[Question #10440] Need information.. HIV/STD unprotected
22 months ago
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Hello, I asked questions before here, but they do not show up anymore. I would like information please. Last night I had unprotected vagina sex with a Hispanic woman that came to the United States back in February of this year. We met on an app. She didn't seem like a girl that was all about having sex. We just had attraction to each other. We had unprotected vagina sex once and I ejaculated. Then we tried it again for a little bit but I did not ejaculate. I was really stupid for not using the condoms but I think they were too small. That's what the discouragement was and again it was very stupid.. do you think I need HIV RNA test? The woman told me she hasn't had sex in a very long time and when she did it was protected. What are the odds or chances that she had HIV and or I could catch it from last night?
And my final thing is.... When should I get tested for HIV? That is 120% definitive test results? Also, when should I get tested for STDs? Chlamydia gonorrhea syphilis and herpes number 2 genital? And any other STDs trich.. can you please tell me how long I should wait? That is extremely definitive for all these HIV and STD testings when I should go that have complete results so I don't have to be tested again.. Thank you for your time. I know you answered questions for me before but I do not see him on here so that's why I'm asking this again. Thank you.. I keep regretting last night and I am very worried and upset... The genital herpes I think is 12 weeks for 120% definitive test results right
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
22 months ago
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Welcome back to the Forum. Your previous questions (numbers 8473, 8096, and 5800) are still available on the forum although you may need to scroll back quite a bit to find them- we've had many new questions in the nearly 2 years since your last post.
I'll now comment on your questions, first with some general comments and then dealing with any specifics that my generalizations don't touch upon. As a generalization, no single unprotected sexual encounter is likely to lead to infection with an STI- most people do not have STIs and even when a partner has an infection, most encounters with an infected partner do not lead to infection. Condoms when used throughout a sexual encounter then further reduce any small chance of infection to virtually zero. To put some numbers behind the statements above, there is a less than 1% chance that your recent partner had HIV and, even if she did have untreated HIV, the likelihood that you would be infected following two unprotected exposures is around 1 in 1000- in other words there is a less than 1 in 100,000 chance that you acquired HIV from the exposure you describe (i.e. chances are 99.99% that you would not acquire HIV from the encounters you describe. Other STIs, like chlamydia and gonorrhea are more common than HIV so testing might be a good idea and the results would be reassuring- a urine test for gonorrhea and chlamydia will provide conclusive results any time more than 4-5 days after your encounter. Results for blood tests for HIV and syphilis take longer and would not be conclusive until about 6 weeks (42-45 days) after exposure. For persons with multiple sexual partners or new partners, we recommend testing at 6-12 months, depending on your level of concern.
We do not recommend routine blood tests for herpes- they are unreliable, giving both falsely positive and falsely negative results too often to be useful.
Regarding your specific questions- a urine test for gonorrhea, chlamydia and trich will give accurate results any time more than 4-5 days after your encounter. As for testing for HIV and syphilis, your risk is much lower but you will need to wait until at least 6 weeks after your exposure to get a reliable result. Please do not test for herpes. EWH
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22 months ago
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Okay, thank you. I appreciate your knowledge... That is very reassuring! What I am going to do is the rapid antibody/antigen HIV ..../ STD test from the CVS at home kit... Submit that in 4 to 6 weeks.... Then I have a complete physical at the end of December early January and I will retest for HIV and all STDs with my doctor.. So the 3 month advice is inactive now for HIV testing?
FYI...my physical with my doctor is at the end of December which would be a couple days. After 3 months I will take the HIV STD test because it's required in my physical with my doctor but that would be definitive conclusive correct? Thank you again for your answers
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
22 months ago
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The recommendation for HIV tests not being conclusive until three months have passed is out of date. With the combination HIV antigen/antibody tests which are now standard, results are completely conclusive after 6 weeks and should not be expected to change. EWH---
22 months ago
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Okay and for my final question to you, so a couple days before Thanksgiving this year .. (8 weeks & 4 days)... Saturday, September 23, 2023
To and including: Tuesday, November 21, 2023..... the HIV antibody antigen blood draw from vein in arm, chlamydia gonorrhea syphilis would all be 120% conclusive correct on Nov. 21? That's my doctor's appointment day.... I so read on here genital herpes testing is at least 12 weeks ?
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
22 months ago
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As you know, we provide up to three responses to each client's questions. This will be my 3rd and final response after which the thread will be closed
You are correct, testing performed on Nov 21, 2023 for HIV, syphilis as well as gonorrhea and chlamydial infection will be entirely conclusive with no need for further testing related to the encounters you describe above.
As I mentioned earlier, we recommend against blood tests for herpes in the absence of possible lesions or KNOWN contact - the results are too confusing. Youi are correct however that it may take up to 12 weeks for blood tests for HSV to become positive and even then some recent infections can be missed.
I believe you are worrying more about this than you need to. This completes this thread. EWH
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