What's my HIV Exposure/Risk?

[ChrisPS]

On March 19 I did something I never thought I would do, here's the story: went to a "private modeling studio" paid for a room, girl did a strip tease, I masturbated myself, she offered handjob, I agreed but asked for condom, she supplied generic looking condom, continued masturbation with her straddling me for several minutes, she started to rub the tip my penis on her vagina for 30 seconds, this led to about 30 seconds of full penetration, I had orgasm, I removed condom with small hand towel she provided, the condom appeared to be a little flacid at the tip, not full.

My fear is that the condom broke and that I may have been exposed, but I can't say for certain it did. I did ask the girl if she knew her HIV status and she her reply was "yes, negative". About 9 days later I had a pretty bad herpes outbreak near the tip of my penis, now I've already had herpes for 10 years, but rarely have had blisters in that location (maybe once or twice). This of course added to my stress about possible exposure, could I have been exposed to herpes and or hiv? If so doesn't this increase my overall risk? I was tested for HIV (full blood test) May 6th, 6 weeks, 6 days post exposure and got a negative result.

I know that symptoms are typically disregarded on this site, but I will list mine. I would like to think that all my symptoms were induced by my anxiety, but don't know. They included what felt like swollen nodes in neck and jaw that hurt, disrupted sleep and night sweats, complete loss of appetite and constipation, weight loss, strange aches in joints, runny nose, feeling cold.

My questions are: 1) what is my overall risk, 2) in a broken condom scenario how much does being exposed to herpes or having a history of herpes increase risk 3) would having a herpes outbreak shortly after being exposed to hiv delay a positive test? 4) Is there a risk of hand gential hiv transmission from someone "shedding" herpes virus prior to outbreak, or from touching unbroken blisters?

The information on this site has been very helpful, thank you.

[lookin4answers80]

1) Your overall risk is based on lots of factors. If by some chance she were positive, it would be based on factors like her viral load, the presence of other STDs, etc. But I don't think your overall risk is high at all. First, you don't even know if the condom broke. Its  being flaccid at the tip doesn't mean it broke, necessarily; it could mean that there just wasn't much semen, that the semen was more stuck on the sides of the condom, or any number of other things. Second, your risk as the penetrating partner for a few seconds of unprotected vaginal sex, even if, by some remote chance, the condom did break, would be very small, almost zero. Not zero, but probably a low risk, like less than 1%.

2) I don't know how much a herpes exposure or history affects your risk. I believe, however, that if you had any open sores on your penis at the time of exposure, or if she had herpes sores that were oozing onto your own open sores, that could increase your risk. Still, it doesn't sound like either of those happened here.

3) As has been reiterated many times on the doctors boards, it seems, neither a herpes outbreak nor any other factor will lead to a delayed positive test.

4) No. There is no risk of HIV transmission from someone touching unbroken herpes blisters or from viral shedding. There's obviously a major risk of herpes transmission, but I can't imagine HIV transmission in that scenario.

If you had a test at nearly 7 weeks after the incident, most people would say that there's at least a 95% chance that it's accurate. A few people, take up to three months to develop antibodies. And a tiny few take up to six months, but that is nearly unheard of. In other words, relax. You are absolutely fine. Your risk was so small as to be virtually non-existent, and a 7-week test has confirmed what you should have known all along.

[worried826]

Your risk is ZERO because you wore a condom. Generic condom or not HIV can not penetrate latex. And if the condom tore you would know it, when they tear it is very noticeable so if you dont know if it ripped then it didnt.

You didnt even need to go get tested over that incident but at least you know where you stand now.