POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: goesny on July 25, 2014, 11:44:56 am
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I have spent the last 2.5 months in pretty fill blown freak out mode;
About 2.5 months ago I made a horrible drunken decision at a bachelor party ad slept with a sex worker. Certainly not my finest moment...the next day I did not feel so well, and over the following 2-3 days was pretty sick. Mostly upper respiratory, saw a doctor and was given antibiotics for upper respiratory symptoms. I had no fever or swollen lymph nodes.
We had intercourse twice, both times protected, and I received oral both times, also protected. I also gave oral...not protected (another awesome life decision...) and have read conflicting reports on cunnilingus and risk. I did not notice any bumps or anything unusual (I was drunk however), and there was no bleeding at all.
About 2.5-3 weeks ago is when the real panic kicked in for me. I had a rash on my upper body/torso that did not itch (the non itchy part is really part of what was so scary), a sore throat, occasional loose stool, and generally felt like crap. The symptoms, while I know a bit nebulous seem to line up with a lot of what I have read online, especially the non itchy rash.
I am pretty petrified, and am hopeful that one really big mistake is not one I end up paying for, for the rest of my life. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
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You had protected vaginal sex and that was not a risk for HIV . Cunnilingus is not a risk and I will post a response from Ann on why its not .
Quoted from Ann .
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.
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 so much for the fast reply I have been pretty badly freaked out. I am sorry to pester, but given some of the symptoms sound directly correlated to infection you still see no reason for concern? Maybe it is just stress induced or a normal viral infection just hard to not be scared. Thanks again.
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Your symptoms are in no way specific to HIV and that is why we do not discuss them . If this is your only concern, HIV is not whats making you sick and the only way to know your status is to test and not by symptoms ... Keep in mind you did not have a risk in any of the concerns you posted about here today .