Now what?

I have had 3 unprotected oral sex episodes in October and November.  I performed oral briefly on a man with no ejaculation or precum noticed.  The other two I was given oral by a man and a woman.  

At about 4 weeks I had sore throat, swollen neck glands.  My doctor tested me for strep and mono but cam back negative for both.  He said I had a "little bit" low white cell count and gave me antibiotic which seemed to work.  My wife had the same thing about 5 days earlier and she tested positive for strep.  He felt that I had the strep but it just was not showing up.  

At 8 weeks I developed dry mouth...maybe thrush, lesions.  At 11 weeks swollen glands in armpit, groin and neck.  Two of the glands are sore...one in the neck and one in the armpit. I have read everything here points to HIV.  I am terrified that I gave my innocent wife something.

Questions:

1.  I realize oral is low risk but given my symptoms...am I doomed.

2.  What else could I have.

3.  What the likelihood my wife seroconverted and the exact same time given different exposure times.

4.  What percentage of generalized gland swelling is HIV?

5.  Could the symptoms be caused by linguring strep bacteria?

6.  Do random symptoms keep popping up or would there be a grand event?

Has anyone else had similar experience??  Thanks for the help.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

As others have already replied (below), your risk was low.  And as I have said many time, symptoms almost never are a reliable indicator of HIV infection.  Many other things are far more likely causes.  To reply to your quesitons:

1, 2) See above.  Numerous other viruses (including probably many unidentified ones) can cause such symptoms.

3) You probably have nothing you could have transmitted to your wife (at least nothing you acquired during the exposures you describe.)

4) I can't give you an exact percentage, but it's probably well under one percent.

5) Unlikely strep, but that depends a bit on what antibiotic your doc prescribed.

6) Most people with primary HIV go through all symptoms within 4-6 weeks.  Having symptoms beyond 10 weeks is good evidence against HIV.

"Has anybody else had similar experience?"  I almost laughed out loud!  Just search the STD forum threads for "HIV anxiety" or "HIV symptoms" for loads of stories like yours.

Bottom line: Have an HIV test for peace of mind.  Almost certainly it will be negative.

Good luck-- HHH, MD

[strangeworld]

have you posted this before with the name unluckyoral?

[G-Man]

Strangeworld and myself have been going through a similar incident. As far as I go, well, I received unprotected oral from "professional" 4 months ago. You can read my post "All tests Neg. Clinically Positive" Just had my last test at the 4 month mark and was Neg. I never thought I would make it to a point where a Dr. would be telling me that I'm truly Neg., no further testing is recommended. You will see that I have had many, many symptoms, but they don't mean anything without a test. Sights just like this one here has helped greatly in getting through the past 4 months. You too should find it very helpful, especially if you or Dr. HHH feel testing is warranted. You may want to ask yourself what you think the possibility is that you and your wife would have the same symptoms at the same time coupled with the fact your wife tested positive for strep, that it is at all HIV related, also coupled with the zero to low low risk you apparently had should be very encouraging to you. A dry mouth!? Well that spells fear to me, like when Hooper in the classic movie Jaws went into the shark cage and said as he entered that cage "I aint got no spit"
Swollen nodes, glands, well from the hundreds of threads I've read, most of these complaints turned out to be phantoms. However, just getting over strep you may indeed still feel swollen. I had very bad strep 2 years ago and my tonsils, which are of the lymph node family have yet to go back to normal. I was recently diagnosed as having Chronic Tonsillitis because of this. May have to get them removed soon.(Yikes!!) Hope this helped you a bit. Good luck to you.

Be Good
G-Man

[bigdaddy1992]

Hi Doom, i would just like to add to the comments by saying, after you had the oral exposures i bet you felt as guilty as hell and started to feel really anxious about std's and passing something onto your wife ( even though oral is one of the safest unprotected activities that you can do.) this in turn built to some serious anxiety that caused you sleepless nights and not being able to concentrate properly, bet you also couldn't eat properly. This then caused you to feel run down etc... and maybe because your immune system was run down due to anxiety/ mental exhaustion your body started to pick up little common infections that you wouldn't normally have given a second thought to, you then started to do a little " research " on the web and linked it all to hiv ( and nearly every common ailment can be).  I too have been there and worried endlessly for nothing through sheer guilt and i am sure you too will be ok and maybe, like me come out the other side a little wiser!! Try not to worry too much my friend, Plenty of time has passed for you to be tested and put this behind you. You WILL be fine and you will get over this when science has prooved once and for all that you are in the clear.

[strangeworld]

very interesting!

http://www.aids.ch/e/fragen/risiko.php

According to swiss HIV/Aids prevention insertive oral sex is NO RISK.

[unluckyoral]

Thanks for info guys.  As you were...I am a basket case.  I was doing ok til the general swollen glands and the thrush showed up.  I ordered the express test from Home access.  Time will tell.

[strangeworld]

Good Luck, we all know it will be negative. Please let us know your results.

[unluckyoral]

Well put my friend.  I hope I come out the other side wiser!