Need some help

[Panickypanicky]

Hi. First of all: thanks for reading.

The last few days I've been having diarrhea. I had a fever at nigt as well. This is the second time in two months (maybe bad luck, I don't know - a lot of people are sick, although they don't have diarrhea I think.) I went to the doctor and had a blood test, and the results came clean.  I said I didn't want the HIV Test though, it didn't seem important. Then I started thinking...

Anyways, my girlfriend got sick as well, although she had to vomit instead.

I started thinking (I am a bit paranoid by nature, I have to admit) and I was thinking I might have HIV.

In August, I remember when, I had drunk sex with a girl I know. Now I remember what happened. I penetrated her for three seconds and then we stopped because she didn't take any anti-conception. I asked her today if she had any std's, she said she didn't and she goes to the gynocologist regulary and he tells her everything is okay. (I know this doesn't prove anything though).

Three days later I had sex with my girlfriend.

Five days (more or less) later my girlfriend had to vomit and had swollen lymphnodes (in her throat). This disappeared after a short while.

Now, three months later I'm very paranoid. The sickness stopped but I got sick again yesterday because I was shaking with anxiety.

How real is the chance that I might've gotten HIV and my girlfriend got infected immediatly as well?

As I said, there was frottage and maybe one insertion of my circumsized penis in her vagina.

Thanks for reading this, it means a lot to me.

Cheers.

[Ann]

Panpan,

For a start, none of the symptoms you mention are hiv-specific.

However, if you've been having unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse with anyone, you do need to test. Unless you've tested together with your current girlfriend, then you really have no way of accurately knowing her hiv status.

You can never go by symptoms - or even the lack of symptoms - to know your hiv status. ONLY testing at the appropriate time will inform you of your hiv status.

The earliest you should test is at six weeks past your last incident of unprotected intercourse with a person whose hiv status you do not accurately know. The vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by six weeks, with the average time to seroconversion being only 22 days.

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

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