[Question #10663] HIV risk
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21 months ago
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16 days ago I hooked up with a trans male to female woman. We did open mouth kissing, I received unprotected oral sex for 30 seconds before deciding to stop, and then I had insertive anal sex with her. I wore a condom for the entire duration of this, it did not break. About 5-6 days after, I developed a sore throat. I read that’s an HIV symptom and am now extremely scared. I got tested for an STD panel 2 weeks after incident and came all negative but that seems too early to know. How badly at risk am I? Is the sore throat a reason to be worried and possibly indicative of having HIV? At what point can I get tested and be confident I don’t have it if it comes negative?
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
21 months ago
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Welcome to our Forum. Thanks for your questions. I'll be glad to comment. As long as a condom was worn throughout your insertive anal sex this was a very low risk, perhaps no risk encounter. I say this for several reasons:
1. Most trans women do not have HIV.
2. Even if she was infected with HIV and not on treatment, there is no known risk for acquistion of HIV from open mouth kissing or receipt of oral sex.
3. Condom protected sex is safe sex. You can be confident that your condom worked. When condoms fail, they break wide open leaving no doubt that they failed.
Putting these factor together your risk for HIV is very, very low- perhaps zero.
Although a sore throat, in combination with fever and muscle/joint aches may be a sign of recently acquired HIV, most people at risk for HIV with these symptoms do NOT have HIV but instead have some other illness- the flu, COVID-19, or one of the many other viral illnesses that are common at this time.
As far as testing, if your symptoms are due to HIV, a combination HIV antigen/antibody test would be positive. A negative test at this time would prove that your symptoms were not due to HIV but would not be conclusive. HIV testing is not conclusive however until 6 weeks following an exposure.
I hope that this information is helpful. If I were you, I would not be worried. EWH
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20 months ago
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Dr Hook, thank you so much for your reply and assurances.
The test I took at 2 weeks was the test that involved a finger prick - do you happen to know if this one would disqualify the sore throat as an HIV symptom? Not sure if it was an antigen/antibody test. (I will make sure to take the 4th generation one at 6 weeks)
It’s been 20 days since my encounter and today I’ve started to feel sore in the corner of the roof of my mouth - is it possible that this is oral herpes? I tested for herpes at 2 weeks and came out negative but unsure if that’s enough time to be conclusive. I apologize for these questions, just feeling anxious about all this - thanks once again
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
20 months ago
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Your test was most likely a 4th generation, combination HIV antigen/antibody test. If your test was taken at the time your sore throat was present, the test would be positive. Symptoms are due to the presence of the same antibodies and antigens which are detected by 4th generation HIV tests.
I cannot assess the sore in the corner of your mouth however this is not a typical location for oral herpes. It is a place that gets irritated when liked however. EWH
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