What are my chances?

[ZydecoStep]

The post is quite long so please bear with me. All i need is a little assurance.

I am a 18 year old american who has been living in a little quiet Asian country called Malaysia. And with all the hot chinese pro's here, it is a little hard to resist temptation. In my lifetime I have had 3 girlfriends and about 5 sexual encounters with prostitutes. 3 of these encounters happened here in Malaysia and the other 2 happened while i was in Thailand. All of them happened with latex condom i believe, but all of them happened with the prostitute providing the condom. The first three encounters in Malaysia where fine. Nothing happened, no slippage or doubts. But when I was in Thailand with this one girl. She was really good by the way, I had her twice. The first encounter with her was fine. The second encounter though....the condom slipped off. And i gave her at least three thrusts before putting on a new condom. Note that she also gave me a blowjob before the sexual intercourse without any condom.

Also to add another thing. I do not have any symptoms of any kind ever since these encounters and its been almost a year since my last.

I am a little worried. Should I be? What are my chances and should I get tested?

Thank you very much,
ZydecoStep

[Ann]

Zydeco,

You've been doing the right thing in using condoms and I hope that you use them with people who are not sex workers as well as those who are. Hiv doesn't discriminate - anyone can be infected and you must treat all your sex partners as though they are infected and use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse.

When you say the condoms slipped once, did it slip all the way off, or was the head of your penis still covered? Because if it was still covered, you have nothing to worry about. Even if it did slip all the way off, it is still highly unlikely that you would have become infected from such a short exposure.

Hiv is a fragile, difficult virus to transmit and more so from a woman to a man.

Getting a blowjob is not a risk for hiv infection, by the way.

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.

It's unlikely that you would have become infected with hiv in what you bring to us. If the condom slipped all the way off, you should test at 12-13 weeks after the incident happened. If the condom didn't slip all the way off, you should think about when you will start having regular, routine sexual health care checkups. It's your health, look after it.

Use condoms for intercourse and avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple.

Ann

[ZydecoStep]

Dear Ann,

Thank you so much for your words of comfort. It gives me great ease when that is said. The condom did however slipped off all the way, so I am going to take your word of advice. I'll get myself tested as soon as I get home to the state, which is like in a weeks time.

Oh Ann, i've got two question for ya, if you don't mind, of course.

Question 1) Does Rapid Testing (i.e. Saliva, Blood) work?

Question 2) Whats the procedure for ELISA? Will it hurt?

And once again, I thank you Ann. You're an angel in disguise.

Zydeco

[Andy Velez]

Zyd, the Rapid test is an approved, accurate test.

The ELISA is not a painful test, so you needn't be concerned about that aspect.

With regard to the incident you're concerned about, the condom protected you until it slipped off. HIV is not an easy virus to transmit. It's significantly harder to transmit from female to male. Given that it was a brief, single incident the odds are very significantly in your favor that HIV transmission did NOT take place.

Get tested at 13 weeks and I expect you will collect a negative result.

Make sure the condoms you are using fit your properly. Keep using one everytime and you'll be fine as far as HIV is concerned.

Cheers, 

[ZydecoStep]

Hey Andy,

Thank you for the reply. I think i'll do a Rapid test at the local community AIDS clinic in San Francisco.

I guess I got really lucky this time. Gotta make sure this doesn't happen again; its much more nerve wrecking than anything else. But chances must have been really really small huh? Women to men, a less than 10 second exposure. Phew.

Thank you so much Andy for your words of reassurance, it really helps lighten my load. I might have to be an AIDS activist after i survive the test.

Take care now,
ZydecoStep