Q. love your site. have already passed it on to many people.
following is my situation. any comment would be helpful.
11/1 male has unsafe, vaginal sex with
female; one time deal
12/20 male detects occaisional “irritation”
in urethra; no discharge, no pain when urinating
1/3 male goes to doctor & free
clinic both; tests neg for evidence of trich (urine under microscope at
clinic), neg for chlam & ghon (swab at doctor & urine at clinic), and neg
for syph (blood test at clinic)
1/3 doctor recommends HIV test;
detects nodes in groin; states that this is not a worry given a possible
infection in urethra (went to clinic for anonymous HIV test after visiting
doctor; fund-cutting makes them unable to test hetero male non-drug users...no
hard feelings)
1/4 male begins to freak out in a
major way
1/5 male self-diagnoses symptoms,
including achy under arms
1/9 male takes anonymous HIV test;
urethral irritation gone
1/16 HIV test results: negative
1/17 male awaits the close of 3 month
window period to retest (around 2/1); freak out continues in a major way
1/23 male has follow-up appointment
with doctor
A. First off, glad to hear that you tested negative for those
other STD’s. I find it surprising that
the clinic wouldn’t test you for HIV regardless of the fact that you are a
heterosexual, non-drug using male, although a test at that point would have
probably been a bit early anyway. You
had an experience that may have put you at risk for HIV, and they should have
tested you. Heterosexual transmission
is the most common means of infection world-wide, albeit not so much in the
United States. Your negative test 10
weeks following your exposure, however, pretty much indicates that you were not
infected. When the CDC says three
months, the primary intent is actually about 12 to 13 weeks. Most people, if they are going to test
positive, will have done so by one month, or four weeks, following exposure. The three month recommendation is intended
to pick up those individuals that, for whatever reason, haven’t tested positive
by the one month marker. Although 10
weeks is not definitive, it is a VERY good indication that you were not
infected (I would give it a greater than 95% probability that the test was
accurate). In addition, the likelihood of
being infected in one exposure is rather small as it is. I would say you can safely stop freaking out
at this point. The symptoms you
describe also do not really lead me to believe that they are in any way
connected to HIV. The time frame for
your symptoms was not consistent with acute infection, nor were the symptoms
you described really indicative of acute infection either. Urethral irritation is not a symptom of HIV,
although it is a symptom of other STD’s, but you have tested negative for all
of those as well. It sounds more likely
you just had a urinary tract infection, which although not terribly common with
males, does occur. You also need to
consider the likelihood that the woman you slept with has HIV in the first
place. What did you know about this
woman? Did she say she was HIV
positive? Does she have a tendency to
have unprotected sex or were you a fluke?
Either way, it doesn’t sound to me like you were infected, and you
should feel okay to move on with your life.
Go ahead and take the follow up test at the three month point, but I
feel pretty confident that the result will be negative. Best of luck to you, and play safe in the
future!