Hiv question?

[Patient1234567]

Hello everyone!

Thank you for being here with the community. A while ago in September of 2014 I started having a casual relationship with a female friend. We practiced unsafe sex and after 3 months have passed I did a blood test for HIV. It came back negative.

With the same female I started having sex again and then I stopped and I waited for 8 and a half weeks to do an Oraquick oral swab test . It came back negative. At this point since the last two months I have not engaged in any sexual encounter and I plan to do a full blood test again at 3 months. Because I know that mucous membranes of the mouth have anitbodies I got an early peace of mind after the Oraquick but because the test only detects the  single glycoprotein antigen (anti-gp41), it will not identify HIV-infected individuals who fail to mount a substantial response to that particular antigen. Do you think I will turn positive at my 3 months mark. I already have my acute symptoms (even though at the 8 weeks mark ) , but I am a healthy male overall. I am dissapointed from doing substantial research and looking at data that says oral mucous swab test via OraQuick are not reliabale. From your forum I have noticed you assure the clients that they will remain negative even with OraQuick. Is this possible? I am already very very depressed and ashamed at myself why I did do this behaviour. Mono symptoms right now are adding to my anxiety. Do you think that at my 8 week test the IgG gp41 would have been detected by the test? Or could it be that the mouth does not contain enough antibodies as opposed to blood? God bless and I respect your answer. Thank you and I will not follow up questions once I see a response.

[Patient1234567]

It is an OraQuick oral swab test

[Patient1234567]

Yes I did OraQuick in home HIV test. The one that you get from Walgreens or any other store.

[clarkja14]

Do you know what kind of test you had done for blood?

[Patient1234567]

Thank you but I needed an asnwer regarding my specific hiv question. Im glad that you shared your opinion

[tgabby]

I'm not a doctor, however, I am a nurse.  When HIV was first discovered in the US during the 80's it made great headline news.  There was also a push for HIV awareness in the media so we were hearing about it left and right. Because epidemics make good headlines the media has bombarded us with all sorts of scary things. This can cause many people to be afraid! But living in fear is not living.  You are more likely to get struck by lightening than you are to get HIV. Further more, you are less likely to get HIV from a female partner and even less, less likely with just one sexual partner. Even if you did get HIV, it doesn't mean you will get AIDS and die. Most people today do not die from HIV! Magic Johnson has had it for 22+ years he is alive and well.  His pregnant wife did not ever test positive and neither did his baby. It sounds like you have a lot of anxiety over something you don't have much control over.  It is normal to want to have sex with someone you care about; sex is a natural instinct to keep the human species from dying out. Young men, especially, will find it very difficult to abstain from sex because of hormone levels during your child producing years.  It usually dwindles as men and women get older.  It sounds like you have a lot of shame over it?  So between the anxiety of worrying about HIV and Mono and feeling ashamed for having unprotected sex, where are you finding time to enjoy just living? Often, in times of anxiety and worry, it helps to talk to a counselor, a doctor- face to face, maybe even take medication- there are some you can take every day but there are also some you just take when you feel overwhelming anxiety.  A lot of people take medication for anxiety.  The world today and everything we hear about in the media  and read about online can push us to that extreme.  Hopefully, you are able to enjoy your relationship with your female friend. If you think you may be preoccupied with sickness and shame and that it is keeping you from really enjoying life- it might be a good time to talk to a professional who can help you be less bogged down with all of it. I hope I've helped a little bit. Take care and good luck!