Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

Chances of false negative.

Hi. This is a real mess, but would appreciate some advice. This is my story:
Week 0. Had vaginal sex with a worker, the condom broke. Not sure how long it was broken for.
Week 1 to 2. Got very mild flu like symptoms. And my throat felt like it had a golf ball in it for a couple weeks.
Went crazy, depressed etc. Basically just accepted that I'd caught HIV
Week 10. Thought screw it and had sex with another worker. Condom broke again but only for a very short time.
I couldn't beleive how stupid I'd been so 3 days later I went to a clinic and had a serum test (don't know what it was exactly) which tested negative. I also took a course of Combivir for 30 days.
Week 12. Had an antibody test in a UK clinic which came back negative. After a massive sigh of relief I carried on taking the Combivir (it cost me over $700, so thought may as well) and put my rollercoaster of emotions and symptoms down to psycosamatics and the fact that I must be a head case.
Week 29-32 Had two colds back to back. Since the second cold I have had this numbness, twitching, throbbing feeling on the bridge of my nose.
Week 34. Had two tests in Thailand at different clinics. One was ECLIA, the other I don't know. Both were negative. At the same time as the ECLIA I had other tests as well including a urine sample which showed I had a small amount of blood in it.

Anyhow I breathed another massive sigh of relief up until the point where I read that if you take ART in the window period it will make antibody tests less reliable as I will take much longer to produce antibodies. What are the chances that I could actually be positive. I know it's complicated as there are two possible exposures but it is the first one that I am more worried about. I still have this numbness feeling in my nose on and off which is a bit wierd.
2 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
1232776 tn?1267681287
Quick question.. you mentioned paying quite a bit of money for Combivir. Does the NIH not cover all prescription drug costs? I was under the impression that it did. Not to say that the money you paid wasn't well spent!
Helpful - 0
1024580 tn?1331574121
Hello,
First of all, let me try to help you to put things into perspective and bring some logic to the whole equation.  Both incidents, though involving some degree of risk of HIV infection, had a relatively low risk for this.  This is because we assume firstly that the ladies were positive (which is a lot of assuming as statistically most people are negative, even among sex workers, excluding Sub-Saharan Africa); secondly you used a condom for at least part of the intercourse (which reduces the risk of transmission); thirdly, the estimated risk for the man involved in insertive vaginal intercourse without a condom from a single episode is less than 0.01% (less than 1 in 1,000) and lastly, you took Combivir as post-exposure prophylaxis, which is really only required for four weeks following exposure (even though it should be started within 72 hours of the exposure, which you did not do, and possibly this was not really necessary in the end anyway)  Bearing all this in mind, I do not think that you have become infected with HIV.  The initial symptoms happened far too early (less than 2 weeks) for them to be related with acute seroconversion and the numbness in the nose has absolutely nothing to do with it.  I am sure some of the symptoms you have had experienced were side effects from the anti-retrovirals.  It is said that taking PEP affects the reliability of the HIV test.  However, in my experience, when PEP fails, the virus is able to replicate, your body produces antibodies, and you can detect the infection very soon after finishing the course of PEP.  But if we stick to the clinical guidelines, one needs to wait 12 weeks from the end of the course of PEP, which would be week 26 ( I assume that you finished taking Combivir at week 14).  Therefore those negative HIV tests at week 34 would be totally conclusive.  I think all the stress you are under is causing most of the symptoms.  I am convinced you are HIV negative.  Try to forget about it and move on!
Best wishes,
Dr Jose
Helpful - 0

You are reading content posted in the HIV - International Forum

Popular Resources
Condoms are the most effective way to prevent HIV and STDs.
PrEP is used by people with high risk to prevent HIV infection.
Can I get HIV from surfaces, like toilet seats?
Can you get HIV from casual contact, like hugging?
Frequency of HIV testing depends on your risk.
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) may help prevent HIV infection.