follow up

[crag]

dr's,
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/worried/show/1204996

follow up from my question on friday.  today is Sunday and I am feeling a bit better.  To clarify it has now been 1 week since my incident that is still making me nervous.  I keep fearing though that something leaked in thru the condom and traveled up or that the base of my shaft will lead to some exposure of some sort, or that i didnt see a small tear on the back of the condom.  I am also still concerned that i have not felt right since two days after my encounter thru today. Is this too soon in your opinion to warrant HIV type symptoms?  if these symptoms i am showing are in fact a product of something i got i asusme they would show now in a test correct? Last, Fri night it sppeared that i had two little clear bumps together on the left side of my shaft.  They are barely visible but it has me concerned that my fears of the condom not working are in fact true and have by now almost gone away.  Thks again for your help.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Your anxiety is out of control.  If you had a common STD, your tests would be positive.  In your case, you can test and test and test.  that will not make the test positive, just as asking the same question over and over again will not change the answer.  This ends this thread unless you have a positive test of some sort to report.  Since that willl not happen, I should also remind you that we limit clients to two questions over any six month period in order to allow others to ask their questions.  Thus no new questions please until September of 2010.

EWH

[crag]

one more ? i am sorry to keep bothering.  If these "symptoms" are in fact an STD would they now get picked up correctly on tests? ie a pcr test that i got two days ago?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Asking the same question repeatedly will not change the answer, nor will paying to ask the same question again.  I will briefly provide a little bit more information.  As I said before (and as you were told on the STD Prevention Community site), when condoms break, they break wide open. They do not leak and genital secretions do not somehow move from the vagina. over the edge of the condom, travel its length to cause infection.  Condom protected sex is safe sex and this is, if anything, even more true for HIV than for other STDs.  Furthermore, your symptoms began sooner than is typical for STDs.  When you get your test results, they will be negative.

Instead of worrying about an STD or HIV that you did not get, you need to start to work through your guilt and anxiety over this exposure.  EWH