Can autoimmune diseases affect your HIV test results?

[Sambina_88]

BFirst of all, I just want to say that this may be a long question, so bear with me. Anyway, back in may of 2007, I had gotten cut during a manicure. I have extremely bad ocd and a severe paranoia of catching HIV and any other disease for that matter. In early december of 2007, I had an HIV test done. I got my results on january 17th 2008. They were negative. My doctor said everything looked good except for my WBC count. It was only mildly elevated. She said it's usually supposed to be 10.5, and mine was 10.9, she wasn't very worried though. She didn't even think I should come in for another blood test. Anyway, for about a year, I've been dealing with a whole bunch of symptoms and I just seem to be feeling worse. Some of my symptoms include constipation, abdominal pain/cramps, diarrhea, sometimes when I go to the bathroom, instead of there being stool in the toilet, it will just be mucus. I call it the fatty stuff because it looks like globs of fat that sometimes float on top of the water. I also have been getting muscle aches, joint pain, chronic fatigue/exhaustion, my eyes have been burning/stinging lately, eye floaters/eye pain, in june of 2007 my eyes were mildly inflamed, but in feb of 2008 they appeared normal (that's what they eye doctor said anyway), I get dizzy spells and vomiting episodes (have gotten these since elementary school, am now 20). Before I burp I'll get this rotten egg smell, an hour or 2 later, I'm throwing up. I'm having some problems with balance, tingling and numbness in my fingers, toes, hand, legs, sometimes even my head has that feeling, headaches, scale says I weigh the same but all my clothes are getting looser, flu like symptoms (on and off), hot/cold hand and feet, hot flashes, shortness of breath/panic attack type symptoms, mouth ulcers, etc... I saw a gastroenterologist and he took my celiac and thyroid levels. My thyroid levels were fine, but my celiac levels were a little elevated. I was supposed to get an endoscopy and a colonoscopy done, But I'm really paranoid about how well they clean their tools and stuff. I've had a urine and stool sample (to check for worms) done, but they didn't find anything in my stool and it's been a week or 2 since I've had my urine test done and nobody's called me back with my test results. My blood pressure was also a little lower than usual, 108 over something. It's just weird, everything's a little off lately when it comes to tests, but nothing alarming. Some people keep saying it's probably just IBS or stress or that it's all in my head, but there seems to be too many things for it to be all in my head.

My question is, if I do have an autoimmune disease, can it affect my HIV test result? Do you think after 7 months the results would be 100% accurate? Or do you think maybe somehow antibodies from an autoimmune disease could have affected the HIV test and caused it to be a false negative? As far as I know, there's no one in my family with celiac, but my my mom has always gotten numbness/tingling in her right hand, has had stomach issues (like having to rush to the bathroom after eating, stomach cramps, etc...) but she thinks it could just be IBS. My grandma also used to have stomach issues. Like IBS symptoms. I've gotten sick my whole life. I just seem to have a weaker immune system then the rest of my family.

Do you think I could possibly have celiac? And do you also think the HIV test result (negative) was accurate? Can autoimmune diseases prolong the window period or make it where HIV antibodies won't show up even after 6 months? Does the ELISA test specifically check for HIV antibodies? So even if you do have an autoimmune disease, the ELISA test will just pick up HIV antibodies and not any other antibodies, like from autoimmune diseases?

I'm sorry for all the insane questions. I'm currently in therapy, but obviously it's not doing me any good.

Thank you!

[Teak]

First off are you being treated for an autoimmune disease and have you been under treatment for years? You answer no then no your autoimmune disease will no effect your test results. Seek help with your OCD.