Thanks for your reassurance Doc! i bought one of those in home HIV test that you send and get your results over the phone. I was too scared and embarrassed to go to the clinics. You just dropped my anxiety level to 50%. Thanks again!
Patience, patience. The professional forum moderators do not stand by 27/7 to answer questions immediately. MedHelp's standard is for a reply with 24 hours. This one was at 2 hours.
That's all for this thread except and unless you report your HIV test result.
Welcome to the forum. Thanks to moderator Claire for condensing about 2,000 words into the 200 or so necessary to convey your questions and concerns.
First, you had safe sex, including condom protection (even for oral sex). By itself, this means no significant risk of any STD. Second, in the US and other industrialized countries, it is the rare escort who has HIV. The odds your partner was infected probably are no higher than 1 chance in a thousand. Third, your eczema makes no difference. Although skin wounds of various kinds probably somewhat increase the risk of HIV transmission through contact with blood or infected secretions, the effect is a minor one -- and given the near-zero risk of transmission to start with, your eczema had no measurable influence. The other things you mention -- the odor of her vaginal secretions, your sore throat, transient possible lymph node enlargement (in only a single body location), headaches, and possible thrush -- make no difference inthis assessment. Far from you being in "the unlucky less than 1%", the odds you caught HIV are closer to one chance in many million -- zero for all practical purposes.
Therefore, from a strictly medical or risk assessment standpoint you do not need to be tested for HIV. However, I recommend you be tested anyway for emotional/psychological reasons: the negative result is likely to be more helpful in resolving your fears than my statements of scientific evidence and reasoned reassurance. Enough time (2 months) has passed for reliable HIV antibody testing.
So get tested. You can definitely expect a negative result. Feel free to report the test result, but let's not have any "yes but" or "what if" follow-up questions until then. There is nothing you can add that would change my opinion or advice.
Regards-- HHH, MD
Hi Dr. Handsfield. I was wondering if you can please answer my questions, my post was modified from my original one. I'm terrified. Please help.