Thank you for your reply. do you think it is still recommended for me to get tested?
Yes, safe sex is just that, safe and there is little or no risk of infection if you are practicing safe sex. EWH
I'm sorry I might have not ask my question clearly. As you mention the risk level is the same whether she was or not her menstrual cycle, I understand that but once again practicing safe sex has put me a low risk level of infection correct? I apologize if my question was not clear in my second post. Thank you again for your time.
Re-read my answer. That she is on her menses does not change your risk for infection. You are being a bit paranoid. EWH
Thank you for your reply, in regards to the risk level of infection. As discussed since I practice safe sex even though she was on her menstural cycle is my possibility of infection relatively low? Am I being to paranoid?
Welcome to our Forum. Many people react with concern about having sex with partners who are having their menstrual periods however there are no data to suggest that this situation acts to increase risk for HIV. With sexual exposure there is nearly as much HIV present in genital secretions as there is in menstrual blood, thus your risk for infection is not increased.
As far as the quickest was to find out, if you can find someone who offers a combination HIV p24 antigen/HIV antibody test, such tests provide definitive results of HIV infection at 4 weeks while the more readily available HIV antibody only tests provide definitive results at 8 weeks. The combination tests (sometimes called DUO tests) are becoming more widely available and will give you a quicker answer. We do not recommend PCR tests for HIV diagnosis. Despite what the labs (i.e. the people who profit from such tests) say, while the PCR is likely to become positive more quickly than other antibody detection tests (i.e. usual blood tests), at the present time the blood tests are becoming more and more sensitive and detecting infection earlier and earlier so that the time difference in detection between PCR test and antibody detection tests is becoming smaller and smaller and at present is, in general only a week or two. In addition the time course over which the PCR tests become positive is less well described than for the blood tests and, as a result, it is difficult to make a definitive statement on what a negative PCR test means at any time within a few weeks of exposure to a HIV infected or possibly infected partner. PCR tests are also more expensive than regular antibody tests. Finally and most importantly, the false positive rate for PCR tests (i.e. a positive result in persons who do not have HIV) is higher than for blood tests. Each of this on this Forum have seen a number of people who were worried needlessly because of false positive tests. For all of these reasons, we rarely recommend testing for HIV diagnosis using PCR.
I hope this comment is helpful. EWH