Pain as it relates to HIV

[Cause4concern71]

Hello – I had a brief moment of exposure of vaginal sex for maybe 20sec on April 1st with a CSW when the condom broke.  She said she claimed she was clean and has been tested, but I am not so sure.  She looked like she had dark spots all over her skin.  I went to get tested 5 day after, at a clinic, and it was neg (which I knew it would be).  But that was useless for this exposure.  Approx 10 days after I began to get joint pains in my knees, elbows, knuckles, toes and in the bone.  No fever, enlarge lymph nodes, at times a stuffy nose.  A cough but I smoke, more so now.  I see some white fur like on my tongue but cannot make a determination on it.  I took a test last Friday 17 days post exposure (at my physicians) and still waiting results.  Can joint pain like this be a tell sign?

[Teak]

Do not bring up and post to old threads.

[Nick191]

Again symptoms by themselves are no indication of HIV at all. Joing pain and other flu like symptoms are much more likely to come from bacterial infections like chlamydia. Brief exposures would unlikely result in inflection of HIV and the number one cause of joint swelling (i.e. reactive arthritis) in sexually active individuals in the US is chlamydia, however, other non-sexually related pathogens may also be responsible for this such as salmonella.

[XtremelyWorried]

Now I'm even more worried after reading this post. I have a problem similar to yours. Had unprotected sex w/ a csw about 9 days ago. Now I have pretty persistent joint pains. Also a have slight runny nose with no other symptoms.

Maybe this is caused by anxiety?

[Teak]

HIV has NO specific symptoms nor are they reliable in diagnosing HIV.

[Cause4concern71]

Sorry nervous....here is what I meant to say... Thank you.  I have heard that symptoms cannot be a reliable factor in determining status.  However, would joint pain be accompanied by other things like fever, night sweats, enlarge lymph node etc.  Other than the pains in my joints as I had described nothing more, with the exception of the tongue (which is hard to tell (but I smoke) and somewhat of a cough.  The guy at the clinic said it was too early to see symptoms and joint pain is an advance stage?  But I have read that it can be an early symptom?

[Cause4concern71]

Thanks you.  I have heard that symptoms cannot be a reliable factor in determining status.  However, would joint pain be accompanied by other things like fever, night sweats, enlarge lymph node etc.  Other than the pains in my joints as I had described nothing more, with the exception of the tong (which is hard to tell (but I smoke) and somewhat of a cough.  The guy at the clinic said it was too early to see symptoms and join if at an advice stage?  But I have read that it can be an early symptom?

[Mitch82]

Joint pain is not really a tell tale sign, however HIV is not identified by symptoms, as up to 40% of people have no symptoms at all.  You will need to test at 12weeks for a conclusive answer, however a test at 6 weeks is a good indication and not likely to change.