Likelihood of Having Contracted HIV?

[Anonymous]

Wait so can we all agree OP probably doesn't have HIV and can spend her lunchbreak/money doing something other than the test?

[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.

OP, I didn't realize that was you asking. Sorry about that.

The place where your reasoning goes haywire is that it is like you are ignoring or not able to digest what the words "high risk" mean. You're not "not considered high risk" via a mistake on your health care providers' part leading to you not being testing and some horrible underlying fact going unnoticed. You are "not considered high risk" because you actually have not done things that put you in danger of contracting HIV.

There was a slogan in circulation when I was your age: HIV is hard to get. It was meant to calm down people who at that point were freaking out that they could get HIV from public restrooms and pools, but it was and is true across a wide range of activities, including heterosexual intercourse with a young man who is not an injection drug user and doesn't have sex with men.

To put this in the context of your anxiety: you are much, MUCH more likely to have contracted hepatitis B via the sex you had than to have gotten HIV that way. Hep B is 50-100 times more transmissible than HIV. Your mind is fastened to HIV for some reason, and it's not a reason that has anything to do with real analysis of risk. You have a contagion thing going here, a worry about pollution. That is anxiety, not your wise mind talking. Get better treatment for the anxiety.

[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.

OP, I didn't realize that was you asking. Sorry about that.

The place where your reasoning goes haywire is that it is like you are ignoring or not able to digest what the words "high risk" mean. You're not "not considered high risk" via a mistake on your health care providers' part leading to you not being testing and some horrible underlying fact going unnoticed. You are "not considered high risk" because you actually have not done things that put you in danger of contracting HIV.

There was a slogan in circulation when I was your age: HIV is hard to get. It was meant to calm down people who at that point were freaking out that they could get HIV from public restrooms and pools, but it was and is true across a wide range of activities, including heterosexual intercourse with a young man who is not an injection drug user and doesn't have sex with men.

To put this in the context of your anxiety: you are much, MUCH more likely to have contracted hepatitis B via the sex you had than to have gotten HIV that way. Hep B is 50-100 times more transmissible than HIV. Your mind is fastened to HIV for some reason, and it's not a reason that has anything to do with real analysis of risk. You have a contagion thing going here, a worry about pollution. That is anxiety, not your wise mind talking. Get better treatment for the anxiety.

Thank you. I really do appreciate you! I know it is anxiety because as soon as you say "You wouldn't get it from a young man"...well once I gave an older man a blowjob once! But he was straight and not a drug user, just 40. So I can think of a myriad of situations that stress me out. I generally did not have unprotected intercourse, though I did give blow jobs. So I think it's just anxiety.

I actually probably will go get a test this week, maybe an at-home test which would be mortifying to buy, especially when as you put it, the risk is low.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. And happy holidays!

[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.

OP, I didn't realize that was you asking. Sorry about that.

The place where your reasoning goes haywire is that it is like you are ignoring or not able to digest what the words "high risk" mean. You're not "not considered high risk" via a mistake on your health care providers' part leading to you not being testing and some horrible underlying fact going unnoticed. You are "not considered high risk" because you actually have not done things that put you in danger of contracting HIV.

There was a slogan in circulation when I was your age: HIV is hard to get. It was meant to calm down people who at that point were freaking out that they could get HIV from public restrooms and pools, but it was and is true across a wide range of activities, including heterosexual intercourse with a young man who is not an injection drug user and doesn't have sex with men.

To put this in the context of your anxiety: you are much, MUCH more likely to have contracted hepatitis B via the sex you had than to have gotten HIV that way. Hep B is 50-100 times more transmissible than HIV. Your mind is fastened to HIV for some reason, and it's not a reason that has anything to do with real analysis of risk. You have a contagion thing going here, a worry about pollution. That is anxiety, not your wise mind talking. Get better treatment for the anxiety.

Curious why you say a younger man is lower risk? I'd think men in their 40s+ (alive during AIDS crisis) would be less likely to have engaged in unsafe sex in their youth. (I know nothing about AIDS)

[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.

OP, I didn't realize that was you asking. Sorry about that.

The place where your reasoning goes haywire is that it is like you are ignoring or not able to digest what the words "high risk" mean. You're not "not considered high risk" via a mistake on your health care providers' part leading to you not being testing and some horrible underlying fact going unnoticed. You are "not considered high risk" because you actually have not done things that put you in danger of contracting HIV.

There was a slogan in circulation when I was your age: HIV is hard to get. It was meant to calm down people who at that point were freaking out that they could get HIV from public restrooms and pools, but it was and is true across a wide range of activities, including heterosexual intercourse with a young man who is not an injection drug user and doesn't have sex with men.

To put this in the context of your anxiety: you are much, MUCH more likely to have contracted hepatitis B via the sex you had than to have gotten HIV that way. Hep B is 50-100 times more transmissible than HIV. Your mind is fastened to HIV for some reason, and it's not a reason that has anything to do with real analysis of risk. You have a contagion thing going here, a worry about pollution. That is anxiety, not your wise mind talking. Get better treatment for the anxiety.

Curious why you say a younger man is lower risk? I'd think men in their 40s+ (alive during AIDS crisis) would be less likely to have engaged in unsafe sex in their youth. (I know nothing about AIDS)

HIV infection is currently permanent. The prevalence increases with age because more people infected with it are added to the population each year and relatively few people in the US die of it anymore. Therefore, all other things being equal, any given person in a group of people who are older is more likely to be infected than any given person in a group of people who are younger.

There's a limit to this that corresponds to the availability of drug treatment effectively making HIV a chronic illness. Before that, people who got it almost universally died. If that had continued happening, you'd be right that people who lived through that era would tend to be either uninfected or dead. But it is not that simple.

PS You are right that safer sex practices flourished, and now are somewhat on the wane among younger people. But it's not just unsafe sex that transmits HIV, it is unsafe sex with someone who is infected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Curious why you say a younger man is lower risk? I'd think men in their 40s+ (alive during AIDS crisis) would be less likely to have engaged in unsafe sex in their youth. (I know nothing about AIDS)

A person who has been sexually active for more years has more opportunity to contract an STD, compared to someone who has been sexually active for fewer years. More partners, more sex, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I went through this. You know what it was? Anxiety that needed to be treated.

Let it go today. Test as soon as you get back. And then find a therapist you trust to work with on your health anxiety. Because even when this test comes back negative, you are just going to find something new to obsess over.

If you need a way to cope today and the next few days, I found this workbook helpful. Doing the exercises will feel better than spiraling out like you are now.

https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Health-Anxiety

Thank you so much to this PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but that test is generally not used in gyn or primary care clinics. I've gotten tested regularly for over 20 years. Every time it is done at the doctor it is always a blood test through the lab

The only time I have had a rapid saliva or blood test done are the times I went to Whian Walker which specializes in HIV testing particularly in high risk populations. In those kinds of clinic settings, rapid tests are used because patients may not return for results and the tests are often anonymous. That's just not the way things work in a usual gyn or primary care setting where they are not seeing many high risk patients.

[Anonymous]

Just go to Planned Parenthood. They'll tell you toy likely are very low risk and have nothing to worry about an toyll know for sure in 20 min. This was like a right of passage in my 20s. We got the "you have sex once without protection you'll get HIV" sex ed, inevitably had unprotected sex even once and freaked. Thata what they are there for, you'll be fine.

Btw, at your fyn just say you want a full workup for everything covered by insurance. I've been with the same person for almost a decade and get an HUV test with my panel annually even though I have no concerns, because why not? But this is not in because people don't want to be tested for HIV. I dated someone for years who I ended up having some serious concerns about and was horrified I had been told I was fine without the big baddie being included. That was my PP testing. It was fine.

[Anonymous]

Hi Op, I went thru this phobia when I was 25 (I’m 48 now). But I was too scared to get tested and worried 2 years of my life away! In the 20 years since, I stopped thinking about HIV but obsersed about breast cancer, MS, ALS, etc etc.

Luckily I’ve had lots of therapy since my HIV obsession and can recognize these fears for what they are (health anxiety/OCD) and I now have tools to work through it.

Sadly it’s still not easy and a lifelong challenge. So get the test ASAP (bc you definitely don’t have HIV, it’s extremely hard to get even with an HIV positive partner... reading stats is what finally convinced me to get tested bc the chance is so so low) and then prepare yourself to immediately address the thing you do have —health anxiety.

It’s so hard. I get it. But you’re strong and there’s therapy out there to help you. Good luck !

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to say how educational this thread is! I also had no idea you could go decades without realizing you had HIV (I thought you'd start getting very sick after a few months) and didn't realize it was so hard to catch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say how educational this thread is! I also had no idea you could go decades without realizing you had HIV (I thought you'd start getting very sick after a few months) and didn't realize it was so hard to catch.

I don't actually think it's "asymptomatic." I was reading something once about an actor who had HIV (don't remember) and the biggest indicator that you need to get tested is that you have a flu that just does not let up for two or three weeks. Then after that you're pretty asymptomatic as long as you get treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say how educational this thread is! I also had no idea you could go decades without realizing you had HIV (I thought you'd start getting very sick after a few months) and didn't realize it was so hard to catch.

I don't actually think it's "asymptomatic." I was reading something once about an actor who had HIV (don't remember) and the biggest indicator that you need to get tested is that you have a flu that just does not let up for two or three weeks. Then after that you're pretty asymptomatic as long as you get treatment.

This is inaccurate. Early HIV infection is often, but not always, flu-like. That acute phase passes and being completely asymptomatic is normal in the chronic phase (which can go on for 10 years, regardless of treatment). When it progresses to AIDS, that’s when you get sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say how educational this thread is! I also had no idea you could go decades without realizing you had HIV (I thought you'd start getting very sick after a few months) and didn't realize it was so hard to catch.

I don't actually think it's "asymptomatic." I was reading something once about an actor who had HIV (don't remember) and the biggest indicator that you need to get tested is that you have a flu that just does not let up for two or three weeks. Then after that you're pretty asymptomatic as long as you get treatment.

This is inaccurate. Early HIV infection is often, but not always, flu-like. That acute phase passes and being completely asymptomatic is normal in the chronic phase (which can go on for 10 years, regardless of treatment). When it progresses to AIDS, that’s when you get sick.

If you are treated early and the condition becomes a chronic illness, does that mean you never progress to AIDS? Or do infected individuals all eventually progress to having AIDS, but still the illness is managed? For example, is Magic Johnson or Greg Lougainus expected to never progress to AIDS because they were treated early on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say how educational this thread is! I also had no idea you could go decades without realizing you had HIV (I thought you'd start getting very sick after a few months) and didn't realize it was so hard to catch.

I don't actually think it's "asymptomatic." I was reading something once about an actor who had HIV (don't remember) and the biggest indicator that you need to get tested is that you have a flu that just does not let up for two or three weeks. Then after that you're pretty asymptomatic as long as you get treatment.

This is inaccurate. Early HIV infection is often, but not always, flu-like. That acute phase passes and being completely asymptomatic is normal in the chronic phase (which can go on for 10 years, regardless of treatment). When it progresses to AIDS, that’s when you get sick.

If you are treated early and the condition becomes a chronic illness, does that mean you never progress to AIDS? Or do infected individuals all eventually progress to having AIDS, but still the illness is managed? For example, is Magic Johnson or Greg Lougainus expected to never progress to AIDS because they were treated early on?

Magic Johnson and Greg Louganis both have HIV but have not developed AIDS. Treatment helps a ton, and they both got it.

However, not everyone who is treated avoids developing AIDS, and not everyone with HIV who is not treated develops AIDS. In general, without treatment, it will progress. But not always.