First, you had a pretty low risk exposure. Condoms work very effectively in preventing HIV transmission by vaginal sex, and you are correct that oral sex -- both oral to penis and cunnilingus (oral-vaginal) -- are basically risk free in regard to HIV. Second, your negative Oraquick test is quite reassuring. You're right that it was too soon to exclude HIV with certainty, but it IS conclusive that your symptoms are not due to ARS. The symptoms of ARS are caused by the immune response to the virus -- and therefore it is rare to have HIV symptoms with a negative antibody test. In addition, the symptoms started quite late:  ARS symptoms usually start 8-10 days after infection; your onset at a little over 2 weeks doesn't conclusively exclude ARS, but reduces the likelihood. You should follow through with proper testing. You can have a nearly conclusive antigen-antibody (AgAb, "duo", "4th generation") blood test 4 weeks after the sexual exposure -- about a week from now -- and a truly conclusive one at 6 weeks. I'm confident the results will be negative. (But do not rely on Oraquick, which takes 3 months to nearly conclusive results, and some HIV infected persons never develop positive oral fluids tests.)

As for the symptoms themselves, they really aren't typical for ARS. Certainly such symptoms could occur, but the combination of symptoms you describe really don't sound like it. And you do not have fever. Body temperature varies over the course of the day; 98.6 is the average, with everybody having some readings as low as 97.0 and as high as 99 or even 99.5. Your result of 98.9 isn't nearly enough to be suspicious for ARS.

As for other STDs, your symptoms don't fit at all. Based on those symptoms and the exposure history, I don't recommend testing for any other STDs.

In view of the pandemic, you were right to be concerned about COVID-19, and I'm glad to hear of that negative result. (However, I don't know the term "Sophia" in regard to coronavirus testing. Is that a typo? Or maybe an antigen or antibody test?) As you may know -- there's been a lot of media coverage -- the COVID PCR tests miss many infections, and antibody testing doesn't typically become positive until 3-4 weeks. So you might need retesting. In any case, if your symptoms continue, see a doctor for personal evaluation.

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

HHH, MD

You could consider seeking out a COVID-19 antibody test ~4 weeks after the date symptoms began.

I've been waiting till now,  the 6 week mark ( today is day 42 ) to get the 4th gen test so I could have 100% piece of mind with the results when they come out and move past this.  Earliest I can get to testing center is Monday.  But I did have a question that I'm hoping you can help with. Earlier this week, my GP took another swab test for Covid ( 3rd swab negative ) and a blood ab igg test for Covid ( positive abnormal ) and states "results suggest recent or prior infection with sars-cov-2". 

Blood work shows the following ranges:

rbc- 5.35 and range is 4.14-5.80

platelets- 12.5 and range is 11.6 -15.4

Neut (absolute ) - 5.9 and range is 1.4-7.0

Lymph ( absolute)- 1.8 and range is 0 .7-3.1

Monocylte(absolute)-0 .5 and range is 0.1-0.9

Eos(absolute) 0.3 and range is 0.0-0.4

Most of the available antibody tests for SARS-Cov2 are accurate, and your doctor is correct that your positive result indicates recent COVID-19, despite your negative PCR test. As innumerable news stories have reported, many people have long recovery periods; symptoms like yours for several weeks are very common. You can expect them to gradually resolve. If they continue, stay in touch with your personal physician.

Aside from that antibdooy test, the blood work you report is entirely normal, which is often the case witih COVID-19. There's nothing unusual about that. Many or most viral infections cause no blood count abnormalities.

So I'm glad you followed through with coronavirus testing and glad to hear you're recovering from it. For the reasons we discussed earlier, you definitely can expect your 6 week HIV AgAb test to be negative. No more comments or discussion until then, after which this thread will be closed.