I am a 24 year old male who is a distance runner, back in early 2005 I had protected sex with a girl, but before hand, i rubbed my penis against her vagina for several minutes. that was really the only unprotected act we did. by email she told me that she is clean and healthy. but maybe a month or 2 after this sexual encounter, i wound up getting sick for a couple of weeks following a 5000 meter track race the night before. since last november, i have i had off and on, enlarged and sore glands on both sides of the neck. i also have a whitish tongue and always seem to be congested. I had some very fast races and ran some personal bests earlier this year. I took time off, and started retraining for fall races, i had a race where i didn't run great but felt it was because i was out of shape. i went out to the bar afterward, and when i woke up the next morning i was sick again. i had a cold and all that stuff, stuffed up, runny nose, watery eyes, all that great stuff. plus i keep getting mouth sores over and over, like 4 or 5 at a time, every couple weeks they appear. I was given a blood test at the local hospital and that showed that everything was in the average range for a person, so i'm not sure what is wrong. however i do not feel, like i should. i am very scared and hoping it is not HIV infection. would a normal blood test be able to detect HIV? Could I be infected? should i get tested for it? Might it just be me overreacting, I mean I had a stressful job that ran me into the ground earlier in the year, could that have something to do with it. It really worries me, because I don't know what my family would think..Could these symptoms be something other than HIV? There is nothing more I want to do than be able to resume my traning all out and start racing my best again, and also to be intimate with the right girl is something I still wanna be able to do....anyone help?

The event you describe (from what I can gather from your description) sounds to be low risk because you did not have insertive sexual relations with her. Also, the symptoms of HIV infection are not specific and what you describe sounds very generalized. What you describe could likely be stress related. You should just have an HIV test for your peace of mind. All Americans between 13 and 63 are now recommended to be HIV tested when they get a regular physical so this is something you should do anyway. You have more than passed the window period so your very likely NEGATIVE test results will be conclusive. That is my prediction.

Regards,

Ronnie

thanks..but i had another question. would a normal blood test show that one has the virus or would i need an hiv specific test?

No the only tests would show whether or not a person was infecter with hiv or not would be a test that tests specificly for hiv antibodies .
The testing times are 3 months ( 90 days ) with a follow up at 6 months ( just to put you're mind once and for all )
You're risk seems to be very slim ( if any ) and there's a good chance that you may just have a nasty sinus infection and resperatory infection that you should definately keep an eye on and have you're doctor run more tests on it .
....... Lost Spirit .............