Worried about testing

[bcscov1]

I am 30, straight male, from Harrisburg Pa worried about HIV, ok my last test was about 7 years ago and it was negative. I was just tested yesterday waiting on results till Monday. I waited so long cause I was always worried about it, just didn’t want to know like many people. I would say I had about 10 risk encounters with women of differant races since then unprotected sex or oral sex. Most of the woman I knew have gone on and had kids im not sure if they have mandatory hiv testing for pregnant women in Pa.  Now I have been in a relationship for 5 years and she was recently tested about 4 months ago and she was negative.  We didn’t use protection during this time (5years).  But during off and on time I was with 2 other woman not in the past year though.  I got tested basically because of fear and worrying myself. Now about 1 year ago I had pityriasis rosea and I have lost weight about 10-15 pounds in the past few years and had muscle loss and swollen neck glands on occ. But I also have TMJ, which effects my eating sometimes.

Questions

1. What are my odds of actually getting hiv from my interactions?

2. Girlfriend of 5 years was tested 4 months ago negative, would that be good indicator for my results?

3. Would my health issues be a sign of hiv?

4. Last question I see many post of odds on this site I wonder with many people in the 1/2000 category. I was wondering how is it I read stories of people who get it from one encounter?

Thanks for having this forum and answering my questions

[bcscov1]

All is good tested negative , thank you for the information.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

VERY unlikely that you got HIV from receipt of oral sex 8 years ago. My guess is that you got nongonococcal urethritits from the receipt of oral sex at that time.  I anticipate that your test results on Monday will be negative- let us know.  EWH

[bcscov1]

Ok thanks for the reply, ive been waiting till this Monday to get results,(Going crazy) dr office  called me on wed and said they had my results I had other blood work done too. So called in Thursday an they said she (Dr) was out till Friday and left a message to be called back, I just got a reminder call I have an appointment on Monday which they didn’t do before.

I had one other question about 8 yrs ago I had a b.j unprotected from a female street worker in Philadelphia and I got either chlamydia or gonorrhea a few days later, I took meds for it. I see on here it’s not common to get that from receiving oral sex. Is it possible is she had another customer before me an if they had hiv could I have gotten it.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

A comment to start with.  For you to be fearful of testing is silly.  Testing will not give you HIV but would have given you peace of mind or, in the very unlikely situation that you'd acquired the infected, the knowledge to do something about it, not to mention the chance to avoid infecting others.  For you, or for that matter, anyone else to not get tested is really silly.

To your questions:

1.  There is no way I can give you precise odds on your being infected.,  They are however, very low.  You have had multiple partners but it would be quite uncommon if they were here in North America and not drug users for them to have HIV. After that, for unprotected exposures, the risk of unprotected genital sex is about 1 in 1000 exposures while for oral it is at least 10 times less (i.e. 1 in 10,000 exposures) and probably lower.  My guess is that your test will be negative.  You did the right thing by getting tested.

2.  Certainly it puts you in a better place than if she was positive but to get information on your status, YOU need to be tested, not to infer what is happening from your partners' status.

3.  No, most people with pytyriasis rosea do not have HIV.  You weight loss could be from any number of things.  My guess is that if there was something about your health that raised concern, your regular doctor would have noted it.

4.  The stories you hear about are the unusual ones.  Someone is unlucky from time to time. The fact is, it is uncommon for any one person to get infeted after asingle expsoure.

Let us know what you test shows.  I am confident it will be negative.  EWH