Absolutely. It would be very unusual for symptoms of recently acquired HIV to begin until two week following exposure. EWH
Thank you one final question, do you feel the night sweats could be acute HIV or do you think 36 hours is too soon?
Yes, in general, the sooner PEP is started the better. Most experts agree there is little benefit after 72 hours and sooner is better. EWH
By the time I get to a clinic and get the PEP I imagine it will be close to 48 hours, will it still be effective?
Welcome to the Forum. The encounter you describe placed you at relatively high risk for infection. Receptive rectal intercourse is the sex act with the highest risk for HIV, if your partner was infected, leading to infection in one out of every 100 exposures. Thus the critical question is whether or not he had HIV. If you think he was, the PEP is appropriate. I note that he states is is not infected however. It would be great if there were a way for you to determine if he was infected or not.
Should you opt to take PEP, please make sure, I hope you will at least plan to use condoms to discuss issues of follow-up of both side effects and for HIV testing
In the future, I urge you to use condoms for casual sexual encounters of this sort. EWH