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Author Topic: Worried about symptoms.  (Read 3372 times)

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Offline BillyNoName

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Worried about symptoms.
« on: October 26, 2007, 01:35:46 am »
Hi, me and my girlfriend are both 30 years old and have been together just over 2 years, we both live in Swden however I am from England.
3-4 weeks ago I did a terrible thing and while out with my friends I ended up having unprotected sex with a girl, she had told me she was at the end of her period however sex only lasted a few minutes and there was no blood on my penis afterwards.
I was feeling guilty for a week I couldn't have sex with my girlfriend. I was worried about STDs too, after a week I stopped worrying and I started having sex with my girlfriend again. A few days ago I woke up in the night with a headache, not the normal type but those sick feeling headaches you get when you have a fever or are ill with cold or flu, I had no fever and went back to sleep, the next day I got up for work and felt ok apart from the headache and swollen glands.
My girlfriend on that same day as I woke up in the night has been coughing like crazy, with yellow phlegm sometimes, she also has sore chest, swollen glands and headache. She has been like this 4 days or so, all I have felt is this headache and just this morning sore throat. I think I might have caught and given my girl hiv :(

Any advice please.

Offline Ann

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Re: Worried about symptoms.
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2007, 03:10:36 am »
Billy,

Symptoms or even the lack of symptoms means nothing when it comes to hiv infection. ONLY the appropriate test at the appropriate time will reliably reveal you hiv status.

While you have had a risk and you do need to test, hiv is a fragile, difficult to transmit virus, and more so from a woman to a man. The odds are in your favour of testing negative, but testing is the only way to know. A test at three months will be conclusive.

It sounds to me as though you have unprotected intercourse with your girlfriend, but unless you've tested together before the condoms came off, you will actually need to test three months after your last unprotected incident, no matter who it was with. You can't tell a person's hiv status by looking at them, or by assuming because of what you (think) you know about their sexual history. Many people do not accurately know their own status. That includes you if you've never tested before.

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 with a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.

Have a look through all three 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.

Use condom for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection.

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

Offline BillyNoName

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Re: Worried about symptoms.
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2007, 03:46:30 am »
Thanks for the reply, well we have been tested about a year ago, was negative for both including hiv and all other STDs they usually test for, it's just odd how a few weeks later we both get weird but different symptoms, this is what makes me think I could have caught hiv and given it to her, as the symptoms are a bit different for everyone right?

Offline Ann

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Re: Worried about symptoms.
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2007, 04:39:19 am »
Billy,

The symptoms can range from being so sick that hospitalisation is necessary all the way down to noticing nothing at all. Symptoms or the lack of symptoms means nothing. ONLY testing will reveal your hiv status.

The vast majority of people who have actually been infected will seroconvert and test positive by six weeks, but a negative at six weeks MUST be confirmed at the three month point. As long as your gf has been keeping up her side of the monogamy deal, then you can test at six weeks after your incident for peace of mind and at three months for your conclusive result. I expect you to test negative after this one-time encounter, but you MUST test to make sure.

Ann
Condoms are a girl's best friend

Condom and Lube Info  

"...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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