3 weeks and still waiting for HIV test results (UK)

[ukscared]

Hi there,

I just want to know whether it's normal to have to wait over three weeks to receive a negative test result from the sexual health clinic? I got tested for HIV (and other STIs) three weeks ago. I phoned up the clinic today and they said that they are still waiting for the results of my HIV and Syphilis tests. They said that all my other tests are negative. They said that the delay isn't anything to worry about. However, I cannot help but worry.

A bit of background - I'm a male (based in the UK) who had vaginal sex with a woman about 5 months ago, but unfortunately the condom broke during sex, which I didn't realise until about 20 minutes into having intercourse, so the worst case scenario was that I was exposed to the risk for 20 minutes. I then put on a fresh condom in which no breakage occurred.

I don't know the HIV status of the woman that I slept with, but I wasn't overly concerned at the time as we're both UK citizens, and I thought that given the statistics, the chances are that she probably doesn't have HIV in any case (once we discovered the broken condom, she did say that she was clean), and even if she did, it was just a single exposure, which from reading on here is very low risk given the statistics on single exposure risk. I haven't had sex since this occurence, and before I had sex with this woman, I had tested clean on my previous tests.

As mentioned, I went for routine sexual health testing three weeks ago (chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV and Syphilis) at a sexual health clinic who send out a text message to confirm the results. The clinic did say at the time that it can take around three weeks to get the results, but it's now three weeks and I hadn't heard from them, so I phoned them up, and this is when they told me that they're still waiting to get the HIV and Syphilis results and that all the urine tests (chlamydia, gonorrhea) came out clean.

Is it normal to have to wait over three weeks to get a negative result back? When I've been tested previously, the results have come back in about a week, but this is a new clinic so it may work differently here, and I'm hoping that it's nothing to be overly concerned about? Maybe there's a backlog or something and it's simply down to that?

The thing that worries me the most is that I read some stuff on the internet about a western bloc test being carried out if the initial test is positive. Could this delay getting the result back? I fear that this may be the cause of why it's taking so long to get the result? Or am I being overly anxious?

Thanks

[randombnc]

I'm in the same situation, told 3 week wait, but it has been over 3 weeks now, the uk GP ppl are pure evil.  Especially as I was told if it's positive I'll get a phone call not a text, I panic whenever I hear a phone ring!

[Vance2335]

Nice

[ukscared]

Thanks for the re-assurance guys, it really helped to put my mind at rest.

I decided to take a holiday and chill out while I awaited confirmation of the results. On my return I checked my mobile phone, in which I had received the text message confirming the NEGATIVE test results.

[Jozef1989]

You'll be fine! Let us know what the result was :)

[LIZZIE LOU]

positive or negative...cant get a result UNTIL the test is done

[Argentina2010]

From what i've been told, positive results come in AS SOON AS POSSIBE in order to prevent the person from infecting anyone else, so if you were positive it is more than likely you would of heard within 3-4 days...not weeks. :)

[LIZZIE LOU]

not unusual...tests are run in batches.  hang in there...you'll get your result soon.