HIV Risk

[worried24_7349]

5 yrs ago, I had a heterosexual, white male, boyfriend in suburban MI.  We had sex approx. 6 times without a condom (he pulled out).  I did not have a major ARS illness, but now I am exhausted (wake up tired), have constant bloodshot/dry eyes, white tongue, thinning hair and the wrong words seem to come out of my mouth all the time.  1) Could these be HIV symptoms? Also, my mom is experiencing same hair loss, fatigue, dry eyes (we're no longer making tears - confirmed by docs) and mouth.  Obviously, I did not have sex with her, and I never shared a needle with her, but she did come in contact with a small amount of my blood.  2) Could I have given it to her?  Our thyroid blood work came back normal...I read Sjogren type symptoms can occur in HIV+ people - this is what we seem to be having

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Glad to help. The problem is that the "typical symptoms" are also non-specific and can be caused by many things.  EWH

[worried24_7349]

From what I read, these symptoms seemed to be very typical - google can be a scary thing.  Thank you for your time and input...

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  I'll be glad to help and happy to try to provide some direction.  Mathematically, your risk of HIV from 6 exposures to a heterosexual partner 6 years ago is VERY small, particularly if he did not use IV drugs. VERY few (less than 1 in 10,000) heterosexual, non-drug using men have HIV.  Further, even if he did, the risk of HIV transmission, on average is only 1 per every 1000 acts of intercourse, thus if he had HIV your risk would be 6 in 1000 or 0.6%. When you count on how uncommon HIV is among heterosexual men, your mathematical risk becomes 0.00006% or 6 in 10 million- i.e. your risk for getting struck by lightning is MUCH higher than your risk for HIV.

As for your symptoms, there are many, many possible causes and although such symptoms might sometimes occur with person with HIV, they would be unusual (i.e. your symptoms are not typical of HIV), it is far more likely they are due to something else.

Finally, the chance that you gave anything to your mom is also incredibly low.

Bottom line, your symptoms are most unlikely to e due to HIV. If you are concerned and it would give you peace of mind, go on and get tested. If you do, I am confident your test will be negative.  You need not worry. EWH