POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: Yayascake on May 24, 2014, 12:39:04 am
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Hi folks. I have a nagging worry that I could do with some advice on. Last summer I had an encounter with another man. It was mutual masterbation and fingering each other. I have never performed or received anal sex with another man. I have only ever had intercourse with women. During my encounter, the bloke I was with tried to enter me with his penis. Once I realised it was not his finger I immediately pulled away. He only managed to poke it around the enterance to my anus as there was no way he could thankfully fit it in.
Now there was definitely no ejaculation but I was worried about precum possibly infected me. I had asked him beforehand if he had any stds and I have since asked, to which he assured me he did not.
Now it may have been pure coincidence but a few weeks after, I came down with the sore throat and so on.
I managed to get a postal test from the terrence higgins trust. It said on the website in was a duo test and I had to prick my finger to provide a sample. Due to going working away for a number of months, I had to do the test 27 days and 3 hours after the encounter. After a few weeks of worry the test came back negative. I thought notbing of it then and moved on.
My problem is that just after xmas I started getting a rash on my upper arms that just wont go. It lioks like chicken skin but some of the spots grow larger and look puss filled. The rash is on both my upper arms. It is not itchy or painful.
Now it has got me worried that I did not quite wait the 28 days to get tested. Would them 21 houts make much difference?
To clarify, I have never had unprotected sexual intercourse with anyone in my life apart from this encounter where a man tried to penetrate me. Thankfully I managed to stop him before he did, but my anus entrance may have come into contact with precum.
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You did not have a risk in this incident . Rubbing and fingering are not a risk . The poking or rubbing his penis on your rectum is not a risk unless you were penetrated and you would have known it if you were .
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.
Since you did not have a risk you can count your HIV test as conclusive that you do not have HIV provided that you have not had an exposure in the last 3 months prior to testing .
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.
Although you did not have a risk and do not need to test for this specific 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!
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Thank you Jeff for your swift reply.
I think that I am just getting paranoid and questioning in my mind how far he actually managed to get it up. But like I said, I had never received any more than a finger before this encounter so a penis would I presume take a lot of effort to penetrate, especially without any lubrication.
The documentation which came with the test stated they were 98%+ accurate at 4 weeks. I took the test at 27 days so was a day short. I think the fact I took the test a day short has left a nagging thought at the back of my mind.
This rash on my upper arms has also panicked me. But I realise that eosinophilic folliculitis is mainly seen in more advanced HIV.
I am going to get tested again. I had another sexual contact at Christmas but this time I had a small sex toy which was covered with a condom used on me. There was no other other contact in this encounter of any kind. The other guy kept all his clothes on so there was pretty much no chance I could have been infected then.
I can't work out why I am so worried. I have not had many sexual encounters in my life and have always used protection with women and not had any penetrative anal sex in my 2 encounters with men.
Thank you for your advice and I apolgise if my messages are a little too graphic but I wanted to express how truthfully the extent of my encounters so people with more idea than me could assess my risk.
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Its good that you shared the details because it insures a reliable risk assessment from us .
Keeping in mind that you did not have a risk in this incident I did want to point out for future reference that the current cdc guideline is 6 weeks for the initial test and not 4 . There are no shortcuts to testing . I am repeating myself for your benefit so as not to worry you . You have already conclusively tested HIV negative if this is your only concern in the past 12 weeks prior to testing negative . It will not hurt a thing if you decide to test again for peace of mind only so if it makes you feel better go for it .