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performing oral
Hi Doc,
about 2 months ago I performedand and recieved oral sex with another man whom i met on the internet. he said he was neg but i'm having alot of worries. This was a one time thing and am trying to get back to normal. I'm married. I took a Home access test at day 32 which was neg. any advice?
about 2 months ago I performedand and recieved oral sex with another man whom i met on the internet. he said he was neg but i'm having alot of worries. This was a one time thing and am trying to get back to normal. I'm married. I took a Home access test at day 32 which was neg. any advice?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Yes. But I do suggest you stop spending hours looking for every question on this subject, and stop searching the web entirely on this subject. You're just going to find new reasons to ask additional anxiety-provoked questions. Please accept the reassurance you have been given and more on with your life.
That will be all for this thread.
That will be all for this thread.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I read your entire question and understood the nature of your exposure.
The test itself is about 90% sensitive by 4 weeks. My assessment that you don't have HIV and really don't need further testing did not depend only on that fact, but on overall assessment of the chance you caught HIV. If we assume a 1% chance your partner had HIV and a 1 in 10,000 chance of getting infected by performing oral sex, then even before you were tested, there was only 1 in a million chance you caught HIV (0.01 x 0.0001 = 0.000001). When you then factor in a test that would pick up 90% of infections, the chance you have HIV becomes 1 in 10 million. That should be good enough for anybody! But if you will sleep better knowing the odds are 1 in 100 million, feel free to be tested again.
In other words, stop worrying about this. But feel free to have another test if you'll feel better about it.
The test itself is about 90% sensitive by 4 weeks. My assessment that you don't have HIV and really don't need further testing did not depend only on that fact, but on overall assessment of the chance you caught HIV. If we assume a 1% chance your partner had HIV and a 1 in 10,000 chance of getting infected by performing oral sex, then even before you were tested, there was only 1 in a million chance you caught HIV (0.01 x 0.0001 = 0.000001). When you then factor in a test that would pick up 90% of infections, the chance you have HIV becomes 1 in 10 million. That should be good enough for anybody! But if you will sleep better knowing the odds are 1 in 100 million, feel free to be tested again.
In other words, stop worrying about this. But feel free to have another test if you'll feel better about it.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the HIV forum.
HIV is rarely transmitted by oral sex. Some cases have been acquired penile to oral transmission, but few if any have been definitively documented as being transmitted from the oral to the penile partner. One estimate of the risk, from CDC, is that if the oral partner is infected, the transmission risk is around once for every 20,000 episodes of fellatio -- equivalent to receiving oral sex from infected partners once daily for 55 years. And that's if the oral partner is infected -- and yours almost certainly was not. (Yes, people can lie -- but most don't when asked directly.) Finally, the standard HIV antibody tests -- including the Home Access test -- turn positive within a month of infection.
The low risk your partner had HIV, the near-zero transmission risk if he really was infected, and your blood test result, taken together, are 100% proof you weren't infected. My advice is to not worry further about this.
Finally, anticipating a follow-up question about whether it is safe to have sex with your wife: No distant online source can guarantee someone isn't infected. But if I were in your situation, and with the knowledge I have about HIV transmission risks, I would continue unprotected sex with my wife. In fact, I would never have stopped doing so and would not have even had an HIV test. Perhaps that tells you how confident I am that you're OK.
Happy new year-- HHH, MD
HIV is rarely transmitted by oral sex. Some cases have been acquired penile to oral transmission, but few if any have been definitively documented as being transmitted from the oral to the penile partner. One estimate of the risk, from CDC, is that if the oral partner is infected, the transmission risk is around once for every 20,000 episodes of fellatio -- equivalent to receiving oral sex from infected partners once daily for 55 years. And that's if the oral partner is infected -- and yours almost certainly was not. (Yes, people can lie -- but most don't when asked directly.) Finally, the standard HIV antibody tests -- including the Home Access test -- turn positive within a month of infection.
The low risk your partner had HIV, the near-zero transmission risk if he really was infected, and your blood test result, taken together, are 100% proof you weren't infected. My advice is to not worry further about this.
Finally, anticipating a follow-up question about whether it is safe to have sex with your wife: No distant online source can guarantee someone isn't infected. But if I were in your situation, and with the knowledge I have about HIV transmission risks, I would continue unprotected sex with my wife. In fact, I would never have stopped doing so and would not have even had an HIV test. Perhaps that tells you how confident I am that you're OK.
Happy new year-- HHH, MD
Just a word of thanks! Anxiety has definitely been keeping me up. I tested neg again at 8 weeks and have been sleeping better and feel like I'm finally moving on. I only bring that up as confirmation of your assurances and for anyone else reading this thread.
I saw where you stated that during an HIV/AIDS scientific meeting about a year ago, with about 300 HIV experts in the room, the moderator asked whether anybody had seen a patient with a positive test delayed more than 6 weeks using the newer tests that have been routine in the past few years. No hands went up. Even CDC's own advice is that it is never necessary to test beyond 3 months. Would you consider the Home Access test to fall into the category of newer tests and just as reliable?
2 more tings doc:
I did make it clear that i both performed as well as received.
you said in my post that intibody test are reliable after a month, but I've seen you state longer periods in other posts. how conclusive is a test at 4 weeks?
I did make it clear that i both performed as well as received.
you said in my post that intibody test are reliable after a month, but I've seen you state longer periods in other posts. how conclusive is a test at 4 weeks?
thanks doc, it's a huge load off my mind - happy new year to you as well!
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