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Are my tests conclusive? If not, how accurate are they?

I had unprotected vaginal sex with a girl on Feb 14th (and again the following morning). She wasn't an intravenous drug user or a prostitute, but I didn't know her, don't have any way to contact her, just your run of the mill one night stand. Before anyone chastises me, I'm aware that I should practice safer sex.

About 2 1/2 weeks later, around March 4th, I came down with one of the most severe sore throats of my life, swollen to the points that swallowing my own spit was almost impossible due to the pain. I went to the doctor where I was prescribed prednisone and amoxicillin, although the swab test came back negative for strep throat. I had night sweats and I presume fever too and my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen as well. At this point, I started to worry (I'm painfully aware of psychosomatic effects, please read on). I got better almost immediately from the sore throat, but I was still having light sweats at night, body aches, and weird headaches I'd never had before. Regardless, I was starting to feel better and I took an HIV PCR DNA test and antibody test on March 11th, 23-24 days post exposure. I was led to believe that the HIV PCR DNA test could detect HIV as soon as 9-11 days post exposure and that at 23-24 days, it was almost 100% accurate. After feeling better for a couple of days, I came down on Friday with flu like symptoms, nausea, fever, headache, body aches. I went to the ER and was discharged after some basic care, anti-nausea medication and motrin. They gave me a viral syndrome diagnosis and my bloodwork showed increased neutrophils and decreased lymphocytes, but only as a percentage, I didn't get absolute counts (not sure that this would matter regardless). After getting discharged, I went home and starting having the worst diarrhea of my life, I went 20-30 times for the next 3-4 days. During this time I also had painfuly swollen lymph nodes around my neck/collarbone as well as rib cage / armpit area. I even had a bit of a rash on my upper back that felt sorta like a sunburn. It was small and didn't last long. I took an OraQuick test on March 15th, 4 weeks post exposure which was negative. I finally got my results of my tests from the previous week on March 17th, and it was also negative. I celebrated, put my worries to rest and went about the rest of my week. My diarrhea resolved. However, I'm still having some symptoms. Now I'm having joint pains, tingling in my hands, sharp muscle pains, my lymph nodes are still seemingly swollen and tender/painful and I have a pain in my right rib cage that is radiating to my back. Were my tests conclusive? Were they at least highly accurate (95-100% sensitive). After reading about this more, I realize I may have put to much stock in to my PCR DNA and antibody tests and consequently I may have put another person at risk this past weekend (had unprotected sex with another girl who I know and I'm not worried at all about her HIV status, unless I've unknowingly put her at risk).

If I do end up being negative, I will write a post about how it's possible to have a whole bunch of typical HIV symptoms and not be positive. The anxiety surrounding testing, waiting for the window period to past is brutal in its own way.

Thanks,

H!VW0RRY
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Avatar universal
There are no tests marked or sold that will give a conclusive negative test earlier than 3 months post exposure.

http://www.cdc.gov/globalaids/Resources/pmtct-care/docs/TM/Module_6TM.pdf
Page 11
#4
  In an adult, a positive HIV antibody test result means that the person is infected, a person with a negative or inconclusive result may be in the “window for 4 to 6 weeks but occasionally up to 3 months after HIV exposure. Persons at high risk who initially test negative should be retested 3 months after exposure to confirm results
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Avatar universal
Thanks Teak, I've seen you write that in several other responses. If nothing else, yours and other insistence has definitely driven home that point. In any case, I won't belabor the point I made above. I realize that endless anxiety driven questions can be very burdensome to the online community and forum. I asked almost the exact same question to the Dr. Hook in the pay to ask section, and he gave me an answer more along the lines of something that was reassuring to me. In all likelihood, I am negative. White female in the USA, non-intravenous drug-user, single episode of vaginal sex female to male, tests that although not conclusive, would leave me in a small minority of false negatives (even an antibody test at one month after showing seroconversion symptoms would very likely be positive if indeed positive). Despite the overwhelming odds that I simply caught a flu or something, I STILL worry and nothing a psychologist will tell me with help me with that, only a conclusive result, which as you have pointed out, is a couple of months away. You and others have answered enough questions I imagine that you understand that this is the reason you constantly get questioned along the lines of at 6 weeks, how conclusive is a DUO test, or how conclusive is an HIV RNA PCR test combined with the antibody test (the one that IS FDA approved for diagnosis) at 3 weeks or 10 days or whenever. Three months is an incredibly long time to wait. Thanks for your support of the forum.
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Avatar universal
PCR tests are not stand alone tests and cannot screen HIV.
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Avatar universal
Thanks for the answer Vance. I'm aware though of the guidelines and I think most people are that end up asking a question on the forum. I think oftentimes half of the question is just the need to talk to somebody that might understand your worry (in the context of your symptoms and knowledge of the disease). It's one thing to tell my friends and have them tell me, "C'mon man, you're crazy, you don't have HIV" and it's another thing altogether to have someone with a little more knowledge evaluate my situation and tell me that yes, you have some symptoms, but no, they aren't necessarily HIV and given your test results so far it's very likely that your tests will remain negative.

I realize now that I made a mistake this past weekend with this girl. I thought that the PCR test I took was as close to 100% as it gets and we didn't practice safe sex. I literally thought I had put this completely behind me due to a combination of misinformation and I guess a little bit of selective reading.

The combination of my ongoing symptoms, the anxiety surrounding a potential positive test for me, coupled with the guilt of putting her at risk potentially is really hard to deal with mentally. If I have put her at real risk, is their benefit in telling her? Would it make a difference to her to know a few days earlier? What kind of risk have I put her in? A one in a million situation? Or a 1 in 10? These are the kinds of things that are rolling around in my head right now.

I realize I'm not the only one to ever go through all this and reading other peoples' questions and the thoughtful responses has helped a bit. It is a defining characteristic of this worry that you believe your situation to be uniquely unique.
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Avatar universal
3 month antibody test is conclusive.
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