HIV symptoms worried after test?

Question

Hello. I have for the last month been worried sick about HIV.I had ex with a CSW in South Korea. I started to worry after the act. I remembered that she put a small amount of hand lotion on the condom. I got dead worried that the lotion somehow made the HIV virus get through the condom. The condom did not break or slip. After the act(about a day) I got a snore throat. After that I got a panic attack and was very nervous for about 1.5 weeks. I had abdominal pains and a ear ache for about a week and a half. After that I did not have any noticeable symptoms. I have since then however noticed that I have small swollen lymph nodes on my neck. I noticed these about 5 day after the s*x. I have had then since. I am very nervous about these. It has been a month since I had the s*x. I just got tested today and it came back negative. I am still worried because I still have these swollen nodes. Also I have skin marks that look slightly red. I am unsure of these marks. I think they just be normal and have always been there. To summarize my question am I just worrying why to much or what. I have read that the time antibodies show up it usually by 3-4 weeks and that the reason for testing out to 3 months is just for a full 100% result. What do you all know about this. Can anybody please but my mind at ease and explain why these nodes are still swollen? I apologize if my writing is a little crappy but I am in a state of extrema anxiety right now.

Answer 1

Hi,

If you feel a panic attack or feelings of anxiety creeping up on you then try this word repetition technique that I learned that helps me to quickly 'snap out' of my panic attacks:

I simply repeat the words 'cream cake' over and over in my head as quickly as I can without stopping.    You could use any word or words you like really but that's what I chose (because I like cream cakes).  It apparently works because it doesn't give your brain time to process the panicky thoughts and so helps you to relax again.  Seems strange I know ... but it works for me!

There's also a free ebook that I found really useful called 'Get Rid of Panic and Anxiety for Good'. If you want to take a look you can find it at: http://curepanicattacks.premiergold.info...    Even though I got it for free it has helped me absolutely loads!

Answer 2

calm down.  get tested in 2 months just to put your mind at ease but hopefully you will remember this experience the next time you consider a CSW.  I don't know if you realize how much these women are exploited and if she was of age, she probably started long before.  its not free will on her part.  sorry, i read your high anxiety blurb, you should read my brief complaint.

The swollen lymph nodes can be the result of any infection, maybe one your body is fighting off successfully so you don't even really feel sick.  or it could be you noticing what you are looking for and what you never looked for before so you never noticed.  the sore throat the day after, well HIV symptoms won't show up that fast anyways, so that's not to be factored into your equation.  in fact if you are going to have the flu-like symptoms some HIV infected people have, it wouldn't have started until i believe 6-8 weeks afterwards.

Answer 3

The way HIV/AIDS works is that it breaks down your body's immune system and you end up getting sick/killed by other stuff that you could have faught off before. You can't say that any of the symptoms you are experiencing are due to HIV or some other thing.  At any rate, doctors can't even detect HIV anti-bodies for weeks or months after infection, so I doubt any of what you were feeling is due to an HIV infection.

That being said - you had s*x with a S****y w***e and it's entirely likely that you contracted one of a million other things.  There are worse things to catch than HIV (Syphilis comes to mind).  With the newer drugs, people can live indefinitely with HIV these days.  

Now - Only a blood test can tell if you are carrying HIV.  As embarrassing as you might think it is, your doctos is trained to find and treat these things.  Trust me when I say that they won't look down on you for getting looked at and seeking treatment.  All humans have s*x, it's a biological fact.  So are viruses.  

Get seen by your doctor and they can help you with your symptoms, regardless of what the cause is.

Good luck.

Answer 4

You sound like a hypocondriac.  Get tested, if the test are clean you are ok.  If the Dr, says ur ok, then don't worry.

Answer 5

Do not rely on symptoms. They mean nothing. Symptoms are never indication for HIV infection. They could be due to other medical conditions or due to stress.

You mentioned you were protected. So you did not have a risk of HIV infection if the condom did not break. But if you are thinking day and night about this incident, I would suggest to go and get tested. But 3-4 weeks after possible exposure is too early for testing. usually antibodies show up in the system by 6-8 weeks. If you are negative at 6-8 weeks, then this is a very good indication that you are not infected. But you have to confirm it with a 3 months test. Anything before 3 months is considered non-conclusive.

I am telling you this to get a peace of mind. Your exposure was not risky if you were protected. And you do not even know if she was HIV+ or not. Most probably she was not.

Get tested and put this incident behind you. Expect a negative result.

Keep up the good work of using condoms if you do not know the status of your partner.

Answer 6

First the lotion would not cause a condom to leak HIV. There is a 3 month window period for HIV, it usually show up 90% after 30 day, so for total peace of mind retest at the 90 day point.

As far a the lymph nods, my daughter has the same thing- she had an insect bit that cause it, so don't worry about that either.

Answer 7

calm down buddy. if you got tested your and it was negative you are good to go. Believe it or not you could be causing those symptoms to happen, do to being stressed out about it.  Relax bro.  The lymph nodes could be from a lot of things.

Answer 8

Symptoms (or the lack of) are never a clear indication of HIV infection. The symptoms you described could be the result of a number of different things, to include your extreme anxiety. The fact that you used a condom greatly reduces the risk of transmission and the lotion is not a factor. With that said, a single antibody test at the 3 month mark will be considered conclusive. A test at 8 weeks would be a good indication of your status, however will not be conclusive. Get your 3 month test, try not to worry too much. I'm confident your results will be negative. Hope this helps.

Remember to always use latex condoms for sexual activity. Any person who is sexual active should be getting routine hiv and std testings performed, atleast once a year.