Unprotected Sex, help :(

[crazyworried]

Dear all,

I've no where to go and no one to talk to about this.. so i came here to get some advise..

I'm 30 this year, male, from South east asia..I had an unprotected intercourse with a woman, which HIV status is unknown, on the 30th July this year 2013.

On the 6th of August, I had a weird headache that lasted almost throughout the day and i had some painkillers, but it didnt really help.

Now, on 12th August which was early this week 2 weeks after the "exposure".. i started to have this heaviness or some sort in my head when i wake up and it will last throughout the day, i'm not sure it its nausea or dizziness, but i dont think its either, since i can still walk properly and do not have any motion sickness feel. I've been having this heaviness till today, 17th August. And i seem to have problems sleeping, meaning i wake up once or twice at nite, feeling head heavy, and go back to sleep.

On 14th August my stomach started to feel bloated/lots of gas and has been going on till today, and have a little bit of slight diarhea, which i only passed motion once, and sthe stool is intact.. but looks very soft. On 15th August, during one of my nite wake ups, i felt like i needed to vomit, and i didnt, but proceeded to pass motion again, with the same symptoms as the night before.

Now this feeling of heaviness got me a little worried on Monday so i started googling for symptoms of heaviness in the head, which lead me to all these HIV forums, and i really panicked. I have no idea whats going on, so i Ordered a home test kit and tested myself on Tuesday. it was the blood test kit with can get me results in 10 minutes, and tested negative. But i was still worried nonetheless, and days go by till today i've been actively googling stuff about hiv and symptoms and i know i'm freaking myself out very much, till i think all these symptoms are just caused by my anxiety on Monday.

Today i found out from a friend that that woman has many multiple sex partners, and rumoured a sex worker!  I freaked out!!! I've tried to contact her to ask whether she is tested, but till now no avail.

I took a P24 antigen test today, which is about 18 days after "exposure" which i was told P24 tests can be done as early as 11 days till about 1 month before its undetectable.

Question now is, will the result for this test be reliable? or it cannot be trusted at all, and i can only be rest assured to try the antibody test on the 6th week? and again on the 12 week?

I'm so worried and freaked out now.. I dont know what to do.. I cant calm myself down to think, I cant stop thinking about this. Help I dont have any other symptoms as said in ARS, cept maybe a little muscle aches here and there.. no rashes, maybe a small lymph node swell at my neck ? No night sweats, no fever, no flu like symptoms, no oral trush.. only symptoms now till today is the bloatiness /gassy stomach/ weird heaviness in head, and slight muscle aches.. i know symptoms cant really tell ones HIV infection.. but i'm just telling for the record.


Help

[Ann]

Crazy,

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.

While your negative p24 test result is encouraging, it is by no means conclusive.

The earliest you should test again is at six weeks. 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 must be confirmed at the three month point, but is highly unlikely to change.

You need to learn from this and stop having unprotected intercourse with ANYONE of unknown hiv status. A person doesn't have to be promiscuous to be hiv positive, so stop judging this woman.

You need to assume ANYONE you have sex with is hiv positive and protect yourself accordingly by using condoms.

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

[crazyworried]

Hi again,

Thanks Ann for the reply. Just to update my situation. The past few days have been rather nerve wrecking for me, and as for my p24 test on the 18th day, it was negative. My doctor said i need not worry, but again as everyone said in this forum i should go retake another test on the 6th week to double confirm.

As for my symptoms, i'm still having the gassy stomach/indigestional problem and light head-ness and possible sleep disorder till today which is the 24th day post-exposure. I've managed to contact the girl and she said she goes for full check-ups every two months? Which I'm quite doubtful, but she says she is clean from any form of STD.

Will update again soon. Thanks Ann for the advise. I know I know I did something very stupid, and will learn my lesson from this.

[regret2max]

Hi.

Our situation is abit similar.

I got negative result at 16th day and my symptoms went away after a week. But they came back again but worse with bad rash.

Have you got tested for 6weeks yet?

[Andy Velez]

Regret, it is a rule of the forums that members do not write in the threads of other members. You should only be posting in your own thread. Thanks for your cooperation in the future.