I think I might be infected.

[Rarareu]

Hi, I really would like some expert advice and/or thoughts about my health because I've been having some concerning symptoms and I was (possibly) exposed to HIV.

Here's a somewhat brief explanation:
--In late November, I had penetrative vaginal sex with my ex and he was not wearing a condom (I'm transgender male; I was the receptive partner). I know for a fact that he is HIV positive (and his strain of HIV is particularly aggressive and resistant), however, he told me he was undetectable at the time.
--Approximately 2-3 weeks after this encounter I started getting these symptoms and they progressively got worse: decreased appetite, feelings of nausea, increased thirst, insomnia, night sweats, unusual fatigue, one migraine, muscle and back aches.
--Around 4 weeks after the exposure, I got these symptoms along with most of the others getting worse: feeling dizzy after getting up, chills, a rash on my lower legs and tops of feet (smallish red dots), mild sore throat, mild cough, hard time focusing, high fever, a sore on my gums that bled a lot for no reason, swollen lymph nodes, some diarrhea.
--At 5 weeks, my temperature was 103.2 so I went to the ER, where they did a lot of tests but they were all negative (including the HIV antibody test). They did tell me that there was something abnormal about my liver enzymes and my white blood cell count, and they said it looked like I had some kind of virus.
--The next day, I went to the local Health Department and did a rapid HIV antigen test, which also came back negative. The nurse told me the test is not 100% accurate until 90 days after the exposure.
--Over the next week and a half, most of my symptoms gradually went away. The only ones that remained were minor fatigue and sore swollen lymph nodes.
--Then, about 8 weeks after exposure, I noticed these symptoms: occasional pain while swallowing, mild sore throat, the sore in mouth began mildly bleeding again, enlarged tonsils, itchy watery eyes, and a largish pustule near my genitals (and the sore swollen lymph nodes which never went away). I'm still experiencing most of these symptoms now (10 weeks after exposure).

Does this sound like acute HIV infection? I know I tested negative twice, but it really seems like HIV makes the most sense. But my knowledge of HIV is limited and I'd like to know what an expert thinks. Which exact type of test would be most accurate at my stage of infection? Also, what should I do? I want to start treatment if it really is HIV. I've been planning on returning to the Health Department to get tested again at the three month mark, but I'm not sure if I should go to my regular doctor now since I'm having symptoms again.
Thank you so much for your help.

[CaveyUK]

Okay, first you did have a potential risk so were right to be tested.

The good news is your first two tests are negative, so you need to test at 13 weeks post exposure to get a confirmatory negative.

I'd say it's looking good for you that it will be negative, because if any symptoms you experienced were indeed related to seroconversion, I would have expected your most recent tests to be positive if you were. You still need the confirmation though.

But symptoms are really unreliable when it comes to HIV. Many people have no symptoms at all, and when people do they are pretty much the same as thousands of other viral or bacterial infections so the likelihood of symptoms alone indicating HIV are remote. It's the reason we don't tend to discuss symptoms in this forum, as they are almost never related to HIV.

Every symptom you have posted could be due to a far more common viral bug going around, which is almost certainly what you have.

I would continue to get investigated for what is causing you the problem if your symptoms persist, but put HIV out of your mind until you are at the 13 week mark and you can get the confirmatory negative.

[Rarareu]

Thank you for your response.  That set my mind at ease a bit. I went to the doctor yesterday and she did a bunch of tests. I'll find out the results in about a week.