Hey everyone, I just recently registered and I did have a few questions about the early symptoms. Obviously I'm worried and I'm praying I don't have it because it would be devastating if I did. I want to say from the get go that I know the best way to confirm if I am positive or negative is by going to a doctor and getting tested but I wanted to get some input and thoughts about a few of my symptoms.
First let me tell you what happened, I visited a foreign countries a few days ago, I was there for about two weeks. The date one of my condoms broke with a girl I don't know very well was approximately 7 days ago, so one week. Two days later I had unprotected sex with this same girl. (meaning its been five days since I've had unprotected sex)
Now, while I was still in this foreign country I do remember near the end of my trip I started to have some diarrhea. Its persisted since then, so I'm assuming I've had it for about four or five days now, maybe less maybe a bit more, I'm not completely sure. It hasn't been as bad recently, its not nearly as wet, drippy, splattered as normal diarrhea is but I still have it a bit. On Monday, during my plane ride home, I started to develop a runny nose / sore throat, nothing too bad. On Tuesday, I slept a lot because I was out partying for the majority of my trip and I wanted to recuperate. When I woke up I had a bit more of a sore throat / runny nose. On Wed, so yesterday, I went to the gym as I usually do, had a good amount of energy but still somewhat jetlagged, and played basketball for a few hours with my friends.
Last night the sore throat / runny nose got a bit worse, especially during the middle of the night when I woke up. I was hungry at that time so I went to my fridge, grabbed something small to eat and drank some grape juice which made me feel a bit better. This morning it was about the same as during the night but now as I'm typing this its not nearly as bad as when I woke up. I can tell I still have it but its not a big deal. I've also had a little bit of stomach ache.
I have left one part out, the one part that does worry me. After I have sex, immediately after, whether protected or unprotected, I hit the shower and clean myself as best I can. I always try to use some alcohol for my genitial area or hydrogen peroxide, whatever I can get my hands on. I also will use shampoo and clean my entire body. On that Saturday and throughout that week since I was having sex quite a few times, I was taking multiple showers throughout the day and cleaning myself as best I could. On the day I had unprotected sex, we only did it once for about 10 minutes and right after I hopped in the shower and cleaned myself. That day I probably took at least 5 showers. Now the part that worries me is that I'm developed a few rashes under both my arm pits. I always put shampoo under both arm pits and clean my arm pit hair so that it doesn't smell and I'm hoping that the reason why a little rash is developing, along with some flaky skin is due to it being dehydrated since I put shampoo on it so much as well as took so many damn showers.
I developed the rash I believe early Tuesday but it was only on 1 arm pit. So I stopped shampooing that arm pit and started to put some Vaseline on it while I kept shampooing the other arm pit and this morning I realized that I had another rash develop on the other side. Both look very similar.
Now the thing that worries me is that I've got a runny nose, sore throat, rash under both arm pits, and diarrhea. The thing that makes me feel a little bit better is that it could be all a coincidence seeing how I was in a foreign country, some of the foods might have upset me, I was on a plane for over 6 hours and I could have easily got a small cold, and both rashes are due to the excessive showers / shampoo. I'm not sure if I would consider my cold a flu but I guess it does show some of the symptoms of a flu but not all of them.
Sorry for the very long post but I'm extremely worried. I know what almost everyone is going to say right off the bat, "get tested at the three month period and don't worry about it until then." If you are going to say that please don't post because I want opinions on my matter and what some of you guys might think. I've got a feeling my mind is a bit close minded at the moment due to me having some of the same symptoms of HIV.
O and one more thing. Regarding the dates, from what I've read you usually start having symptoms as early as two weeks or as late as 2 months. I developed these symptoms around 2-3 days later to a week or so more. Does this mean anything since I've developed some of these symptoms so quickly? I've also read in some rare cases if you have a weak immune system it is possible the early symptoms can you hit earlier than most people but thats not the case with me. I'm an extremely healthy guy, who works out on a regular basis, four to five times a week, meaning my immune system should be great. I'm also in my 20s.
Thanks again guys!
Last edited by Mousemix234; 11-26-2009 at 06:53 PM.
One more thing I'd like to add is that I probably had unprotected sex for about 10-15 minutes at most and I did not *** inside of her if that means anything? Also I believe another symptom is having a progressively worse cough, I don't really have that. I cough every once in awhile but when I do its because of the snot / mucus thats built up in my throat, not because I need to. I also sneeze every once in awhile.
Last edited by Mousemix234; 11-26-2009 at 07:29 PM.
from what i have read
i think you have all of the logical answers
to all of your questions yourself.
its the fear that is pulling you away from logic.
from a one time unprotected encounter the odds are with you
relax and don't be so closed minded
the rest i could say you already know
good luck
Now that I think about it, the broken condom situation happened on Thursday (8 days ago) and I had unprotected sex about twice with the same girl on Saturday (6 days ago) but I started to get the diarrhea anywhere from a day to four days after these situations happened with the same girl and I started to get sick (runny nose, sore throat, minor coughs only due to mucus / snot leaking to throat) anywhere from two days to six days after each situation happened. The thing that makes me less worried about this is that I started developing some of the symptoms almost immediately after it happened but its supposed to take 2 weeks to 2 months.
There of course is a chance since you had unprotected intercourse. You symptoms do sound like a cold which is quite common to catch when flying since you are breathing recirculated air. Plus all the partying doesn't help because it can decrease your immune system and can make you more susceptible to catch a cold. Also, on a side note, grape juice can increase diarrhea, try ginger ale or flat/warm Coke. From showering so much you could have some dermatitis. I wouldn't recommend using alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on your genitals as it is very drying and could cause irritation which isn't good if you are having unprotected sex. You also can not wash off STD's through washing. Passing urine after sex is helpful and can decrease the chances of a UTI and cystitis (more for women than men) and possibly decrease pushing up any other bacteria through your urethra. I would suggest testing (I know you know this ) just to be on the safe side and get a full STD panel done.
Last edited by tattoogirl; 11-27-2009 at 11:42 AM.
You leave a lot to the imagination when you say you were exposed in a 'foreign country', as HIV prevalence in women can vary from 1 in 10,000 to 30% or more, depending on the country and region/demographic. However, if your unprotected sex exposures happened to be in an industrialized nation, where HIV prevalence in women is typically less than 1 in 1000, then you really don't have much to worry about.
Have an HIV test 6 weeks after your exposure. If it is negative at that time, you can be fairly confident that you were not infected. You will still need to have a follow up test at 3 months for a conclusive result, but you should expect that result to be negative if the first test was negative.
Alright guys, I truly appreciate all the responses and hopefully there will be more. From what I've read around, usually if you are infected and get sick, its usually similar to the flu, where you're body aches, you have a very bad stomach ache, high temperature, and you feel like complete you know what. You also supposedly lose your appetite and have absolutely no energy. For me, all I've really had is a sore throat, bit of a runny nose, and a minor stomach ache. I have yet to lose my appetite or my energy. I've worked out fairly hard the past few days at the gym and I've still had a good amount of energy. My runny nose is almost completely gone and my sore throat is getting better. As far as my diarrhea is concerned, I think I may still have a bit of it. My poops are still not as dry or as big as they normally are and I am taking 2-3 poops a day compared to 1-2 normally but they are not true diarrhea poops. Meaning they are reasonable in size, not really wet at all, just not as dry or as big as I'm used to and I'm taking one or two more than I normally do. As far as my rashes are concerned, do HIV rashes also contain flaky skin? Because a large portion of the rash, which is slowly going away, is flaky white skin and its not really that read excluding a few parts. Any more additional thoughts and I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for all the responses so far guys, I really do appreciate it!
Also I had unprotected sex with a woman in Latin America. I guess the percentages are a bit higher there than where I live, United States, but its not a drastic increase. I was also fairly intimate with this girl and I would have no idea why she wouldn't tell me something like this if she had it? She was also a great girl but there is a slim possibility that she had it and didn't know about it?
Don't try to judge your HIV status by any symptoms that you may or may not be experiencing. It just doesn't work that way. Many people infected with HIV don't get any noticeable symptoms, and ARS symptoms are usually due to something much more common (i.e. garden-variety virus) than HIV.
From your description of things you should expect a negative result on your HIV tests.
) just to be on the safe side and get a full STD panel done.
