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Could this be late ARS?

Over the course of about 2 weeks, I had heterosexual intercourse (vaginal, oral, and very briefly anal) several times with a man of unknown HIV status.  I tested negative at 6 weeks after our last encounter.  Then, at 9 weeks, for a few days, I had several of the ARS-like symptoms, such as muscle aches and weakness.  This was also the same time that I quit smoking.  Would 9 weeks be too late to experience ARS, considering that my immune system was probably compromised up until then by my smoking?  Of course, I've been horribly, horribly anxious and depressed, worried about my HIV status, so maybe that's behind the muscle pain and weakness.  I'm going back to the clinic for a follow-up test at 12 weeks.

Also, while reading about HIV recently, I realized that I could have had an exposure about 8 months ago when deep kissing a man with bad oral health.  I don't know if he had any gum bleeding or not.  I don't think I did at the time but I'm not sure.  I also briefly performed unprotected oral sex on him, but we quit pretty quickly because he couldn't keep an erection (he was significantly older than I am).  He didn't ejaculate, but I don't know if there might have been "pre-cum."  I'm assuming that since I tested negative recently, I didn't catch HIV from him.  But now I'm scared that maybe I did catch it from him and that this was merely a false negative, since Oraquick has kind of a bad rate of false negatives.  How likely is it that I caught HIV from just kissing and the brief oral?  If I did catch it from him, could that cause me to have late ARS if I got reinfected from this most recent guy?

Thanks!
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Avatar universal
True ARS symptoms come on and leave between 2-6 weeks. In many, many cases there are no symptoms at all. Anything that lingers past 6 weeks is not going to be ARS. Besides which, you've tested negative. If you were having true ARS you would've tested positive.
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5 Comments
Did you use a condom for the anal and vaginal?
No condom.  I was stupid.
Don't beat yourself up for no reason - As Chima said no HIV so you are free to resume your happy life.
I'm worried my results could have been a false negative.
Only false results are positive, so you have no reason to focus on HIV. If the test was useless they wouldn't do it.
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