Possible hiv exposure. Freaking out.

[TheMysteriousJw]

Hello, so I had a potential hiv exposure on valentines day. I had a one night stand with a woman who didn't seem to be infected but I'm not completely sure at all. We had sex twice with a condom both times, one time the condom could have broke but I'm not completely sure. I got a blood test around 3 weeks after exposure and a couple days ago I took a oraquick mouth hiv test and that was at 10 weeks. I have really bad anxiety and have been freaking out about every symptom that I get and I feel as if the stress I'm giving myself is just taking a tole on my body also. Could someone please help me out? Is it safe to say I'm clean? I've had a headache for like a day and this past week or two I've had a loss of appetite and when I eat I get nausea and usually can't finish eating. Please help me out.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I'm pleased I could help.  Take care. EWH

[TheMysteriousJw]

Thank you so much for replying to this post. I've been literally making myself sick these past couple months thinking about this. It has effected me so much and the fact that you have to wait at least 3 months has been killing me because there's no way to speed up time. I must add she is a foreign exchange student studying abroad and that's why it scared me. I appreciate your response so much. I was too scared to go back to my own doctor because I didn't want to be judged for coming back for a second test.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum. You can relax, the exposure you describe was very low risk and your tests since that time show that you were not infected.  First, it was unlikely that your partner had HIV, since fewer than 1 in 10,000 women in the U.S. have HIV.  Further, even if you had not used a condom your risk for infection would be low since HIV is transmitted through sexual intercourse less than once in every 1000 acts of sexual intercourse.  In addition, you used a condom and you can be confident it did not break or leak.  When condoms fail they break wide open leaving no doubt thathtey ahve failed.  Finally, current HIV tests provide conclusive results 8 weeks after exposure and thus your negative test at 10 weeks provides further assurance that you were not infected.

Bottom line, you can now be completely confident that you did not get HIV from the exposure that you describe. There is no reason for further concern related to this exposure and no reason for further testing.

I hope my comments are helpful. EWH