POZ Community Forums

HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: warnowern on March 26, 2014, 04:57:33 am

Title: Had unprotected insertive (me top) on hiv+ guy taking therapy
Post by: warnowern on March 26, 2014, 04:57:33 am
good morning,
I had a short (no blood,no cum) insertive anal intercourse with a guy who later told me to be positive (I found HIV drugs at his home, I insisted to told me for how long he's been curing himself and my doctor even called him to ask him).
He told me he's been positive for around 3 years with very low viral load.
Sex was short,without blood nor cum.
After 12 hours I started PEP, which is giving me no side effects at all luckily.
All the nurses,doctors and experts at the hospital told me to stay calm,since we started PEP way in time and he's taking drugs, the risk is low.
What's your opinion about this?
A nurse even told me that her,and another collegue of her,accidentaly picked their fingers years ago with fresh positive blood just taken from a patient...after PEP none of them became positive.
Thanks for help.
Title: Re: Had unprotected insertive (me top) on hiv+ guy taking therapy
Post by: Ann on March 26, 2014, 06:03:06 am
Warno,

I hope you were tested for hiv prior to being prescribed PEP to make sure you weren't already hiv positive.

You are very unlikely to end up hiv positive following one instance of unprotected insertive anal intercourse even if he wasn't on treatment and you weren't on PEP. But, he IS on treatment and you ARE on PEP, so you're more likely to wake up on the moon tomorrow morning than you are to end up hiv positive following this incident.

Hiv is MUCH more difficult to transmit to the insertive partner, but not impossible, although him being on treatment does make it nearly so.

I fully expect you to ultimately test hiv negative - this time.

It is important for you to understand that taking PEP extends your hiv testing window period by 28 days/four weeks - or the amount of time you take PEP. The earliest you should test is at six weeks following your last dose of PEP. A negative result must be confirmed at the three month point following your last dose of PEP.



You seriously need to learn from this and stop having unprotected anal intercourse. It makes me wonder how many hiv positive guys you've done this with who didn't accurately know their hiv status (ie they thought they were negative but were actually poz) - and because you never found hiv meds, you were none-the-wiser.

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
Title: Re: Had unprotected insertive (me top) on hiv+ guy taking therapy
Post by: warnowern on March 26, 2014, 06:16:54 am
HI Ann, and thanks.
Yes, I was immediately tested there at the hospital, and everything was fine, negative.
I'm also happy that PEP is not giving me any side effect (truvada + isenstress).
The thing that left me scared,disappointed,surprised is that he lied.
How lucky I was to catch by chance his drugs beside his bed?
I know that was my stupid mistake but I should've realized earlier what I was doing.
At first he denied, but then after my doctor called him (and the conversation was not that "easy" to listen to, I almost cried and felt so overwhelmed) he started admitting...then by texting on the cell he clearly admitted he was having the therapy with very low/undetectable virus.
Assuming he lied (so he's not curing himself), would chances increases for this kind of sexual contact?
By the way,when he was not there, I even saw blood tests beside his drugs, he's being followed by a local hospital but who knows if he strictly follows the therapy?
He's American, I'm Italian, in Italy.
Title: Re: Had unprotected insertive (me top) on hiv+ guy taking therapy
Post by: Ann on March 26, 2014, 06:52:56 am
Warno,

There currently is no cure for hiv. However, there are effective treatments, and when a patient has undetectable levels of the virus in their blood, they are very unlikely to be able to transmit their virus. You might want to read this thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=52989.0) concerning recent studies of hiv transmission in undetectable patients.  (DO NOT post in that thread, you are not permitted to post outside this section of the forums)

If you have been serosorting - asking people if they're hiv negative before having unprotected intercourse with them - sooner or later you are going to end up hiv positive. It isn't the people who are on treatment and lie about their status you really need to worry about, it's the people who only THINK they are hiv negative.

A person who has been very recently infected and is unaware of their infection will usually have an extremely high viral load - and are therefore much, MUCH more infectious. An insertive (top) partner is far more likely to end up infected when barebacking with someone with a very high viral load than they are from someone on treatment with a low or undetectable viral load.

If people who are hiv positive weren't treated so badly by society in general, maybe fewer of us would feel the need to lie about being poz. Personally I'm very open about my status, but many live in fear of the stigma we face and therefore hide their status. I'm not excusing this guy's lie, I'm telling you why people lie.

Again, you need to wise up and stop asking people about their status. If they say they're hiv negative, they could not know they're poz or they could be lying. It's far simpler to always use a condom until such time as you're in a relationship and you know that they're either 1. truly hiv negative or 2. truly on treatment and undetectable.

As long as you trust what people say about their hiv status and don't use condoms when they say they're negative, you're putting yourself at risk. Please STOP IT before I find myself welcoming you to the Just Tested Poz section of these forums.

This time you're going to be ok. But next time you bareback with someone who says they're hiv negative you might not be so lucky. Wise up!

Ann
Title: Re: Had unprotected insertive (me top) on hiv+ guy taking therapy
Post by: warnowern on March 26, 2014, 07:42:34 am
You're so right and I thank you.
One last question.Are there any reported case where PEP failed to work?
Thanks again.
Title: Re: Had unprotected insertive (me top) on hiv+ guy taking therapy
Post by: Ann on March 26, 2014, 07:50:12 am
Warno,

I know of no cases where PEP failed when taken due to a possible sexual transmission.

It's not going to fail in your case provided you continue taking it - you can hold me to that statement.

Ann

PS - did you read the study in the other thread I linked you to?