Known risk, possible infection?

[student]

Last week (Sept 30) had unprotected insertive anal sex with person of unknown status, although they claim they are STI free. I know that is one of the lower risk categories, but I'm still concerned.

Woke up the next morning (Oct 1) with muscle soreness in thighs, which continued through the next day (Oct 2). This, of course, may be completely unrelated and not be a related symptom of anything.

Continued feeling somewhat feverish through the 3rd.

Woke up on the 4th with a nasal drip, cough induced by nasal drip, muscle soreness and continued feverish feeling. (Cough subsided by the end of the day)

Also on the 4th my partner woke up with similar symptoms (we have not had any sort of insertive/receptive sex with one another beyond my giving him oral; he also did not have sex with person on the 30th; on occasion we accidentally use one another's toothbrush - since my wisdom teeth are coming in, there is sometimes gum bleeding when brushing. It's possible he may have used my toothbrush after such). Although he also experienced some diarrhea.

On the 5th woke up with night sweats, his much worse than mine, but neither being 'bed soaking' as I've seen described. The same for the 6th.

Started taking paracetemol/flu medication on the 7th, which has subsided symptoms.

By today, still feel feverish although the thermometer actually reports a low temperature. Still have some sweating while sleeping.

While we both feel better during the day, once home we are very tired and fall asleep, but wake up shortly after and repeat.

Neither of us have swollen lymph nodes, headache, rash or sore throat. He never had a cough and mine only lasted a few hours due to the nasal drip.

What is the likelihood that we are both experiencing ARS within less than a week of possible infection?

We plan to go get tested, but to my knowledge 4th generation DUO(?) tests usually only come back positive after 4 weeks?

Many thanks!


 

[Jeff G]

We do not discuss symptoms because the only way to know your HIV status is to test at the appropriate time . Unprotected anal sex is high risk not low risk as you indicated   ,you can test at 6 weeks past any possible exposure and again at 3 months to confirm the results .

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!