POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: OrallyCheated on December 31, 2007, 02:49:20 am
-
Hello
I am a male from India. I was always under the impression that HIV could be transmitted only through unprotected Vaginal/anal intercourse. At least that was what all the HIV posters said. I had been to Russia for three months and engaged in unprotected cunnilingus which lasted for 10-15 mins and protected vaginal insertive sex. But i was drunk and i could not get it up and finished very quickly in abt 10-15 seconds. Thereafter i have had two more occasions of only unprotected cunnilingus all lasting for abt 10-15 mins. During the last time the woman had small rough hair and in my act of cunnilingus a suspect i was rough on my tongue and the tongue became quite sore. Thereafter I had all sorts of symptoms from diarrhoea, to sore throat where i even lost my voice for a day but i did not have any fever. I also started having itching which was diagnosed as Hives.
That is when i started reading and began realising that Oral sex is low risk. I feel so miserable now at having exposed my self to HIV like this. If only i had known then what i know now i would not have indulged in it. And i my country i do not have the safeguards that the people of the industrialised countries have. I worry abt the contracting HIV for if i have it my life in India is finished. What are my chances. Please tell me. I will test but i wanted to know and talk to someone before going in for the test. Help me please.
-
Cunnilingus is not a risk for HIV.
-
Is Russia having a HIV prevention scheme as good as the european countries. I mean what are my possibilities of contoracting it in Russia. The skin blemishes on my body are worrying me now. They began after my encounters.
-
OC,
It doesn't matter what country you went down on a woman in, it is still not a risk for hiv infection.
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 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholin's_gland), 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.
Keep using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse and you will avoid hiv infection. Read through all three condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use them with confidence.
Again, cunnilingus is not a risk for hiv infection. You didn't have a risk.
Ann
-
Thank You Ann and Rapid Rod for ur prompt replies. A few more minutes of ur patience please. I read through the gland position from the link u sent me. I have the following to submit. I did during the cunnilingus insert my tougue abt an inch or so in, also i swallowed a lot of the vaginal fluid. Also i licked my finger after fingering her deep. Does any of this increse my risk level given that i might have come in contact with the cervico vaginal fluid.
Also do my symptoms not indicate or follow the typical HIV symptoms. PLs answer these and i promise not to bother u all any further till the time i go for a test.
Wishing all here a Happy and healthy new year. Thanks
-
Ann is offline right now, but I feel confident in answering these last questions for you...as I have read her responses to these inquiries countless times. The answer is: No, the deep insertion of your tongue and fingers doesn't put you at any increased risk - all it does is qualify as a VERY good date. ;)
Why no increased risk? Because HIV (again, if present at all) is located well up into the cervical region. It's really unlikely that you came into contact with any significant amount of cervico vaginal fluid...and even if perhaps you did, the other obstacles still apply. Don't worry...you're all good from this incident.
As for typical HIV symptoms, there's no such thing. Infection can present with such a wide variety of possible symptoms, with many people experiencing NONE of them...so discussion of "symptoms" with HIV is basically meaningless.
A note to Ann: I thought that was a stellar reply you gave above. I'm thinking I'm gonna copy that if you don't mind for reference for similar posts in the future.
-
I'm just further affirming Hunter's response to your most recent question regarding so-called "classic" symptoms of ARS. Neither the presence nor the absence of symptoms is ever a reliable means of determining HIV status. If symptoms show up they are of a sort associated with many other non-HIV causes.
Again and again (by the thousands) we have people coming here worried about their so-called"classic" HIV symptoms who inevitably turn out to be HIV negative. The very few, and believe me I mean hardly more than a handful through the years, are those who have had unprotected intercourse, often repeatedly. You are not in that category. Should you decide to test for your own peace of mind a negative result is a slam dunk.
If your symptoms persist you ought to discuss them with your doctor. This is NOT an HIV situation. Period. End of story.
-
Thank you all. I will test as it is the only way i feel i will get some peace of mind. In any case this epidemic has volunteer against it in my country. Have learnt a lot in the past eight months. Thank you all and god bless.
-
Hello i am sorry to bother u again. I was going through the Living with HIV section and came upon a lot of people who were having dry skin problems and dry patches on their arms and legs. The thing is i am also having all these dry skin problems and un explained marks on my skin. I had clear skin before all me encounters. Please help. Am i likely to have HIV.
-
You didn't have a risk and you had no business in any of the other forums. I would advise you to go back and reread the posting guidelines before you get yourself a time out.
-
Dry skin is not an HIV-specific occurence. It happens for all sorts of reasons to people whether they are HIV positive or not.
If you continue looking for bits to feed your fears you will undoubtedly find them. Stop looking here and elsewhere on the net, all to no good purpose. This is not an HIV situation no matter how you continue trying to make it into one.