Hey, this may be a silly question but I'm having legit worries, no hating please...
I am 22 yr old male, non-IV drug using, heterosexual.
So one year ago I had unprotected hetero sex with a foreign girl of unknown status...she didn't have an IV drug problem, heterosexual. After searching endlessly on the internet, I was under the impression that the odds were in my favor that she didn't have HIV to begin with, let alone the risk of transmission was still low from a one-time exposure risk with her. Also, I have experienced no symptoms to date. I also got a new tattoo, but I doubt I have to be concerned of that (clean place, needles, and gloves were worn, etc)
3 months after this I went back to my college where I began donating plasma. I used to do so twice every week, and I understand that they test for blood-borne diseases (such as HIV). A few searches on the internet showed that they do an ELISA (most likely) and probably a PCR (though I'm not 100% certain about this one). Never had a single problem with my plasma, as the place was supposed to contact me if there were.
Last month, I had taken another HIV test (ELISA I'm pretty sure, it wasnt a rapid/oral test) which came back negative. I did not have sex during this period of my latest test since last summer during the incident, save for some kissing 4+ months ago (though I'm pretty sure this wouldn't have an impact).
So I am worried that the tests I had received didn't pick it up, or my immune system was somehow compromised, or I'm not sure what. Do you think that I am worried for no reason? Can someone be negative normally and still carry the virus?