[Question #13107] 6 weeks or 3 months???!!
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2 months ago
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I had two “exposures”:
One 9 weeks ago with giving oral with ejaculation + healing cut in my mouth + he fingered me
And one 6 weeks ago giving oral with no ejaculation, “outersex”, no penetration but his testicles touched the outside of my vagina, also fingered me this time.
I know these are low exposures, but I always need to feel completely “up to code”. I got a KitLab mail in complete STD test that I’m waiting to do at 7 weeks since last exposure (6 weeks + 1 so my brain feels like it’s a little past). It’s a finger prick test using a dried blood spot (DBS) card. I emailed them and confirmed all their labs use the 4th gen HIV test.
My question is, when is this considered conclusive? 6 weeks? 45 days? 90 days? I asked a help line and they said since it’s finger prick it’s still considered a rapid, so it’s conclusive at 90 days, but accurate at 6 weeks.
My question is
(1) is a lab based 4th gen test that uses DBS from a finger prick conclusive at 6+ weeks?
(2) if the test is HIV 1 antigen +antibody, but only HIV 2 antibody, what if it’s not enough time at 6 weeks to detect HIV 2?
(3) I obviously exhibit signs of OCD when it comes to HIV as I test when I feel uncertainty, and I’m not sure if you encounter this a lot in your line of work, but would you recommend anything to help “believe” results and not search for reasons not to believe them?
I apologize in advance, I’m sure you get tons of these anxiety ridden posts
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
2 months ago
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Welcome to our forum. Thank you for your questions and your implied confidence in our service. I’ll be glad to comment.
As you already know, the risk of acquiring HIV from the two exposures you described is very, very low. The estimated risk of acquiring HIV from performing oral sex on an untreated, infected person is less than one infection in 10,000 episodes, on average. And that is only if your partner happened to have HIV, which is statistically unlikely. In response to your specific questions:
---1. Laboratory based fourth generation test, whether performed on blood from the vein or a dried blood spot provides reliable, conclusive test results anytime more than six weeks following an exposure. Your test results will be conclusive.
2. Because test for HIV-2 are tests only for antibodies, results are not entirely conclusive until eight weeks following an exposure although, HIV-2 is quite rare. Personally, I would not be concerned about HIV-2 in your situation.
3. The best way to address your OCD is to work with a mental health specialist. I encourage you to do so. At the same time I can assure you that any approved test for HIV has been tested on literally thousands of persons and the approval means that the test is reliable.
I hope that this information is helpful to you. Please don’t worry. EWH.