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Author Topic: Very worried!  (Read 2791 times)

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Offline confusedandstupid

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Very worried!
« on: October 03, 2012, 07:18:25 am »
I am 23 female and I had vaginal unprotected sex with a male about 6 weeks ago. Before we ever started doing anything he told me he had been checked out 3 months prior to our relations and was negative for everything. Finding out later that he had seen another girl a few weeks before meeting me and had unprotected sex with her before finishing with a condom. I am very worried now because a week after intercourse with him, I get a very sore throat, that then turned into headache and persistent cough that lasted almost a month. Also in that time about 2 weeks after exposure, while i was still with sore throat like a cold, I developed cracks in the sides of my mouth, that went away and came back a few days after healing. I found out this is called Angular Cheilitis, which can be caused by lowered immune system. I never ran fever or had any swollen glands, but week 3 comes and I get this very bad vaginal yeast infection, which over the counter medicine did not clear up (I did not take any antibiotics in this time.) I had to go to the doctor to get yeast medicine. After my cold symptoms started clearing up, I got a bad ear infection where I can only hear 50% out of my ear. I believe this is called ear fullness... I have spoken with the guy I slept with and he thinks I am being crazy and he says he has no signs or symptoms for anything.. Its just weird how all this happens right after I have sex with him and everything points to HIV... If I didnt have the yeast in both my mouth and vagina, I wouldnt be that worried. I have stressed myself out so much over this I am causing myself to have muscle spasms in my legs. From this information, does it sound like I am HIV positive? Any information or feedback would be appreciated.

Offline Andy Velez

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Re: Very worried!
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2012, 08:00:17 am »
Nothing you are reporting symptomatically is in anyway HIV specific. But then neither the presence nor the absence of symptoms will ever tell you anything reliably about your HIV status. Only an HIV test taken at 3 months can give you a conclusive all-clear as negative.

You can test initially at 6 weeks. If you get a negative result then it is likely you will continue to test negative at 3 months for a conclusive result.

You need to learn from this experience. You can have sex with you anyway you want to. But you need to do it the safer way. That means the guy always has to be wearing a condom for vaginal or anal intercourse. No exceptions. Until you may find yourself in a securely monogamous relationship in which both partners have reliably tested negative together, until that time you must make sure a condom is used everytime.

Good luck with your test.
Andy Velez

Offline confusedandstupid

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Re: Very worried!
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2012, 02:00:00 pm »
If I was recently sick with a sever cold, could it make me test positive, even if I do not have it? Because of high antibody count from fighting infection? I am not sure how all that works.. Also what about being pregnant? Like very early pregnancy... could that make you test false positive?

Offline Ann

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Re: Very worried!
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2012, 05:14:21 am »
confused,

No, being ill with a cold is not going to make the slightest difference to your antibody test.

Yes, pregnancy, as well as (sometimes undiagnosed) autoimmune disease, can cause false positive results. Sometimes false positive results just happen. However, any positive hiv antibody test must be confirmed with a test called the Western Blot. The WB will rule out false positive antibody results. A person cannot be considered to have been diagnosed as hiv positive until the WB test has been done and has also come back positive.

Because this unprotected incident happened six weeks ago, you can go test now for peace of mind. The vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by this time, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days.

A six week (or more) negative is highly unlikely to change, but must be confirmed at the three month point.

I hope you learn from this. You simply cannot take a person's word as truth when it comes to sexual health. Not only do people lie, but some people only assume they're hiv negative, when they're actually hiv positive and just don't know it.

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.

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!

Ann
Condoms are a girl's best friend

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"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

 


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