[Question #13865] HIV Test or STI Test
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4 days ago
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Hello there, I was curious about which test I should take in reards of my sexual health. In recent years, I have had protected sex with women with a condom, and some have been in massage parlors. I can say there were three unprotected oral sex moments. where I was the receiver only, and there was a lot of kissing. The recent one was a couple of days ago, only kissing and receiving. No anal sex or contact. And both times with men, they were clean, no HIV. I am worried now, should I get an HIV test or focus on Syphilis, Gonorrhea, and Herpes tests? Any help is greatly appreciated. Also, after my recent oral sex encounter with the guy on March 5, the next day, I started to get cold symptoms, a sore throat, and ear pain. Is that something I should be concerned about? Thank you for the response
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
4 days ago
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Welcome to the forum. Apologies for the somewhat longer than usual delay in replying.
There are similarities between this question and your previous one 3 ½ years ago. You describe a generally safe sexual lifestyle, with low risk for all STIs. The most risky aspect concerns your relations with other men, inherently with higher STI rates because of so many men who have sex with men (MSM) have multiple partners and high rates of HIV. Still, people rarely lie about HIV/STI status when asked directly, so it is unlikely your recent partners are infected with common STIs (HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia). And oral sex is inherently safe, with essentially no risk of HIV and low risk for all other STIs. Not participating in anal sex, either giving (top) or receiving (bottom) means you are at generally low risk even if your partners themselves are at high risk.
Neither HIV nor other STIs cause cold symptoms, especially nasal congestion and cough. Sore throat can go along with acute retroviral syndrome (ARS, i.e. new HIV infection) but never as the only symptoms, and never sooner than 8-10 days after exposure. It's likely you caught a cold or other minor respiratory virus from one of your partners, nothing more serious than that.
If you would like the reassurance of negative test results, you can have accurate testing for gonorrhea and chlamydia (urine test and throat swab) any time 4-5 days after the last exposure; and blood tests for HIV and syphilis after 6 weeks. In the absence of symptoms, almost certainly these will all be negative. If your sexual lifestyle and exposures continue in the matter of your "recent years" experience, you could consider all these tests from time to time, like maybe once a year.
I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.
HHH, MD
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