Hi,
I am a female and I am extremely anxious about an irresponsible act I committed 4 months ago.
Mid Jan I had unprotected sex with a male of unknown status (multiple times and risky sex. activities). I knew the person a little before this so I was not so concerned about this encounter (although I know very well that I should have been).
I had recently broken up and I learned around this time that my ex-boyfriend had chlamydia therefore I did a full STD testing after consulting a gynecologist and have been successfully treated for chlamydia (was only positive for this and herpes).
More than a month after this event, this person contacted me to joke that he had HIV, which he later repetitively said was a joke… However, I cannot disconnect from this event anymore… Indeed, not only I took a real risk, at the time I had an STD which made it even riskier for me…
Since then I had several duo tests (abbott) on days 35, 50, 80 and 100 (laboratory blood vein testing). I also consulted an infectious disease specialist about 3 months after this event as I have been experiencing several strange symptoms, which made it very difficult for me to move on from each test. I had muscle contractions (almost like tetanic) especially on my upper back incl. neck, head, shoulders, chest and back.
Around the time I went to see the specialist, I had experienced a brief flu like illness with this time contractions around my ear and jaw area (jaw seems swollen)… He ordered a RT PCR RNA + ELISA (undetected for PCR and negative for ELISA) on day 85 as he saw me extremely anxious and mentioned, even before the results, that HIV is not my concern according to him as if all these symptoms were due to this, my previous 4th gen tests would have long been positive and that the nonspecific seroconversion symptoms often occurred much earlier and it seemed I have debilitating anxiety…
My father being a doc + other docs say that I simply experience intense muscle tension in various neck areas and that if I manage my anxiety and exercice etc. they will subside… I also complained about brain fog, panick attacks and head pressure and we also did neurological exams (MRI, scans, tests etc.) + full blood count etc.
My question for well experienced infectious disease specialists like yourselves is: do I need to test at the 6 months mark (mid July)? If yes, should I be worried? Or really, I should believe all these medical advice and move on with some psychological help for the stress?
My symptoms didn’t feel typical of stress symptoms but it’s true that my anxiety was so bad at times that I had to take relaxants…
Many thanks really for all your work, time and consideration!