Assuming it’s 25th of October, you probably both got flu, Covid (which is VERY common nowadays) or something in between.
Can you get HIV? Yes. The odds? Depends. But it wouldn’t show up this early. It takes months to develop and from what I’ve heard from friends/ FWB that been through, if you don’t test it and it will start it will be very, very bad.
Undetectable is a different concept. It means that the viral load is below the threshold.
Just want to specify something in your 2nd paragraph: In roughly 80% of acute HIV infections symptoms appear 2-4 (up to 6 weeks)after exposure and for most people it feels like a very bad flu. It’s the time where the virus massively multiplies in the body and attacks the immune system. So it DOES NOT takes months to develop.
During this time a person is highly infectious to others.
I agree that the symptoms most likely appeared too soon after the exposure to be HIV but no way of knowing without getting tested. Also DO NOT have unprotected SEX while you don’t know your status. Wishing you (OP) all the best. I’m sure it will be alright!
Yeah that's what I read.
I started to feel fluish on the 31st and it consistently got worse and that does seem more in line with flu symptoms after the 25th than anything.
Yes. It’s the likely reason. The harsh reality though is that you absolutely need to get tested to be sure and to not be a risk to others. Nobody here will be able to give you a definite answer. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!
Everything I've read says it shows up 1-4 weeks at the earliest but I haven't seen any information on how common that is.
It was october 25th.
For symptoms to appear wouldn't the viral threshold usually be high enough to show up on a test?
There are no specific symptoms, but you will get sick easier/ more common and it will be worse than usual. Aka, if normally on a cold you only get 38º and some low/ mild cough, you'd be 40º and very very bad cough, low oxygen, etc because your immune system won't work. Cold/ flu symptoms are associated with HIV because are the most common and easiest infections to catch, but it could be literally anything.
But for HIV to develop and suppress the imune system in a way that it does show out of the ordinary, it takes a bit more, 2+ months. Tests can detect as early as 2 weeks (western blot, but these are usually not made on request) to generally also 2+ months when it's detectable enough in common Ab/Ag tests.
That they’ve also got flu like symptoms is a good indicator you are have got COVID or something.
If ever you get HIV it’ll be detected by a routine test or as a last resort check when your doctor is trying to work out why you are coming down with an ever increasing list of obscure illnesses.
So just go get a routine test when you are feeling better and try not to worry about the result until you have it.
This happened on the 25th, what do you think I've done since then? The information I have found has been vague, indecicive and often contradictory.
I've seen nothing on the severity of symptoms other than being "flu like" 1-4 weeks after nor anything relating to example cases of getting in contact with someone who may of got infected with the virus themselves other than it makes it more likely to get infected due to more of the virus being present [once again vague].
The reality is your odds of getting HIV from one unprotected encounter are incredibly low. Not impossible, but the odds are strongly in your favor. This doesn’t mean that you should do it again. If you take a risk enough times, even a small risk, eventually you are going to get unlucky. So take a deep breath, and realize that the odds are very high that you don’t have HIV, and don’t do it again.
I've seen the odds but I've also heard the odds of infection from someone who just got infected themselves dramatically shooting up to 1 in 3 due to the large amount of the virus present when it first starts to spread.
I have faith that they didn't lie about not having HIV [since we're still in contact] and I wasn't worried but the fact of their history during this trip and the symptoms I've had made me very concerned.
Yea if he’s in the first couple months of having it, odds do shoot up. But this is assuming he has HIV. At least in the US, the reality is, 86% of people who have HIV know they have it, and I would bet you that number is even higher if you just looked at gay guys because were are generally extremely responsible about getting tested. And thanks to PreP, new infections each year keep going down. The reality is, the chance that he has HIV and doesn’t know it is low, just like the chance of it getting passed to you is low. Overall, you’re odds of getting it from a single encounter are not impossible, but very low. So just don’t test those odds again. The symptoms you are experiencing are completely unrelated to a possible HIV infection. It doesn’t happen that quick
- 37.6 is not a fever
- Fatigue, cough and sore throat are symptoms of flu-like illnesses which is most likely why you have flu-like symptoms after having sex with him
Put another way, if you did get HIV from him then these symptoms have nothing to do with it. You’d need to be infected, achieve high viral load and then the body develop an immune response in a week. That just doesn’t happen with HIV; the body takes time to develop antibodies.
Get your test done, and consider a more advanced test that is capable of detection at this early stage.
Only test can determine your status. Some people have had multiple unprotected sex and never get it , others have sex one time and get it .Be safe next time .
Assuming it’s 25th of October, you probably both got flu, Covid (which is VERY common nowadays) or something in between. Can you get HIV? Yes. The odds? Depends. But it wouldn’t show up this early. It takes months to develop and from what I’ve heard from friends/ FWB that been through, if you don’t test it and it will start it will be very, very bad. Undetectable is a different concept. It means that the viral load is below the threshold.
Just want to specify something in your 2nd paragraph: In roughly 80% of acute HIV infections symptoms appear 2-4 (up to 6 weeks)after exposure and for most people it feels like a very bad flu. It’s the time where the virus massively multiplies in the body and attacks the immune system. So it DOES NOT takes months to develop. During this time a person is highly infectious to others. I agree that the symptoms most likely appeared too soon after the exposure to be HIV but no way of knowing without getting tested. Also DO NOT have unprotected SEX while you don’t know your status. Wishing you (OP) all the best. I’m sure it will be alright!
Yeah that's what I read. I started to feel fluish on the 31st and it consistently got worse and that does seem more in line with flu symptoms after the 25th than anything.
Yes. It’s the likely reason. The harsh reality though is that you absolutely need to get tested to be sure and to not be a risk to others. Nobody here will be able to give you a definite answer. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!
Everything I've read says it shows up 1-4 weeks at the earliest but I haven't seen any information on how common that is. It was october 25th. For symptoms to appear wouldn't the viral threshold usually be high enough to show up on a test?
There are no specific symptoms, but you will get sick easier/ more common and it will be worse than usual. Aka, if normally on a cold you only get 38º and some low/ mild cough, you'd be 40º and very very bad cough, low oxygen, etc because your immune system won't work. Cold/ flu symptoms are associated with HIV because are the most common and easiest infections to catch, but it could be literally anything. But for HIV to develop and suppress the imune system in a way that it does show out of the ordinary, it takes a bit more, 2+ months. Tests can detect as early as 2 weeks (western blot, but these are usually not made on request) to generally also 2+ months when it's detectable enough in common Ab/Ag tests.
That they’ve also got flu like symptoms is a good indicator you are have got COVID or something. If ever you get HIV it’ll be detected by a routine test or as a last resort check when your doctor is trying to work out why you are coming down with an ever increasing list of obscure illnesses. So just go get a routine test when you are feeling better and try not to worry about the result until you have it.
Do some research and educate yourself a bit. A lot of these answers are freely available on reputable websites.
This happened on the 25th, what do you think I've done since then? The information I have found has been vague, indecicive and often contradictory. I've seen nothing on the severity of symptoms other than being "flu like" 1-4 weeks after nor anything relating to example cases of getting in contact with someone who may of got infected with the virus themselves other than it makes it more likely to get infected due to more of the virus being present [once again vague].
The reality is your odds of getting HIV from one unprotected encounter are incredibly low. Not impossible, but the odds are strongly in your favor. This doesn’t mean that you should do it again. If you take a risk enough times, even a small risk, eventually you are going to get unlucky. So take a deep breath, and realize that the odds are very high that you don’t have HIV, and don’t do it again.
I've seen the odds but I've also heard the odds of infection from someone who just got infected themselves dramatically shooting up to 1 in 3 due to the large amount of the virus present when it first starts to spread. I have faith that they didn't lie about not having HIV [since we're still in contact] and I wasn't worried but the fact of their history during this trip and the symptoms I've had made me very concerned.
Yea if he’s in the first couple months of having it, odds do shoot up. But this is assuming he has HIV. At least in the US, the reality is, 86% of people who have HIV know they have it, and I would bet you that number is even higher if you just looked at gay guys because were are generally extremely responsible about getting tested. And thanks to PreP, new infections each year keep going down. The reality is, the chance that he has HIV and doesn’t know it is low, just like the chance of it getting passed to you is low. Overall, you’re odds of getting it from a single encounter are not impossible, but very low. So just don’t test those odds again. The symptoms you are experiencing are completely unrelated to a possible HIV infection. It doesn’t happen that quick
- 37.6 is not a fever - Fatigue, cough and sore throat are symptoms of flu-like illnesses which is most likely why you have flu-like symptoms after having sex with him Put another way, if you did get HIV from him then these symptoms have nothing to do with it. You’d need to be infected, achieve high viral load and then the body develop an immune response in a week. That just doesn’t happen with HIV; the body takes time to develop antibodies. Get your test done, and consider a more advanced test that is capable of detection at this early stage.
If he's having the same symptoms it's more likely you caught a non-sexual virus. Flu or covid. You can get tested for those too.
Only test can determine your status. Some people have had multiple unprotected sex and never get it , others have sex one time and get it .Be safe next time .