I posted on here a few months ago, but I had a quick question/opinion about the 6 month window and HIV.

A few months back I had unprotected oral and vaginal sex with a girl for about 1 week. At the end of the week I developed a burning sensation when urinating and great pain. I was tested and all STDs were ruled out, plus to be extra safe my 3 month mouth swab test for HIV was negative.

Before the burning started at the end of that week however, I had what I guess was the flu, needless to say that freaked me out. It went away right around the time my burning problem stopped. The burning was later diagnosed as kidney stones by the way. The flu problem although cleared up, left me with a dry cough for about 3 weeks. It was so bad that my sides hurt when I coughed, I thought I was gonna break a rib or already had done so. The doctor ruled out infection on it and told me my white blood cells were low and that a virus was telling my body that I had asthma, even though it didn't. I was treated with steroids and slowly it went away.

Here I am now 5 and 1/2 months later, after a negative 3 month mouth swab for HIV. I just can't shake the feeling though that the cough and low white blood cell count might be HIV. Normally I'm fine after the 3 month test, but the past symptoms are making me think this time. Everyone told me not to worry, but with the 6 month window approaching I started thinking about it again and I'm pretty creeped out. Judging by my symptoms from the past, and a negative 3 month test, should I be worried at all? I know it's 99% accurate, but exactly how many people are on record for testing positive at the 6 month period but not at the 3 month period? Thanks for any info you can provide

Kyle,
There are many reasons why your scenario does NOT point to HIV. For one, you have a negative test at 3 months. That's excellent and would be extremely rare for the result from that exposure to change now. Second, even though you had some itching/burning sensation after that encounter, HIV infection doesn't manifest itself that way (besides, you got a diagnosis for that, right?).
You can always test again if you think that will do the trick.

I hope this helps.
Dharma

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Thanks for the response, I was more worried about the cough, and the fact the doctor told me my white blood cell count was kinda low. Then the cough last for about 3-4 weeks. I had my 3 month mouth swab 2 months after the coughing had stopped, which in total was 3 months from my last sexual contact. I was just worried that a cough lasting long, combined with the doctor telling me that my white blood cell count was kinda low due to a virus had something to do with HIV. Do symptoms like kinda set the tone for a 6 month test needed? Or is a chronic cough and low white blood cells rather common for a normal type of virus?


Also, are there any records or numbers of those who tested negative at 3 months and again at 6 months? Were they normal people, or was there some sort of extenuating circumstance or condition that made the test take an additional 3 months for the HIV to register? Thank you again.

Otherwise perfectly normal people get sick - sometimes they get pretty darn sick too. Depending on what type of pneumonia you had you can expect a cough to linger. Absolutely no reason to suspect that you picked up hiv from 1 week of oral and genital sex.

betsy

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