Likelihood of Having Contracted HIV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The odds are much, much, much higher that you have herpes and don’t know it than that you have HIV.

But this is also true of your boyfriend!

I guess it's just scary because I had no idea you could go years and years without knowing you had HIV!

This is more a question for the HIV health worker. But I would think after a few years of untreated HIV you'd be getting more than a few colds a year, you'd be worn down, you'd start getting thrush, so on.

Many many colds a year are not a symptom of HIV infection.

Look, what you are saying in bold just isn't always true. Chronic HIV infection can go on, untreated and without developing into AIDS, for 10 years. Deluding yourself that someone "seems clean" or that it "seems like you would have heard" is silly--especially the latter; HIV is now a highly treatable illness and if you have a reasonably varied population of acquaintances, you probably know people who know they have HIV without you knowing about it.

But if OP's sexual partner is a man her age who has never used injection drugs or had sex with a man, the reality is that the risk that he was infected is almost astronomically low, and beyond that the risk that he would have infected her in one sex act is even lower.

All of this is even more true if OP and her sex partner are both white. https://www.hiv.uw.edu/pdf/key-populations/minority-populations/core-concept/all

[Anonymous]

^^ All of that said, OP: you are not HIV-positive. Take the test, but be prepared for your brain to start looking for ways to prove that the test was wrong, flawed, misread, whatever. That is how OCD works. You need CBT. Your life will be better after it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The odds are much, much, much higher that you have herpes and don’t know it than that you have HIV.

But this is also true of your boyfriend!

I guess it's just scary because I had no idea you could go years and years without knowing you had HIV!

This is more a question for the HIV health worker. But I would think after a few years of untreated HIV you'd be getting more than a few colds a year, you'd be worn down, you'd start getting thrush, so on.

Many many colds a year are not a symptom of HIV infection.

Look, what you are saying in bold just isn't always true. Chronic HIV infection can go on, untreated and without developing into AIDS, for 10 years. Deluding yourself that someone "seems clean" or that it "seems like you would have heard" is silly--especially the latter; HIV is now a highly treatable illness and if you have a reasonably varied population of acquaintances, you probably know people who know they have HIV without you knowing about it.

But if OP's sexual partner is a man her age who has never used injection drugs or had sex with a man, the reality is that the risk that he was infected is almost astronomically low, and beyond that the risk that he would have infected her in one sex act is even lower.

All of this is even more true if OP and her sex partner are both white. https://www.hiv.uw.edu/pdf/key-populations/minority-populations/core-concept/all

The bolded actually is scary. So how do people with HIV know they have HIV? If there are no symptoms how does anybody know to get tested? I assume gay men and minorities are tested more frequently since statistically there is a higher risk for them to develop the disease than a straight white woman. But if this is true and there are no symptoms for ten years, how do people know?(Genuinely asking you!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The odds are much, much, much higher that you have herpes and don’t know it than that you have HIV.

But this is also true of your boyfriend!

I guess it's just scary because I had no idea you could go years and years without knowing you had HIV!

This is more a question for the HIV health worker. But I would think after a few years of untreated HIV you'd be getting more than a few colds a year, you'd be worn down, you'd start getting thrush, so on.

Many many colds a year are not a symptom of HIV infection.

Look, what you are saying in bold just isn't always true. Chronic HIV infection can go on, untreated and without developing into AIDS, for 10 years. Deluding yourself that someone "seems clean" or that it "seems like you would have heard" is silly--especially the latter; HIV is now a highly treatable illness and if you have a reasonably varied population of acquaintances, you probably know people who know they have HIV without you knowing about it.

But if OP's sexual partner is a man her age who has never used injection drugs or had sex with a man, the reality is that the risk that he was infected is almost astronomically low, and beyond that the risk that he would have infected her in one sex act is even lower.

All of this is even more true if OP and her sex partner are both white. https://www.hiv.uw.edu/pdf/key-populations/minority-populations/core-concept/all

The bolded actually is scary. So how do people with HIV know they have HIV? If there are no symptoms how does anybody know to get tested? I assume gay men and minorities are tested more frequently since statistically there is a higher risk for them to develop the disease than a straight white woman. But if this is true and there are no symptoms for ten years, how do people know?(Genuinely asking you!)

Serious, not snarky, question for you: how old are you? I ask because these seem like the questions of someone quite a bit younger than me; I'm 45.

I have lived through several different eras in HIV testing practices, during which the answer to your question has changed significantly. More on the history of who got tested when, and on what medical/public health logic, here: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5514a1.htm.

In my young adulthood, "worried well" people like OP were generally advised to get tested annually. Reporting about people who didn't necessarily have a reason to believe they would be infected with HIV and discovered that they were anyway via something other than a routine test was common (although this was because it was so scary, not because it was so likely).

Means via which they discovered this included: donating blood (because the donation was tested to protect the blood supply--people who received blood products were among the groups hardest-hit by HIV before this testing was performed), attempting to enter the military or the Peace Corps, and a few other things that are also not that uncommon in life. Other than via testing for health insurance (THANKS OBAMA!), all of this is still very possible.

Routine HIV testing is currently recommended for a bunch of populations where the risk is high and/or the benefit of identifying an infection is particularly great (as with pregnant women).

The CDC now recommends it once in a lifetime for nonpregnant people at otherwise low risk (basically an an ass-covering maneuver). But screening during pregnancy can help prevent a new infection of the infant, so it is recommended. As a result, for women in their 20s and 30s, HIV testing is still pretty common today because pregnancy is pretty common.

Screening/testing is also recommended as standard follow-up for anyone being treated for TB (which is not common in the domestic US population and for any STD (which are VERY common in the domestic US population).

That is a lot of people being screened and potentially tested in any given year. I am at what the CDC characterizes as low risk and in the year when my child was born, I was tested for HIV at least six times: once at a preconception appointment, once when I discovered that I was pregnant, three times by three different life insurance companies (I was shopping around), and again on delivery (because I had a c-section).

Per the CDC, proactive annual screening is currently recommended for: "Persons likely to be at high risk, [who are:] injection-drug users and their sex partners, persons who exchange sex for money or drugs, sex partners of HIV-infected persons, and MSM or heterosexual persons who themselves or whose sex partners have had more than one sex partner since their most recent HIV test."

[Anonymous]

Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

It wasn't even a one-time fling! It was twice. The one time he slipped it in condomless without asking me and the second time I just wanted to be cool and impress him. I knew him and he ghosted after we hooked up, but I'm sure if I saw him on the street he'd say hello. We have mutual friends!

I am just freaking out. As I said, I have the sweetest boyfriend and I'm terrified I gave him something and ruined his life. That's the only reason I'm even considering being tested. I am poring over my medical records; I last had an STD test before we started dating and I was chlamydia and gonorrhea free. Do you think a test is worth it, or a waste of time and $$$?

Thank you for your time and compassion in helping to talk me down!

[Anonymous]

Not PP but just go to OB-GYN on your lunch break tomorrow or Friday. I'm pretty sure with modern technology they prick your finger and you get your answer a minute later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

That's overstating it, particularly when you likely would not know your fling partner's history and whether they had any elevated risk factors. But, the chances are definitely small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

That's overstating it, particularly when you likely would not know your fling partner's history and whether they had any elevated risk factors. But, the chances are definitely small.

OP and I don't know his entire history but he was not bisexual and he did not use intravenous drugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not PP but just go to OB-GYN on your lunch break tomorrow or Friday. I'm pretty sure with modern technology they prick your finger and you get your answer a minute later.

Why give incorrect information?? If you go to the doctor they will draw blood and it will take several days to get results from the lab. If you do the home test or go to Whitman Walker Clinic in DC you will get a saliva test that will give you results in 20 minutes.

If OP is very anxious, she should get the home test ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not PP but just go to OB-GYN on your lunch break tomorrow or Friday. I'm pretty sure with modern technology they prick your finger and you get your answer a minute later.

Why give incorrect information?? If you go to the doctor they will draw blood and it will take several days to get results from the lab. If you do the home test or go to Whitman Walker Clinic in DC you will get a saliva test that will give you results in 20 minutes.

If OP is very anxious, she should get the home test ASAP.

It's not incorrect lol. There is a rapid test called Institest. They prick your finger and it takes a minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

That's overstating it, particularly when you likely would not know your fling partner's history and whether they had any elevated risk factors. But, the chances are definitely small.

You're wrong. Even assuming that the one night fling was actually with someone who was HIV positive. HIV is not easy to get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

That's overstating it, particularly when you likely would not know your fling partner's history and whether they had any elevated risk factors. But, the chances are definitely small.

You're wrong. Even assuming that the one night fling was actually with someone who was HIV positive. HIV is not easy to get.

"Not easy to get" does not mean that the risk is "so low as to be non-existent." If you think it is, then you are wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. To answer your question I am in my late 20s.

That all makes sense and I appreciate the information. That would explain why I am not offered it annually - I do not meet any of those risk factors and I have actually never been pregnant, so it's never been offered to me at all.

That is what scares me. It sounds like since I am not considered "high risk," people don't see it as necessary, but I could have gotten it from a one-time thing five years ago and just have no idea.

You didn't. You're fine. The odds of getting HIV from a one time heterosexual fling involving unprotected sex are so low as to be non-existent.

That's overstating it, particularly when you likely would not know your fling partner's history and whether they had any elevated risk factors. But, the chances are definitely small.

You're wrong. Even assuming that the one night fling was actually with someone who was HIV positive. HIV is not easy to get.

Np Wait are you the HIV expert or no