POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: intrepid on December 26, 2006, 02:24:07 am
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Hello Everyone,
I was wondering if it is possible to to experience ARS symptoms after 5 days of an unprotected sexual excounter?
Also does having your period also increase the chance of male to female transmission?
Thank you in advance for your help.
V
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Symptoms are notoriously unreliable in diagnosing status and having unprotected intercourse during menstruation would be somewhat riskier for the male partner, not the female. Having said that, a HIV test performed 13 weeks post potential exposure is the only reliable method of learning your status.
Symptoms of infection, if they are noted at all, usually occur 2 to 4 weeks post exposure. Worrying about HIV infection after the fact is much more ineffective than learning about how condoms can effectively protect you.
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I am freaking out right now, i feel like im going to be throw up.
About 6 months ago when i was working in Asia i had unprotected sexual encounters with 2 different girls on different occasions. One i had been seeing had been tested for hiv 2 months previously and was neg and the other persons status was not known but was not a prostitute.
Since that times i havnt had any fevers ect...
a few weeks ago i started dating a girl and 5 days ago we shad sex a few times after we had been drinking (unprotected)
Today she is flying out on her holiday and she woke up with a very high fever. (this 5 days after exposure)
So now i am freaking out that maybe i got hiv and now i have given it to her. The thought of me doing this to someone is killing me inside. I know i made a terrible mistake by not using protection but what if i infected her
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The story doesn't change my earlier response. You need to test because of your past practices and you need to understand that you can't safely go around parking your naked willy in strange places until you and your partner decide to co-own a one car garage and have it tested for all the nasties,.... end of lecture.
It's been 6 months since the episodes you are so concerned about, put one foot in front of the other and march to a testing centre. Then use condoms with your current partner until 13 weeks from this latest encounter and get tested again.
Before dispensing with those condoms make sure that your health and your protection is a non negotiable term and that each of you clearly understand the ground rules which includes only having unprotected intercourse with each other after both your STDs panel comes back clear. Your current girlfriend was willing to have unprotected sex with you; are you that certain of her past experiences.
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The short answer is no, it is not possible to reliably diagnose ARS symptoms after 5 days. In fact, neither the presence nor the absence of symptoms will ever tell you anything reliably about your HIV status.
The ONLY way to know it for sure is to get tested at the appropriate time. The CDC recommends doing that at 13 weeks after the most recent unprotected incident.
As 411 has pointed out, you need to learn from these incidents. Everytime you have unprotected intercourse you are putting your life at risk. It's as stark and as simple as that. You need to be using condoms everytime until such time as you maybe in a securely monogamous relationship in which both partners have tested negative together.
HIV is not an easy virus to transmit. It's significantly more difficult to accomplish from female to male. But lower risk is not the same as no risk. So you need to practice safer sex from here on in. Condoms provide very effective protection as long as you use them consistently.
Good luck with your test.
Cheers,
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Thank you for the replies, i went and visited a doctor at the sexual health clinic yesterday and had a good talk with him about my situation. He assured me that the fever experienced was far too soon to be hiv related and like you have already informed me, symptoms mean nothing and the only real way to put my mind at ease will be tested. So i had a full STD screen and will hopefull get the results as soon as tomorrow. I am nervous but will take each day as it comes. In the heat of the moment it is easy to get carried away and forget about the risks. From this day on condoms will be my new best friend.
Thank you again
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You're welcome. I'm glad you found the exchanges here to be helpful.
And using condoms consistently is an excellent way to protect yourself.
Cheers,
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Just letting you know that i got my test results back, and was negative for all STD's. I was so relieved when the doc told me it was negative becuase i had convinced myself otherwise. Thanks for your kind replies and i hope others respect your advice and dound it as helpful as i have.
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Congratulations on starting the New Year by testing HIV negative.
That's a great gift of life! Protect it by always, ALWAYS using a latex condom when you have intercourse. They really do the job but only if you have one on.
Every time.
Cheers,