I’m really sorry but I’m back unfortunately. Anxiety back to where it was and feeling like a crazy person. I took your advice in stride last time and it really helped. 

I also saw that my symptoms could be due to inflammation in the body and the first thing that popped up was viral infections.

Is it possible that these symptoms could be due to hiv 6 months after infection? 

As Dr. Hook advised, as soon as you had an HIV AgAb (4th generation) blood test more than 6 weeks (more precisely 45 days) after exposure, it proved 100% you did not acquire HIV. Having symptoms that can be caused by HIV, like nerve pain, and saying "I don't know what else it could be" is irrational nonsense. There are innumerable possible causes of "nerve pain" other than HIV. You could just as justifiably say "I have knee pain. I don't recall someone hitting me with a baseball bat, but I don't know what else it could be".

The HIV AgAb tests are among the most accurate diagnostic tests ever developed, for any medical condition. The results overrule all other factors:  no matter what symptoms someone has, and no matter how high the risk of HIV at the time of exposure, negative results 45 or more days after exposure prove HIV is absent. There are no exceptions.

It also is apparent that, as for many anxious persons, the internet is not your friend. Clearly you are being drawn to information that enhances your fears and missing the reassuring information that also is readily available. The now-famous online statistics expert Nate Silver (of www.fivethirtyeight.com) wrote a book about statistics, "The Signal and the Noise". In it he writes (approximate quote) "Give an anxious person a computer with an internet connection in a dark room, and soon he'll believe his cold is the bubonic plague." Sound familiar? I suggest you lay off any further online searching about HIV risks, testing, and symptoms:  or if you are unable to stop entirely, at least limit yourself to sites run by professional organizations like academic or public health resources, or moderated by professional (like this one); and strictly avoid sites run by and for people with HIV or at risk.

I'm happy to hear you are in therapy for your OCD, and at an intellectual level I'm sure you understand that's the only problem here. All I can do now is say (again) that you don't have HIV. I hope these additional comments help you believe it emotionally, as well as intellectually, and move on without further worry. Good luck.

HHH, MD

The guy I slept with also tested negative with a 4th gen finger prick sample sent to a lab but it was only a few days after we slept together. I’m so nervous he was in his window period and therefore more infectious.

I really worry about my last tests at day 116. I went in for prep and they said they were only checking my kidneys. At the time I wasn’t aware that I was being tested for HIV, hepatitis, syphilis as I’d done an insti test on the same day.  

My test sheet says ‘interpreted serology’ what does this mean? Is it lab based testing? 

It also listed that it was testing for hepatitis b antibodies, syphilis antibodies etc. but when it listed hiv it just said ‘HIV SCREENING TEST’. This is all so confusing and will be clear if you manage to check the first link above. 

My worry is that for this result they were referring to my insti test. But then on the sheet it also says HIV ab/ag negative.

My symptoms also started on day 4-5 after exposure. If symptoms appear due to the bodies reaction while producing antibodies would my 56 day 3rd gen antibody test have picked it up?

I really am sorry, I do realise that I’m coming across as a crazy, obsessive person but like I said before I am working on it! In the mean time though, I seem to be second guessing everything, at least in the last couple of weeks. 

You're "worried" about test results at day 116???? Did you even read Dr. Hook's replies and mine???

I'm unfamiliar with the term "interpreted serology", but I don't see how it affects anything.

If you don't understand the lab report, ask your doctor or the lab.

4-5 days is too soon for HIV symptoms; 7-8 days is the earliest, often longer. And anyway, I'll say it for the third or fourth time:  SYMPTOMS ARE MEANINGLESS IN THE PRESENCE OF NEGATIVE HIV TEST RESULTS!!!!

Keep working on that OCD. As part of your treatment, I strongly suggest you print out this thread in its entirety -- and maybe also your previous one -- and discuss it with your therapist. S/He will confirm all this is STRICTLY your OCD speaking, not any rational concern or analysis of HIV.

I will have no further comments or advice with questions or issues that have already been addressed. You can be sure you won't change my mind. It's as if you're hoping to convince me you have HIV just to prove yourself right. I will not play that game.

If my symptoms were due to hiv would my 4th gen fingerstick sample sent to a lab have been positive at day 42 due to my symptoms being early? 

The reason I’m worried is because I think I see a circle shadow on my inst test from day 116. The nurse said it was negative at the time and so did the insti company when I sent them the photo. But it doesn’t look completely ok to me (probably the ocd) I’m worried that the ag/ab test referred to in my results is just referring to the insti test rather than any blood test results (as I wasn’t told I was having a hiv, hepatitis, syphilis tests along with my kidney tests). My results did say ag/ab negative but it also only listed ‘hiv screening test’ so could have been referring to the insti one. Someone said it’s protocol to test for these before starting prep but because I wasn’t aware of what I was being tested for I think it is causing doubts in my mind.

If this is the case and I didn’t have a fourth gen test at day 116 then my last test would have been the 116 day insti test (which I’m questioning), a fourth gen finger stick sample sent to a lab at day 42 and an antibody only test with blood from a vein at day 56. Without the two tests at day 116 are these tests alone good enough proof of hiv negative status.

I’ve just met someone and I don’t want to sleep with them until I’m absolutely certain. 

Also you’ll be happy to know I have deleted all of the apps I use to search for hiv related stuff: Reddit, Quora, discord etc. I’ve also managed to not search for anything online today. Hopefully it sticks. 

That concludes this thread. Please note the forum does not permit repeated questions on the same topic or exposure. This being your second on the same issues, it will have to be your last; future new questions about this exposure, testing, and your fears about HIV will receive no reply and the posting fee will not be refunded. This policy is based on compassion, not criticism, and to reduce temptations to keep paying for questions with obvious answers. In addition, experience shows that continued answers tend to prolong users' anxieties rather than reducing them. Finally, such questions have little educational value for other users, one of the forum's main purposes. Thanks for your understanding.