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HIV symptoms and testing

Dear Dr.,

I am a family man living in Canada. I just made a stupid mistake in my life. A couple of weeks ago, I had a business trip to Korea and had a sex with a female sex worker on Oct 31. I used a condom during the whole process, including one minute oral sex and two minutes vaginal intercourse (didn't check if the condom is broken or not; I remember the condom still covered the head of my penis when I pulled out)  I then travelled to India. One week later (Nov 7) I got a cold with productive cough and sore throat. I also developed a fever (100~102). I went to see a local doctor. He gave me a shot for reducing the fever, and asked me to take Amoxicillin pills for a week. The fever was gone in three days, and the cough was gone in about ten days. Yesterday when I was surfing internet, I happened to read an article about HIV ARS. It seems my symptoms are very similar to that, although I didn't observe joint pain, diarrhea, enlarged lymph nodes and rash.  I am scared to death. I don't know if I have been infected with HIV.  I then found this great forum. After reading many posted questions, I understand that symptoms may not be used for HIV diagnosis. But I am still nervous. Is my symptoms a typical ARS?  I am planning to take 8 week HIV test. However, since I have taken some medicine when I had fever and cold. I wonder if this will make it longer for the HIV antibody to appear. Is the 8 week test result still accurate in my case?  Thank you very much for your reply. I really appreciate your help.

My life has been messed up. I regret my mistake deeply...
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Avatar universal
I am going through the same thing you are going through.  I am also a family man and made a very big mistake.  I hope we both make thriugh this and learn from it.  take car and god bless.
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Avatar universal
Thank you very much for the reply!
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480448 tn?1426948538
Protected sex does not pose a risk.  And, you would have been VERY aware if your condom had broken.

The head of your penis was covered, therefore, you had no exposure.

You do not need to test.

Oh, and btw, this is not the doctor's forum.
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