POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: Proporta on July 10, 2013, 02:49:54 pm
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I'm UK/white and had unprotected vaginal and anal sex with a UK/white woman back in September. This has only just come to light (I was pretty drunk at the time and remember nothing but it did happen). To the best of my knowledge I have shown no symptoms of HIV. I had a bout of bronchitis about 3 months ago for 2 or 3 weeks but that passed easily. I understand circumcised men have a slightly less chance of contracting the virus, I am circumcised.
I first had unprotected sex with my current partner about 6 weeks ago, I had no knowledge of the above encounter at the time. I'm aware I have been very stupid with all this and I am more worried about her health than mine. She has recently been overtired and today had a fever, shivers as well as diarrhea. Neither of us have at any time had a sore throat, a rash or anything like that.
I am due for an HIV test in the next day or so. Going on the above general information only how likely would it be HIV?
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Proporta,
Neither symptoms nor even the lack of symptoms will ever tell you a single thing about your hiv status. ONLY testing at the appropriate time will.
We do not discuss symptoms here. We give risk assessments and testing advice only.
If you or your girlfriend feel unwell, see a doctor. We cannot help you with that.
You have had a risk and you do need to test. You had a risk with both women you've had unprotected intercourse with.
Unless you've tested together with this woman you're currently seeing, then you've been having unprotected intercourse with someone of unknown status and THAT is a risk, regardless of what you may think you know about a person.
The earliest you should test is at six weeks past your last incident of unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse - with ANYONE. 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