[Question #10260] Can’t remember if sex happened, terrifying symptoms

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24 months ago
How much do my symptoms align with hiv? 

03/06/22-  I got drunk over spring break and went with some friends to a mutual friends house
made out with him, he fingered me and then after that I don’t remember what happened. When I woke up and asked him if we had sex (twice) he said we didn’t and that I got up to use the bathroom and then tried to fall asleep in there.

03/08/22-  I felt the inklings of a sore throat and then on the third day I woke up to really bad sore throat on the right side of my throat. The next morning it was better. I took a Covid test that Friday since I had to leave the country and it was negative and by that time it had gotten much better by the next Sunday (1 week post possible exposure) I felt completely fine. 

I was fine for a while and then got sick around end of April early March with what I believe was a cold (lost my voice, coughing sneezing, pink eye)

Went back home after finals and noticed a lymph node on the back of my neck randomly since I had been checking them periodically out of fear. It’s pea sized and painless. I don’t know how long it’s been there.

Mid june-early July 2022 my left collarbone  flared up painfully then reduced in size in 2 weeks. after this my right inguinal node did the same and also reduced in size greatly in the same time frame. I can definitely palpate where the collarbone was, not so sure about the one on groin. 

Since then I have felt numerous nodes in front of my ear, back of neck and head, in groin and I’m terrified. 

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24 months ago
In addition, I have noticed petechiae recently after scratching my itchy elbow , and I have gotten multiple nosebleeds in the year  post possible exposure. I know HIV can cause low platelets at any time and this scares me even more. I have no one to talk to and I’m spiraling. 
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
24 months ago
Greetings and welcome. Thank you for your confidence in the forum.

You don't mention HIV, but the overall context -- and some of the symptom you describe -- suggest that's your main concern and not other STIs.

The chance you have HIV is almost zero. You say nothing about your (possible) sex partner, but if you're in the US and he's not bisexual or an injection drug user, there's under one chance in a thousand he has HIV. Even with those risk factors, he probably doesn't have it. Even if he is infected, the average risk to a female partner from unprotected vaginal sex with an HIV positive partner is around one in a thousand. As for your symptoms, they are not particularly suggestive of HIV; nothing fits -- not your cold symptoms, and a single enlarged lymph node is never caused by HIV. (HIV node enlargements are all over the body, lots of them, all at the same time.)

But here's the main thing:  You don't report having an HIV test! That's the obvious answer to your fears. I really cannot give you anywhere near the level of reassurance you obviously need merely by this history and your symptoms. If that's what we're going on, there's under one chance in a million you have HIV. But the ONLY way to know for sure is to be tested. I'll be happy to comment further if you would like to do that and let me know your test result. Almost any HIV test will do, except do not have an oral fluids test at home (Oraquick®), which misses up to 5% of HIV infections. Have a lab-based blood test. For the reasons already given, you definitely can expect a negative result. And as long as you're in the lab, maybe have a syphilis blood test as well.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear. Stay mellow while you wait to be tested and get the results:  it is nearly certain they will be negative.

Best wishes--   HHH, MD
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