please give me an objective view for my worries

[Loosing My Mind]

hi,

i've been visiting csw for maybe 10 years now.. and in total it would be about 50+ partners. The activities would be quite standard :-

1. unprotected insertive oral sex and on perhaps 1 or 2 occassion going down on her.

2. always protected vaginal sex. meaning that the condom is on before penetration and it has never broken and slip before. based on what i've read, you will know if it broke.

3. occassionally fingering, not sure if my fingers has small tear near the cuticle, etc..

now my questions :-

1. am i considered as a high risk or low risk group? is it based on the number of doubtful partners or based on the type of sex that i practice?

2. what are my risk of infection based on the above? i've read alot and everyone says that protected vaginal sex means no risk and unprotected oral sex means very low risk. but a local hiv doctor says that condom only offers 85% protection, of course that crushed me.

3. i've tested with oraquick advance rapid and after about 10-15 mins, the tester says its negative as the control line showed and no line on the test area. i am concerned if the result will change if we wait till the prescribed 20mins but the tester said that the liquid is flowing upwards and the test line if reactive will appear before the control line. is that true? im still worried.

4. is oraquick an EIA (Elisa) test or is it an immunochromatography essay? i also read that some people get a reactive EIA but negative on immunochromatography assay and positive on western blot but non reactive on enzyme linke immunofluorescent essay. all this is starting to cause me to doubt my oraquick result.

i want to believe that my exposure (unprotected oral and protected insertive sex) is safe from the many readings that i have done but am struggling as each day i keep finding reasons to substantiate that tests can be inaccurate, etc...

are there anyone who have caught hiv with protected sex at all and is there anyone that has negative oraquick and positive elisa assuming out of window period?

sorry for the long post. just really worried and going through a very rough patch at the moment.

[RapidRod]

hi,

i've been visiting csw for maybe 10 years now.. and in total it would be about 50+ partners. The activities would be quite standard :-

1. unprotected insertive oral sex and on perhaps 1 or 2 occassion going down on her.

2. always protected vaginal sex. meaning that the condom is on before penetration and it has never broken and slip before. based on what i've read, you will know if it broke.

3. occassionally fingering, not sure if my fingers has small tear near the cuticle, etc..

now my questions :-

1. am i considered as a high risk or low risk group? is it based on the number of doubtful partners or based on the type of sex that i practice?

2. what are my risk of infection based on the above? i've read alot and everyone says that protected vaginal sex means no risk and unprotected oral sex means very low risk. but a local hiv doctor says that condom only offers 85% protection, of course that crushed me.

3. i've tested with oraquick advance rapid and after about 10-15 mins, the tester says its negative as the control line showed and no line on the test area. i am concerned if the result will change if we wait till the prescribed 20mins but the tester said that the liquid is flowing upwards and the test line if reactive will appear before the control line. is that true? im still worried.

4. is oraquick an EIA (Elisa) test or is it an immunochromatography essay? i also read that some people get a reactive EIA but negative on immunochromatography assay and positive on western blot but non reactive on enzyme linke immunofluorescent essay. all this is starting to cause me to doubt my oraquick result.

i want to believe that my exposure (unprotected oral and protected insertive sex) is safe from the many readings that i have done but am struggling as each day i keep finding reasons to substantiate that tests can be inaccurate, etc...

are there anyone who have caught hiv with protected sex at all and is there anyone that has negative oraquick and positive elisa assuming out of window period?

sorry for the long post. just really worried and going through a very rough patch at the moment.

1. No risk
2. No risk
3. Not a risk
4. You never needed an HIV test
5. Yes, but again you have never had an exposure and didn't need testing.

HIV is transmitted by;
Unprotected penetrative anal and/or vaginal sex
Sharing works with other IV drug abusers
Mother to child

[Loosing My Mind]

1. No risk
2. No risk
3. Not a risk
4. You never needed an HIV test
5. Yes, but again you have never had an exposure and didn't need testing.

HIV is transmitted by;
Unprotected penetrative anal and/or vaginal sex
Sharing works with other IV drug abusers
Mother to child

sorry, don't mean not to trust what you say, but isn't having sex wish csw considered an exposure? im not sure how is it classified or not classified as risk, low risk, high risk. etc.

really no one has been infected while practising protected sex before throughout history?
i am having problem reconciling why some sites are so pessimistic (every sex has a high chance of getting it irregardless how protected you are) vs sites that is so clear to say that as long as protection is on, there is no risk. its just that i guess this is a life changing event and hence having 2 extreme end of the opinion at the same point of time makes people jittery.

really thanks very much for the reply.

[RapidRod]

sorry, don't mean not to trust what you say, but isn't having sex wish csw considered an exposure? im not sure how is it classified or not classified as risk, low risk, high risk. etc.

really no one has been infected while practising protected sex before throughout history?
i am having problem reconciling why some sites are so pessimistic (every sex has a high chance of getting it irregardless how protected you are) vs sites that is so clear to say that as long as protection is on, there is no risk. its just that i guess this is a life changing event and hence having 2 extreme end of the opinion at the same point of time makes people jittery.

really thanks very much for the reply.

Having sex with a csw is a lot less dangerous than having sex with anyone else. CSW are educated in HIV transmission, that's what they do for a living. You never had a risk of contracting HIV in any of the situations you've provided.

[Ann]

Loosing,

You've only had an exposure if you've had unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse. It doesn't matter who with. It's not WHO you do, it's HOW you do it that matters. The ONLY true "high risk group" is that group of people who have UNPROTECTED anal or vaginal intercourse with people of unknown or positive hiv status.

Condoms have been proven to prevent hiv infection. There have been three long-term studies of couples where one is positive and one is negative. In the couples who used condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, but no barrier for oral activities, not one of the negative partners became infected with hiv. Not one.

Provided you tested for hiv at three months or more past your last incident of UNprotected anal or vaginal intercourse with ANYONE, you are conclusively hiv negative.

And yes, the rapid test you did can be considered to have been reliably negative. Whether or not it is also conclusively negative depends on when the last time you had UNprotected anal or vaginal intercourse.

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.

Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!

Ann

[Loosing My Mind]

hi ann,

thanks very much for clarifying.

i certainly hope that im just another one of those worried well person.

not sure if i am allowed to say this but i've also been reading some of the post in the "i just tested poz" forum and there's some people in there that claim that they got it via protected sex as well, not sure how.

as you can see, i am really trying to feel confident of protected sex but i keep finding claims that is all not that straightforward.

[Ann]

Loosing,

Sometimes people forget what happened under the influence of drink and/or drugs. Sometimes they just can't bring themselves to admit they had unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse, not even to themselves. And sometimes in the case of the receptive partner, they didn't realise their partner (the insertive partner) dishonestly removed the condom.

Instead of going by notoriously unreliable patient report, we go by the three controlled studies I mentioned in my first reply to you.

Again, provided your negative result was three months or more past your last incident of UNPROTECTED anal or vaginal intercourse with ANYONE, then you are conclusively hiv negative. If this is the case, then you do not need further testing at this time.

Ann