Very anxious. Unprotected sex with possible high risk male...

[sonny]

Hi Everyone. I will try to keep this short and sweet. I am a 24 year old female. 5 nights ago I had unprotected, rather rough sex with a 24 year old black male. I know nothing about him. He is a friend of a friend and we were at a party both extremely intoxicated on alcohol and cocaine. He came inside of me and now I am extremely scared of contracting HIV. The reason I am so scared of this is because I have read numerous articles online reporting black men as having the most cases of HIV in the US. Also, I have no idea if he is straight or bisexual...he may have had anal sex with men for all I know which I know increases his risk as well.

I am planning on getting tested in 3 months for HIV and I am getting tested for other STDs asap. I spoke with my OBGYN today and that was what she advised.

I can't sleep and this is taking over my mind.

Opinions??

Thank you in advance!

[sonny]

I forgot to add this.....I also have a yeast infection. It started today.

[Andy Velez]

Hi Sonny,

There is no question this was a very risky incident. You can get tested initinally at 6 weeks after the incident for an initial result. The average time to seroconversion is 22 days. All but a very few who are going to seroconvert will do so within 4-6 weeks. So a negative result at 6 weeks would be a very encouraging indication that you will continue to test negative for a conclusive result at 13 weeks.

And of course you need to learn from this experience. Anytime you have unprotected intercourse, either vaginal or anal, you are putting your health and life at risk. It's as simple as that. Mixing excessive drinking and drugging with casual sex is dangerous. Period. If you have a problem with those substances then get help with that.

Meantime while waiting to test you need to make a real effort to focus on other things in your life. Doing that will make the waiting time pass much easier.

Good luck with your test and keep us posted.

[Ann]

Sonny,

In addition to what Andy said, there's something very important you need to understand.

PEOPLE are not high or low risk, ACTIONS are high or low risk.

It doesn't matter who you do, what matters is how you do it. You need to make sure condoms are being used regardless of who you are with. I can't stress this enough.

Hiv does not discriminate. It doesn't care what colour your skin is, what you do for a living or where you live or what gender you may be. It's a virus that can infect ANYONE who has anal or vaginal intercourse without a condom. Please remember that!

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!

Good luck with the testing. Hopefully this will be nothing more than a learning experience for you.

Ann

[sonny]

Thanks to both of you for your replies and information! Andy, I made an appt with my old therapist fo next week to try to get a grasp on my current risky behaviors. I know that this was stupid and this is the first time I have ever had unprotected sex with someone who I wasnt in a serious relationship with. Also, the first time mixing drugs and alcohol. This was SUCH a wake up call for me to ALWAYS use condoms no matter what and for that I am happy.

I am going to try to occupy myself before my test so I don't drive myself crazy.

One question: Does the fact that I have a yeast infection indicate anything regarding possibly HIV contraction?

Thanks again.

Sonny

[Andy Velez]

You're welcome, Sonny. It's very good to know you are getting with "a wake-up call."

No, having a yeast infection is not in anyway an HIV-specific occurence.

And for the future, remember that using condoms are a must everytime until such time as you maybe in a securely monogamous relationship in which both partners have tested negative at a reliable testing point.

Good luck with you test when you get to it.