POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: Stat_S on November 23, 2006, 07:24:03 pm
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Hello,
A year ago I had a sexual experience with a female. I sucked on her breasts (both) really hard for about 5 mintues. There wasnt any breast milk invovled to my knowledge. I did however have the taste of her breasts in my mouth for hours later.
I also fingered her with 4-5 fingers I beleive. I also broke her hymen when I fingered her. After this she began to bleed and I took my fingers out. That is all we did.
I have read the welcome thread and it says fingering and breast sucking is not risk (It is theatrical (excuse my bad spelling) but you'd have to have a big cut, big enough for you to be worried about you fixing the cut and not fingering). I didn thave a cut on my hand. The only problem is I am not sure if I washed my hands after. I am 90% sure I never put them in my mouth or rubbed my eyes immediately after the event.
I found out a day later she was really sexually active and from that I stopped talking to her completly. I never thought of HIV until a few weeks ago when I read up on it due to me being sick. This was my only sexual experience ever, never did anything else.
Im pretty sure she never cummed on my hands because It would have been sticky and I would have immediately washed them. The blood I remember was on my shirt and nothing else. It could have been on my hands which has spawned my HIV related anixety's and worries.
A) Is this a risk for HIV Transmission?
B) If I had blood/vaginal fluid on my hands would the HIV virus within the blood/vaginal fluid be dead once it was exposed to my hands (meaning itd be exposed to the air because it is outside the body)
C) I am pretty sure my hands were dry when I left my house a few mintues after the event, would the temperature / air outside be enough to kill the virus if indeed she had it?
D) Also if I rubbed my hands on my eyes after or ate dinner without washing my hands would this be a risk?
E) If I touched the blood on my shirt later in the day would that make my fingers carry the virus if I wipped my hands on my eye?
F)I left the house right after this even and it was summertime, would the virus be most likely dead due to the warm conditions outside?
The reason I am asking all these questions is because I devloped a fever that lasted for a few hours a month and a few days after. I didnt think of this as a HIV symptom at the time. I didnt get any other HIV symptoms. Now a year and a few months later I have headaches, Swollen armpit lymph nodes, and on/off soar throat. I also have a stuffy nose. I am worried sick. I often feel guilty for doing what I did and feel that I am going to die becasue of it. Is there any other reasons for these symptoms? Maybe anxiety? I value your responses and itd help ease my mind. I am going to get a HIV test down the road just to make sure my fears arent real.
I also have a few questions about masterbation if you can answer that'd be great:
A) Is there any STD risk if I have ejaculated onto a piece of tissue with blood on it? I dont there there is, just curious. The blood on the tissue was dryed.
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NO Risk
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Stat,
Hiv is a fragile, difficult to transmit virus that is primarily transmitted INSIDE the human body, as in unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse. Small changes in temperature, moisture content and pH levels quickly damage the virus and make it unable to infect a new host.
Nothing you did was a risk for hiv infection in any way, shape or form. Breast milk is not a threat to someone who is not a baby. Fingering, no matter what sort of spin you want to put on it, is not a risk for hiv infection. Ejaculating on a bloody tissue is also not a risk.
Please read through the Welcome Thread (http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=220.0) and follow the Transmission Lesson link so you can get yourself up to speed on how hiv is and is not transmitted.
Here's what you need to know to protect yourself against hiv when you become more sexually active. 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 STIs together. To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with a sexually transmitted infection.
Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.
Use condoms and avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple.
Ann
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Thanks for the quick replys :). I thought that aswell. I just feel really guilty and scared about this for some reason. I think due to my bad luck the past few months Ive developped a phobia of death or something like that.
So just reask a few things, blood/semen/vaginal fluids on hands isnt a risk if you dont wash it because the HIV in the blood/semen/vaginal fluid would die because it was outside the body?
Also any ideas about all my symptoms? Could anxiety/depression cause all of those symptoms? The swollen armpit lymph nodes got me puzzled :P
Sorry to reask the first question in a way, but just wanted to confrim, I dont want to sound like one of those guys who ask the same question over and over again, just that I forgot to put that in my orignal post.
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Correct, the HIV virus dies rapidly outside the body. You had no risk from the incident you described. See your doctor regarding your symptoms. They are not due to HIV infection.
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Hello,
Quick question.
I have a lump near my armpit, located where the shoulder and tricep connect, at the bottom of the part of the tricep thats near the shoulder. I have (what I think is) a lump. It may be excess skin though.
Is that where swollen armpit lymph nodes are or is what I am describing not a lymph node.
Any help would be apreciated.
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Nothing, and I mean nothing, in your story makes me worry you are at risk for HIV.
On looking for lymph nodes - especially in the armpit. Please leave that to someone who knows what they are doing. There are several lumps in that area that can be mistaken for lymph nodes. Actually muscles can be mistaken for them too. So don't go round poking there because it will hurt a few days after you do it and you will think they are swollen/painful.
Rich
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Nothing, and I mean nothing, in your story makes me worry you are at risk for HIV.
On looking for lymph nodes - especially in the armpit. Please leave that to someone who knows what they are doing. There are several lumps in that area that can be mistaken for lymph nodes. Actually muscles can be mistaken for them too. So don't go round poking there because it will hurt a few days after you do it and you will think they are swollen/painful.
Rich
Thanks a lot man :).
I dont know Its always at the back of my mind that I have HIV though. I think the aniexty is causing me to be sick. i keep thinking im dieing but I am kind of afraid to go for the test.
Ive never done anything else sexual except masterbating. I used to think that u could catch HIV from masterbating/ejaculating onto dirty tissues. :P.
I asked my doctor on my last checkup he told me it was a lymph node but I dont think he knows what he was talkin about because he never really checked anything out.
He said to stop using deodarant so I started using more axe instead of speed stick and its still there. Maybe it could be the axe bodyspray?
Also what do you think the chance is that the lumps arent lymph nodes? Because they havent dissapeared for the last month (they havent gotten bigger, same size or a bit smaller).
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I was sort of saying that it probably isn't a lymph node. If you have to ask your doctor to go hunting for it, rule of thumb; it isn't one. You have had a sore throat, right? Painful and swollen lymph node in your throat. Imagine the same thing under your armpit. That is my understanding of the swollen lymph you get during seroconversion.
The problem here is that this is your first sexual experience and it might be hard to get through to you that this incident is not related to HIV because you had fluids etc on your hands. You might make the common mistake to think that HIV is like a common cold and you can get it quite easily. This is not the case. You get it from constant exposure to HIV during unprotected sex. This exposure has to be a mucus membrane on your genitals. Injection of infected material after an orgasm leaves HIV on a mucus membrane for hours. This is why being the receiving partner in unprotected sex is the most risky. You are at risk being the penetrative partner in unprotected sex too.
The bottom line is don't be scared of sex but do use condoms. Then you will be OK.
R
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Thanks.
Im probably going to go to a walk in clinic tommorow to ask another doctor about my arms.
It doesnt really fell like a lump but i can see it clearly in the mirror like a black line of excess skin in the mirror. I just hope it isnt a swollen lymph node because then ill prob start worrying about cancer :(.
I dont think I have HIV but the whole fever thing a month later kind of got me a bit freaked out. Atleast now nextime I have a sexual experience I wont do it until I get into a monagamous (excuse my bad spelling) relationship.
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There is no need to ban sex from your life because of this incident. You need to be realistic or you will worry for no reason when you have sex again.
Worry about cancer? That says a lot about your anxiety levels. Relax. You are a young man and there is no reason to believe it is that either. The fact is that you are examining your body more closely than before and are noticing things you haven't seen before. If you are concerned (I can't see this black line) then DO get it checked out. But don't keep jumping to the worst conclusion. That is a short path you don't want to go down...
Rich
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There is no need to ban sex from your life because of this incident. You need to be realistic or you will worry for no reason when you have sex again.
Worry about cancer? That says a lot about your anxiety levels. Relax. You are a young man and there is no reason to believe it is that either. The fact is that you are examining your body more closely than before and are noticing things you haven't seen before. If you are concerned (I can't see this black line) then DO get it checked out. But don't keep jumping to the worst conclusion. That is a short path you don't want to go down...
Rich
Yeah. Thanks for the advice. Recently ive been having a lot of aniexty stuff, and paniac attacks. Im a little uneasy right now because I just keep worrying about random stuff. Sometimes I have really bad panic attacks.
So youd say that 99% chance that this has nothing to do with HIV correct?
Thanks again for the help.
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99% indicates a 1:100 chance. Your risk of getting HIV from this incident is much much lower than that. Say 99.99999999999999999999999999999 etc. I made that statistic up, but you get the idea.
R
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Thanks a lot. I aprecaite you taking the time to reply to my questions.
Hopefully I can get over this aniexty over HIV.
I hope though nothings wrong when I go tommorow to get checked up.
Also can I ask another question, How come Hiv cant live in the enviroment but can reproduce in a body?
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HIV is a machine that can not replicate or look after itself. It needs cells to divide in. Without them, in the air where it can dry out and rip appart, it doesn't do so well. In solution in can survive outside the body but 'goes off' meaning it loses infectivity over time. Outside of the warmth of the body it simply degrades. If it dries out, this process is accelerated significantly.
R
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Thanks a lot for the reply. You cleared up a lot of stuff for me.
Last question, if there was a little blood on my hand that was dried and I rubbed my eyes, the HIV in it would have died anyways because its outside of the body correct? ???
Thanks a lot, for the quick and informative replies.
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Yup. You got it (not HIV, but the bit about HIV drying and not being infectious).
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Ok thanks. So Im more confident in the fact that I dont have HIV.
Thanks a lot. Hopefully my HIV aniextys will go away, and Ill figure out whats up with my arm tommorow lol.
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You should be more confident. You did nothing to get it.
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True say. I just have a lot of aniexty about me dieing. I dont know why. I recently got food poisoned and Im kind of overweight (not obesse just about 5-10 pounds overweight) and Ive always worried about my weight. So when i got food poisoned I didnt know it was food poisioning but I thought I was having a heartattack because I had all the symptoms at the time. Ever since the ive been thinking of life diffrently so im kind of shook up about the whole thing. I think that could be contributing to my HIV fears.
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I'm not a psychologist, but is there something else going on in your life. Just an observation but people tend to worry about cancer/HIV in this section when there are other big things going on in life.
R
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Yeah something with my parents, other than that nothing.