Nearly 6 weeks ago i had three encounters with other males; 1. Oral both ways, 2. Oral both ways, 3. Protected anal with no condom break and no ejaculation - me as the top. Probably less than 5 minutes.

Two weeks after this i tested for everything and was negative.

This past Sunday i unfortunately attended an orgy with 3 other men. There was cocaine involved and oral only, no anal. I am unsure of their hiv status. 

Since Tuesday i’ve been quite unwell with sore throat, night sweats and fatigue. Losing my mind worrying that i’ve been infected.

Do you recommend testing from a medical standpoint and should i be worried? I think getting ill has made me more anxious around the whole thing. Thanks for the great work you do.

The exposures 6 weeks ago are the same as for the incident you asked about several months ago:  unprotected oral and condom protected insertive anal sex (top) with other men. The next event was different in having multiple simultaneous partners, but unprotected oral sex was the only exposure. As for your symptoms, two days (Sunday to Tuesday) is much too soon for HIV, assuming that is on your mind. Far and away the most common causes of "sore throat, night sweats [often meaning low grade fever] and fatigue" are garden variety colds and other respiratory viruses. STIs do not do this -- and of course the sorts of contact occurring during an "orgy" are perfect for transmitting colds, influenza, covid, and other day to day viruses. Oral gonorrhea can cause sore throat, but rarely does so; over 90% of oral gonorrhea causes no symptoms at all.

So no worries at all about HIV -- essentially no risk even if one of your partners has untreated HIV. (You should have asked them about HIV status before the event. Did you?) You could consider a throat swab test for gonorrhea, but most likely that would be negative. Testing for covid and influenza also would make sense; as you probably know, reliable over the counter tests are available at pharmacies. Otherwise I would advise just sitting tight for a few days and seeing how your symptoms evolve. See a doctor if they become severe or if you remain concerned. Finally, check with others in the orgy group. If anyone else has similar symptoms, it would support the possibility of an upper respiratory virus.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD

Unfortunately i didnt ask their status’ as i was inebriated at the time. Something im working on. But good to know there was no risk for hiv. I’ve had oral gonorrhea before and it gave me a sore throat for around 3/4 months afterwards - this was when i tested, as i know that seems quite out of the ordinary.

No symptoms of penile gonorrhea so far (day 5). Would you reccomend just waiting and testing? Am i right in thinking 28 days is around 95% accurate? I know no worries for hiv - just peace of mind and being able to fully move on and put it behind me.