVING !
Thrust me.
Rhino
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I don't have a fever, and never had. Like I said, it was more for my own knowledge.
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I know. I'm not sure you will get a definitive answer to that question because ARS is not a definitive group of symptoms. It would be difficult to differentiate an ARS fever from a "normal" one based on the temperature.
The rest of my reply was just a warning to be very carefull when looking at ARS symptoms.
Sorry if my post was a little "heavy".
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Rhino,
I don't know who you are or where you sprang from, but we don't discuss symptoms in this forum. Symptoms or even the lack of symptoms mean nothing when it comes to hiv infection.
Please refrain from giving "advice" here until you know more facts concerning hiv. OK? If you've got questions of your own, start your own thread. Thank you for your cooperation.
Ann
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Gal,
As I just mentioned to Rhino, symptoms, or even the lack of symptoms, means nothing when it comes to hiv infection. Only the antibody tests will reliably reveal your true hiv status and a conclusive test is one taken at three months.
Ann
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I apologise. I will not try to give advice anymore.
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I have another question
With all of 'us' worriers, how often have you seen someone test positive after one-time single episodes, i.e.,
1) intercourse without a condom;
2) brief 30 seconds or less exposure, without a condom.
More specifically, man to woman.
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No one seems to want to respond to my questions.
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It's not that we won't respond, it's because we can't answer it.
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I meant from your experiences on this board, not in general, in case you were thinking I meant in general.
Thank you though for responding.
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Gal,
In my time here at AIDSMEDS (since April 2005) I have only ever seen three people who posted in the Am I Infected? forum test positive and graduate to the poz only forums and no I won't tell you who they are. In all cases, it was pretty obvious that they were going to test positive because of the risks and preceeding test results they'd had.
But stop worrying about others. Focus on the answers you've been given and the lessons linked to in our Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0) and you'll be fine.
MtD
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OK - I'm a little freaked out still.
After the episode I indicated in my original post, I had one encounter with another man. It was protected, I did not perform fellatio on him, he did perform cunningulus on me however. About a month after the incident is when my mouth started hurting, and has been for 3 weeks now (which would be close to 7 weeks after the initially incident). Even though it was protected, and now with my mouth hurting for so long, I keep thinking that maybe the condom was broken, even though it didn't appear to be broken. I have been to 3 doctors, as recently as last Monday, and they all say it's not thrush, and my dentist said it would be okay.
I have a red spot on the roof of my mouth, which sometimes gets a white coating, but will disappear later. It's slightly sore. I was also diagnosed with acid reflux and put on medicine for that. I quit smoking on Monday (after smoking a pack + a day for 15 years), so the smoking might have prevented it from healing as quickly as it should.
Does this sound anything remarkably close to any symptoms of seroconversion and ARS, lasting over 3 weeks (I've only had a slight sore throat, ear ache and sinus pressure, never had a fever (only raised temp around 99.1 or so)???
Thank you again for your response!
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Symptoms or lack of symptoms is not a way to diagnosis HIV. We can't give you a better answer than that.
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You're right, obviously. I was more wondering whether or not ARS systems lasted 3 weeks, if it was ARS.
Sorry to bother you.
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Gal, you seem to be in that dangerous territory of (mis)reading EVERYTHING as yet another proof of your worst fears coming true. Lay off of that stuff -- it's bad for your health.
When a condom fails it is not a subtle event. It's quite clear it has torn. People seem to have there might be some miscroscopic hole through HIV will creep and be transported into their body. No. No. NO!
So as long as the fella was wearing a condom the issue was covered literally and figuratively.
As far as the one who performed cunnilingus on you, that is not a risk for you. I suppose someone could create a beyond far out theory of how it could be risky, but in the real world of HIV transmission just doesn't happen that way.
So you have some waiting time for getting tested. Stay productively busy and the time can pass more quickly than you can imagine at this moment. No kidding.
None of the symptoms you are concerned about are in anyway HIV specific. If any of them persist you should discuss them with your doctor.
I expect you to come out of this ok, more no kidding.
Cheers,
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I just got back from the doctor with a diagnosis of thrush. He prescribed Troche Rox to be taken 5 times a day.
He believes it started when I burnt my mouth, then I went on doxycylin (while I awaited my STD results, just in case) and that between the cut in my mouth and the antibiotics, I got the thrush. My dentist that I saw last week didn't give me any indications of having it and I saw this same Doctor three weeks ago when I first burnt my mouth and he said it wasn't' thrush then.
I told him about my encounters, and he indicated that thrush relating to HIV didn't start until much, much later and it would have no relation to my recent episodes. Is this true? Does thrush happend much later in HIV? I went ahead and got another HIV test done, but I'm still freaking out.
He also stated that he sees this in many, many people that are not HIV positive
Please, any words of wisdom?? Thanks.
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Gal,
I agree with everything your doctor said about the thrush in your mouth. Thrush is very common and can be caused by antibiotic use.
Ann
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I want to take this time to thank you for the time you take responding to me.
I'm sorry that I'm being so paranoid. I know the condom didn't break, I keep playing the scene in my head over and over again. And as I read from a post in here today by Morgan, below, to another 'worry wart,' that thrush appears much later, and not as a primary infection (ARS), has really helped me. My unprotected exposure was close to 4 months ago, and I was tested negative at 8 weeks, and I know it's not the 'conclusive' test, I do feel a little better. I did have a test done today, and my results should be back Wednesday.
Obody,
I wasn't clear in my above post regarding thrush. A lot of people come to this forum complaining of symptoms of thrush and relate it to primary hiv infection. They look in the mirror, see a white tongue, and say "this is thrush, I have been infected with hiv". I was trying to point out that thrush can be, and has been, one of many ailments that alert some who have unknowingly been infected for many years to the fact that something is wrong.
What I neglected to add was that thrush can appear in anyone and, in and of itself, does not necessarily point to a compromised immune system.
The distinction I was trying to make was that its significance as an hiv symptom is not at primary infection. And I left the impression that it points to a compromised immune system in any who have it. This is not the case.
As thrush is frequestly an issue in this forum, I felt I should follow up my last post.
Just wanted to clear this up.
Thanks again, and, if this is post is not accurate information, would you please let me know??
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And as I read from a post in here today by Morgan, below, to another 'worry wart,' that thrush appears much later, and not as a primary infection (ARS), has really helped me.
Gal,
Stop worrying about other people's stuff! Thrush happens to people with normal immune systems. It's in no way specific. In fact, without wanting to be gratuitous, I understand that outbreaks of candida are a common experience for many, if not most, women.
Ya dig?
MtD
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Well, I just got my test results back, negative. That makes 16+ weeks from my unprotected encounter and 7+ weeks since my protected encounter.
Thanks to all of you for responding.
I did just want to make a comment to MtD - I wasn't worrying about anyone else's 'stuff.' I was questioning a response pertainging to a condition, that I, myself, was actually diagnosed with and they accuracy of information. I was not asking about that person's condition, as I noted, it was a response from Morgan, and di not have anything to do with the orignal poster's condition.
Thanks again.