Need your advice

[mrg83]

Hi I need your opinion as to my story as I want to put this to rest and stop worrying about it.  So here is my story and I will keep it as breif as I can.  So I have been in a serious relationship for about 1 year with my girlfriend and I know her status is HIV Negative.  I told her I was the same, but I just assumed it.  Stupid I know for saying that, did I start to think and wonder, yes I did because I put her at risk and did not want to any longer.  So I went and got tested with a rapid antibody test 7.5 months into our relationship because I wanted to know that I did not get infected from any past relationships before my current girlfriend.  Like I said she is negative.  I have had unportected intercourse in the past before her but I dont know if any of them had the virus.  However, like I mentioned my past exposures to others have been 7.5 months and further into my past prior to my HIV test, so if I were to have had a risk to the virus it would have been in that time period.  My test results came back "Non Reactive" which I am guessing means negative.  Does that mean I am HIV Negative and did not get it from any of these past partners?  Will I never have to worry again about HIV since the partner that I am with now does not have it as we are going to be getting married?  Please give me your adivce.  Thank you so much in advance.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I'm a bit surprised the people at your test site did not provide this information for you.  Your test results indicate that you do not have HIV and there is no reason to be concerned that your sexual exposures prior to starting with your GF 7 months ago resulted in HIV.  Your results are completely reliable and do not require further testing of any sort unless you or your GF have new partners.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

No.  Your tests are negative.  You do not have HIV and do not need further testing. EWH

[mrg83]

So there is absolutely no way that I could have gotten it from those past exposures 7.5 months and more prior to my test and having the exposures to my girlfriend leading up to it will not alter the results of my test correct?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

The figure you provide is in the right ballpark, particularly in Wisconsin where HIV rates tend to be lower than some other parts of the country.   EWH

[mrg83]

Yeah when I went in to get tested all they did really was ask me if I had any exposures within three months to this so they told me that it would be conclusive.  I just wanted to make sure as before this relationship (over 7 months ago i was pretty careless and living a single life of a mid 20 year old man.)  

Just one quick question if you have the time?  Is it really true that the chances of an exposure with a person of unkown status is 1 in a million for a heterosexual male?  I guess it makes sense since 1 million people have it in the USA which is made up of 303 million, and the million are males and females so that makes the population for a hetero male even smaller.  Also I live in Wisconsin.  Where does that relate to other states with HIV cases if you can provide that?  Is it closer to the bottom, middle, top, etc.....

Thank you once again.