Aa
Hello everyone
Hello everyone:
I posted a potential exposure to HIV, or I thought it was a potential exposure, but everyone seems to agree it wasn't. Has anyone experienced burning in the shoulder, neck, arms, thighs, that comes and goes. Also breaking out in different places on the arms. I've been tested for herpes, gonnorea, and clamydia. I haven't been for syphillis or HIV. Although, everyone says that I don't need to test for HIV. I'm just really freaking out. I also get warm in the head area. :(
I posted a potential exposure to HIV, or I thought it was a potential exposure, but everyone seems to agree it wasn't. Has anyone experienced burning in the shoulder, neck, arms, thighs, that comes and goes. Also breaking out in different places on the arms. I've been tested for herpes, gonnorea, and clamydia. I haven't been for syphillis or HIV. Although, everyone says that I don't need to test for HIV. I'm just really freaking out. I also get warm in the head area. :(
Thanks for giving me all of the factual information. I went to get my blood taken today and will go to my doctor tomorrow for the results. I'm just so nervous though.
You are rapidly reaching the level of HIV anxiety where you should consider, as nursegirl suggested, professional help.
You have been reassured many times, by many people who not only have incredible knowledge about HIV/AIDS, but also personal experience with it. If you go back and read the profiles on Teak and Lizzie Lou, you will understand what I'm saying.
I have, like nursegirl, posted some information from joggen on the HIV Prevention Forum. He also runs the HIV Anxiety Group, which I strongly recommend you visit and post your concerns there.
Here is his post:
The Biology of Why "No Risk" Means "No Risk"- Please Read
by joggen , Mar 26, 2010 07:09PM
Many of you are concerned about situations where there was potential contact with a person's fluids that DID NOT involve sexual intercourse. A hand (either yours or your partner's) with vaginal fluid or semen on it touching your penis, an inside-out condom, your hand touching semen/vaginal fluid/blood, exposure to semen/vaginal fluid on a towel, blood on a door handle, etc. etc.
In a post in the HIV Expert Forum from December 2009, Dr. Handsfield explains the difference between HIV/STDs and non-STD, community-acquired infections. Since many of you want to know WHY your situation is no risk, I have reposted Dr. Handsfield's post below:
"The reason that some infections are transmitted only by sex, direct blood exposure, and other very intimate contacts (transplantation, childbirth, etc) is that they CANNOT be transmitted by other means. Why not? Because large amounts of the causative bacteria or viruses must have direct access to susceptible tissues, which typically are deep inside (gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV, HBV, etc); or they must be massaged vigorously into susceptible tissues, often with microscopic trauma (syphilis, HSV, HPV). This is how these bacteria and viruses, and the human interactions with them, evolved over thousands of human generations and millions of years, and it is an essential biological difference between STDs and, say, colds, influenza, common intestinal infections, measles, chickenpox, and a hundred other infectious diseases.
This is why STDs are not transmitted by kissing, hand-genital contact, contact with a contaminated environment, or from such fleeting contact like you describe here -- even fleeting contact with the genitals. Nobody can say the risk is zero from what you describe. But in 30+ years in the STD business, I have never seen or heard of such transmission occurring. ----> The people who show up in the clinic with HIV or other STDs always have had intercourse or direct blood exposure, as through shared injection equipment -- we simply see no exceptions. <----
So if there is risk in the sort of exposure described in your question, it is far too low to measure or worry about. This also explains our universal reassurance to questions about mutual masturbation, contact with potentially infected secretions in the environment, and most sexual exposures other than insertive sex."
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Dec 14, 2009 01:17PM
If you are still having trouble, here is the short version from Dr. Handsfield:
"Safe sex with respect to HIV isn't so complicated: no unprotected penis inside a rectum or vagina means no HIV risk."
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Jun 23, 2009 03:17PM
I sincerely do not mean to be unsympathetic. I understand you are scared, but we have repeatedly given you the knowledge and reassurance you need. No matter how many "what if" questions you come up with, our answer will remain the same. YOU HAD NO RISK!
I wish you the very best
Peace
Greenlydia
You have been reassured many times, by many people who not only have incredible knowledge about HIV/AIDS, but also personal experience with it. If you go back and read the profiles on Teak and Lizzie Lou, you will understand what I'm saying.
I have, like nursegirl, posted some information from joggen on the HIV Prevention Forum. He also runs the HIV Anxiety Group, which I strongly recommend you visit and post your concerns there.
Here is his post:
The Biology of Why "No Risk" Means "No Risk"- Please Read
by joggen , Mar 26, 2010 07:09PM
Many of you are concerned about situations where there was potential contact with a person's fluids that DID NOT involve sexual intercourse. A hand (either yours or your partner's) with vaginal fluid or semen on it touching your penis, an inside-out condom, your hand touching semen/vaginal fluid/blood, exposure to semen/vaginal fluid on a towel, blood on a door handle, etc. etc.
In a post in the HIV Expert Forum from December 2009, Dr. Handsfield explains the difference between HIV/STDs and non-STD, community-acquired infections. Since many of you want to know WHY your situation is no risk, I have reposted Dr. Handsfield's post below:
"The reason that some infections are transmitted only by sex, direct blood exposure, and other very intimate contacts (transplantation, childbirth, etc) is that they CANNOT be transmitted by other means. Why not? Because large amounts of the causative bacteria or viruses must have direct access to susceptible tissues, which typically are deep inside (gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV, HBV, etc); or they must be massaged vigorously into susceptible tissues, often with microscopic trauma (syphilis, HSV, HPV). This is how these bacteria and viruses, and the human interactions with them, evolved over thousands of human generations and millions of years, and it is an essential biological difference between STDs and, say, colds, influenza, common intestinal infections, measles, chickenpox, and a hundred other infectious diseases.
This is why STDs are not transmitted by kissing, hand-genital contact, contact with a contaminated environment, or from such fleeting contact like you describe here -- even fleeting contact with the genitals. Nobody can say the risk is zero from what you describe. But in 30+ years in the STD business, I have never seen or heard of such transmission occurring. ----> The people who show up in the clinic with HIV or other STDs always have had intercourse or direct blood exposure, as through shared injection equipment -- we simply see no exceptions. <----
So if there is risk in the sort of exposure described in your question, it is far too low to measure or worry about. This also explains our universal reassurance to questions about mutual masturbation, contact with potentially infected secretions in the environment, and most sexual exposures other than insertive sex."
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Dec 14, 2009 01:17PM
If you are still having trouble, here is the short version from Dr. Handsfield:
"Safe sex with respect to HIV isn't so complicated: no unprotected penis inside a rectum or vagina means no HIV risk."
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Jun 23, 2009 03:17PM
I sincerely do not mean to be unsympathetic. I understand you are scared, but we have repeatedly given you the knowledge and reassurance you need. No matter how many "what if" questions you come up with, our answer will remain the same. YOU HAD NO RISK!
I wish you the very best
Peace
Greenlydia
Ok, I guess meaning they are not infectious on their own, means there has to be blood mixed in. I had asked my doctor if HIV could enter my penis hole upon receiving a ********, and she said that's not possible??
Here is a quote from Lizzie Lou in the HIV community...I do believe she is quoting one of the docs here.
The short answer is that saliva virtually never carries any infectious HIV at all.
It does carry detectable "components" of HIV (such as viral RNA and proviral DNA), but these are not infectious on their own. The environment that saliva provides is far too harsh for infectious particles to remain intact and viable.
There are a number of possible mechanisms that have been suggested, which might explain why saliva seems to be so good at destroying HIV. Specific enzymes present in saliva may be important, or the effect of antibodies in saliva. Additionally, the saliva is "hypotonic" and has a tendency to disrupt any cells which may be floating around in it. It's pretty much certain that it's the combination of these factors that mean HIV is not transmitted in saliva.
It may seem strange that such a dangerous virus can't survive in something as "harmless" as saliva. In fact, saliva is a part of the body's natural defences against infection. Additionally, remember that the HIV virus is actually quite fragile.
The short answer is that saliva virtually never carries any infectious HIV at all.
It does carry detectable "components" of HIV (such as viral RNA and proviral DNA), but these are not infectious on their own. The environment that saliva provides is far too harsh for infectious particles to remain intact and viable.
There are a number of possible mechanisms that have been suggested, which might explain why saliva seems to be so good at destroying HIV. Specific enzymes present in saliva may be important, or the effect of antibodies in saliva. Additionally, the saliva is "hypotonic" and has a tendency to disrupt any cells which may be floating around in it. It's pretty much certain that it's the combination of these factors that mean HIV is not transmitted in saliva.
It may seem strange that such a dangerous virus can't survive in something as "harmless" as saliva. In fact, saliva is a part of the body's natural defences against infection. Additionally, remember that the HIV virus is actually quite fragile.
Ok, I went to my doctor and she prescribed me the anxiety med and antidepressant I will need to get through this. I explained the situation to her and she told me that hiv can be found in saliva, but she doesn't think I have anything to worry about since I didn't have any open sores on my penis at the time. It just scares me that she says it could be in saliva when I told her that I thought it deactivates it. She ordered me to get a blood test though, and come back on Friday.
Thank you nursegirl. I'm going to my primary finally today to let her know about all of my symptoms. I only went to a urologist a couple of weeks after the exposure because I had sores between my legs and groin area, which he treated me for a fungal infection. I'm sorry, I over worry about these kinds of things. I always see impeding doom with a lot of things. I used to be on an antidepressant after my divorce, but was winged off it a few years ago. I just want to get past this and enjoy life again. Even though we've ruled out HIV, std's such as syphilis are still a possibility as greenlydia suggested...
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