Still concerned

[IIIFNMIII]

About 4 months ago I was in Thailand and I recieved unprotected oral sex from a female for about 5 minutes.  I am an uncircumsized male, but I did not have any visible cuts or lesions and I did not see any blood in her mouth.  I also fingered her and had protected sex.  I grew very concerned as time went by.  About 4 weeks after the event, I came down with a cold like sickness that freaked me out even more.  From there I had trouble sleeping and felt fatigued.  Three months after the event, I went to the doctor, although I did not share my experience or ask for HIV testing.  They tested my for mono and looked at my blood count etc.  They said that I did not have mono, but that I had a slight virus infection!!!  That sent me over the edge.  At week 14 I forced myself to go to a clinic and take a 20 minute orasure mouthswap test.  Fortunately, the test came out negative.  That said, I am still not convinced.  Everything seems like an HIV symptom.  Recently, I notice that I have about 20 tiny red dots that seem to be petechiae, which can be caused by HIV.  I dont think that I had the dots or most of them before my unsafe event.  Am I be ridicuous or should I still be concerned?  I am at witts end.

[IIIFNMIII]

I wish it was that easy to let it go.  Can someone tell me what the odds of me having HIV if the female had it and I recieved oral from her for 5 minutes(I am uncircumsized) and fingered her and had an orasure mouth swap antibody test come up negative at 14 weeks?  Testing windows and oral sex seems to be inconsistent depending on the site you visit.  Some say people have recieved HIV from oral others say you essentially cant.  Some say 3 months on the window, some say 6.  Thanks

[PanicStrickened!]

lol, you know the answer already, you just have this thing as you have assured yourself that the Thai girl is HIV+ because she is from Thailand.  Sure, the risk she is positive is higher, but there still a very very small chance!  Not to mention, your behaviour was not at all risky, AND you had a 14 week negative!

Relax, you are absolutely in the clear!

Go and have a beer and enjoy yourself!

[Xhost]

Where did you read that the window period is 6 months? Please provide a link as I would like to read this for myself. The CDC itself says that the window period is 12 weeks (at least for now - they will eventually revise downward).

The window period is a confusing subject, and will likely remain so for the forseeable future. At least one state, Mass., now has officially lowered the window period in that state to 6 weeks. Also, many doctors in private practice recognize that a 6 week test is conclusive, but will not say so publicly as that contradicts the official CDC window period of 12 weeks. Of course, the CDC is slow to adopt to emerging trends, but eventually, it too will revise it's official stance on the window period downward to 6 weeks.

The doctor on this site, who works with the CDC, states that a 6 week test is indeed conclusive in almost all of the cases he sees on this site and in his private practice. Read what he has to say about it in the HIV Prevention forum - search for "Time to HIV Test" and spend some time reading. You will be both relieved and reassured.

[IIIFNMIII]

http://www.sfaf.org/aids101/hiv_testing.html#window

The link pasted above is the one that concerned me about the window period.  It put reasonable doubt in my head.  Although I am not sure how outdated it is.

[Xhost]

As I thought, the standard disclaimer when it comes to the window period. They do say that rarely (very, VERY rarely) someone will turn positive outside of the window period. OK, thanks for that. What they do not say is that in almost all cases this will be people with compromised immune systems that will have trouble producing the antibodies needed to trigger an accurate test result.

If you find yourself wondering who might be in this group, then that means that almost certainly you are not. If you were, you would know. It is, *theoretically*, comprised of people in chemotherapy, or on immune system supressing drugs, etc. Before you start wondering, allow me to repeat an earlier point: this isn't you. You, for all intents and purposes, would not be well enough to even participate in this forum if it were, or would otherwise already definitely know it if it were.

Even so, the number of people who do not produce antibodies until the 6th month is probably only a handful of the some odd millions of HIV cases out there. In other words, the percentage is extremely small - so small as to be discounted entirely. Sure, statisticians have to worry about it, but the point is, you don't. Unless, of course, you also worry about ice falling off of a plane and hitting and killing you, meteors striking you or the taxes you will have to pay after you win the lottery twice in a row.

Make sense?

[IIIFNMIII]

You make an excellent point. Unfortunately, I did not make that connection on my own and none of the websites pointed that out. I feel a lot better because I do have a healthy immune system and therefore would have had the antiboodies in my system by week 14. Thanks for the info!!!!