Question
Do I have HIV?
16 June 2010. Related: All topics, HIV testing, HIV transmission.
I am a male, currently living in Sweden. I had unprotected in January this year, with my girlfriend who is Chinese. In March I had a sore throat. In early May, while I was having sex the condom broke and I ejaculated inside my girlfriend. After 2 weeks, I had unprotected anal sex for a short duration of time with my girlfriend but we did not experience any blood at any moment, before, during or after sex. In first week of June, I again have a sore throat and its not going away, its been 7 days now. I also had a skin rash in first week of May. When I first talked to a nurse in a hospital, she told me it is due to my dry skin, and she can not relate my skin rash with the sore throat.
Afterwards I went to a doctor for consultation. I have the flu like symptoms as well so I asked the doctor to take my HIV test. When I got the results, they were neither a clear positive nor clear negative. I was asked to take the test again after 2 or 3 weeks.
Please tell me, does this mean that I have HIV? I know the report says that it is not clear but I never had sex before January and I never had any blood transfusion. I didn’t have any injections (related to vaccinations) in the last year.
In this case, I should have received a clear negative, if I don’t have HIV. Does this mean that I have HIV, meaning that if I take a new test after 2 or 3 weeks, it will be positive. Please tell me?
My girlfriend just had one boyfriend before me. And my girlfriend is healthy. She never had any blood transfusions. She had unprotected sex with her ex- twice. Her ex-boyfriend had sex just with her as it was their first relationship for both of them.
I still get dizzy sometimes and have a sore throat. I am worried very worried.
Answer
Thanks for your question and I am sorry you are in such a state.
There are various reasons why people have inconclusive HIV results. It could be that the sample that was tested was no a good one or it can be that the person is in the process of seroconverting, a time during which an HIV test would show a result of somewhere between negative and positive. But it could also be because of other viral infections or just non specific antibodies in your blood and you could be HIV negative.
The best course of action after an inconclusive result like the one you got, is to retake the test. That is the only sure way of determining whether you are HIV positive or not.
All the best.